Jane and The Wandering Eye

Chapter 5 A Call in Camden Place

Thursday,

13 December 1804

THE THEATRE ROYAL IN ORCHARD STREET IS HARDLY SO grand as Covent Garden or Drury Lane, being cramped and overheated in the extreme; its single entrance ensures a dreadful crush at the play’s commencement and close; and indeed, the space is so incommodious, as to have prompted the building of a new theatre in Beauford Square, immediately adjacent to Chandos Buildings, that is to open next season. But even the unfortunate nature of the present accommodation, and the possibility that my dress should be mussed, if not torn, in the attempt to gain my seat in Lord Harold’s box, could not dispel my intention of being as fine this evening as possible. Having condescended to escort a Miss Austen to the play, Lord Harold should not be suffered to blush for her appearance.

I own but three gowns that are suitable for evening engagements — a sapphire muslin[37]; a white lawn with puffed sleeves; and the aforementioned peach silk, as yet in pieces with my fashionable modiste. It was this I determined to wear — it being in the latest style, with a square neck sloping down slightly to the bosom; an underskirt of cream-coloured sarcenet; and negligible capped sleeves, very slightly off the shoulder. It was the gown most likely to do me credit — and so to Madame Le-Blanc’s in Bath Street I went, immediately after breakfast this morning.

The poor woman wrung her hands, and declared my request impossible to fulfil; the gown could hardly be pieced within a fortnight; but at the last, upon receiving the intelligence that I was to be on public view in the Wilborough box — to which all eyes in the theatre should undoubtedly be turned — she consented to set three of her seamstresses to making up the gown.

I consulted her clock — perceived it to lack yet a half-hour until noon — and hastened my steps towards the White Hart. I must visit Eliza before receiving Lord Harold, and on so fine a morning I should be lucky to find the little Comtesse within doors.[38] Were I in her place, and free of all obligation in a city wholly given over to pleasure, I should take a turn in Sydney Gardens, or promenade about the Crescent, or commission Henry to hire a carriage for a drive about the countryside.

And upon achieving the White Hart, my premonitions were rewarded, as such fears usually are, in finding the Austen rooms deserted of even the little dog, Pug. I turned away in some annoyance, and determined to look into the Pump Room on the chance of finding her — when a light step was heard upon the stair, and Eliza’s delicious laugh wafted towards the ceiling.

“Good gracious, my lord, are you so determined in flattery? I have not heard its equal since I quitted Versailles. You are too wicked for Bath — you shall put the gentle invalids to flight in their chairs — and I shall not rest easy until you have secured your lodgings and left us in peace!”

An indistinct murmur of male conversation — another musical laugh — and the little Comtesse tripped gaily towards her rooms, an enormous muff upon her delicate hand, and a fine glow of spirits animating her countenance.

“Jane!” she cried, and halted on the landing. “But how very fortunate! I was intending to come in search of you; and now you have saved me the trouble. But then, you are always saving me a vast deal of trouble, are you not? A delightful quality in a relation.”

“Good morning, Eliza,” I rejoined. “You look excessively well. Some handsome rogue has been turning your head, I fancy.”

“Only the Earl of Swithin,” she confided mischievously. “How I love the proximity of an inn! I shall be quite desolate when he goes into Laura Place.”

“Laura Place? Lord Swithin intends a visit to Lady Desdemona?”

“He intends to land in her very lap, my dear. The Earl is taking the residence opposite the Dowager’s for the remainder of his stay.”

“Such impertinence!”

“—for a man of Swithin’s position and means, to hire a house in one of the most distinguished squares in town? I do not understand you, Jane. Camden Place might possess a smarter air, of course, but—” Eliza swept past me and opened the door to her room.

“Eliza! Only consider of it! To perch like a bird of prey upon the stoop of a lady who has refused him! Surely Lord Swithin’s arrogance admits of some limit!”

“But perhaps not his taste for abuse. One might wonder why he comes to Bath at all.” She threw down her muff and gave her spencer into the maid’s keeping. “Never fear the machinations of the Earl, my dear Jane. Now your Lord Harold is come to be gay in this splendid watering-place, I cannot find anything in Swithin to frighten Lady Desdemona.”

“He is not my Lord Harold,” I retorted crossly, “but if I were the Earl, I should hesitate before invading the gentleman’s square.”

Eliza’s smile widened. “So he is come! I heard the rumour in the Pump Room. And have you seen Trowbridge, Jane? Is he bent upon the routing of his nephew’s enemies? Shall you have a chance of engaging your energies in the matter? I own, I am excessively hopeful of some diversion in that quarter — there was nothing like the Scargrave business a few winters back, for wonderfully piquing the senses, and varying the dull routine of the day-to-day! Even Henry dined out on the strength of your particulars for weeks on end!”

“Eliza, Eliza—”

She collapsed upon one of the inn’s hard wooden chairs and breathed a sigh of relief. “Lord, Jane! I do find that length of stair a trial!”

“Did you hurry less rapidly into speech, you might have breath enough for a thousand such!”

“And yet it would never do to lodge in the ground-floor chambers,” she continued thoughtfully. “Such noise and smoke — and only last evening, a woman gave birth in the kitchens, if you will credit it!”

“You would affect the complaints of the aged, my dear, to confuse your husband’s family — the better to conduct your flirtations unmolested,” I scolded her fondly. “Do not attempt to prevaricate with me. I see the cunning of your design, and know it for a sham; you have never been in better looks, and I warrant you are well aware of it. For certainly the Earl of Swithin has not allowed your beauty to go unremarked.”

She laughed, and reached a tentative hand to her hair. Though it had been cropped grotesquely in the late summer, it was now growing out, the short curls caught up behind and the whole surmounted with a band across the forehead, àla grecque. I should feel silly in emulating such a style myself, and thought it better suited to a girl half Eliza’s age; but I could not deny it quite became her delicate features.

“Are you famished, Jane? Shall I send for cold meat and cheese?”

“For yourself, by all means — but do not trouble about me. I must be away directly, and tarry only to beg of you a favour, Eliza.”

She sat up immediately. “But of course. Anything within my power.”

“Might you see your way clear, I wonder, to penning a note of introduction on my behalf?”

“Nothing should be easier. But to whom? For your acquaintance in Bath must be larger than my own.”

“Mr. Richard Cosway.”

“Richard Cosway!” Eliza exclaimed. “Jane, you astonish me! Can you possibly desire to spend so fine a morning in the company of so tedious a man?”

“But I had thought him a painter of the first water.”

“He is.”

“And a renowned collector.”

“As to that—”

“I greatly desire to consult him, Eliza, on a matter of some personal importance.” This was no more than the truth, and I might utter the words without a pang.

“I perceive your method, Jane,” the Comtesse observed with a roguish twinkle. “You intend that Mr. Richard Cosway shall so admire your fine eyes, that he shall not be gainsaid in taking their likeness. I see how it shall be. In a very little while Lord Harold Trowbridge will be the talk of the ton, for the pretty token he wears upon his waistcoat. But I warn you, Jane — Mr. Cosway’s services are dearly bought.”

“I have no intention of sitting for my likeness,” I protested, “merely of enquiring as to Mr. Cosway’s method and usual fees.” It must be impossible to invoke the curious pendant Lord Kinsfell had found on the murdered Portal’s breast without explaining the nature of its discovery — and such frankness, even to Eliza, was beyond my power.

“I might come with you, did you spare me an hour,” Eliza said, with an eye to the parlour clock. “Eccentric though Cosway is, his conversation at least bears the charm of absurdity; and I should dearly love a glimpse of his rooms in Camden Place.”

But the little Comtesse’s company, in general so welcome, should quite incommode me in the present instance; for Lord Harold’s making of the party a third, should confirm her worst invention. I started up and laid a hand to hers.

“That is impossible, Eliza — I mean to say — I am engaged to — to—”

“—Walk out with an unnamed gentleman in some secluded grove of Sydney Gardens? La, Jane, you are a secretive soul! I shall not presume to o’erlisten your conference with Mr. Cosway for a thousand pounds. But I expect a glimpse of your token in private, once he has seized the likeness. Your eyes are so similar to my dearest Henry’s, that I doubt not I shall find the portrait ravishing.”

She rose, and crossed to a travelling desk propped up on a table, and drew forth some paper and a pen. A few lines sufficed to commend her respects to Mr. Cosway, and beg of him the indulgence of a few moments on behalf of her sister, Miss Austen, whose acquaintance he might remember having made in the Pump Room yesterday. It closed with some very pretty, though insincere, compliments upon his taste and person, and begged that the sender should be remembered to his wife when next he corresponded with dear Maria.

“There! If that does not melt the miscreant’s heart, and win you a triumphant place in his studio and salon, I have grossly misjudged my powers.” Eliza folded the note and sealed it with a wafer. “Go with grace and fortune, my dear — and trust me to speak not a word!”

CAMDEN PLACE HOLDS A LOFTY, DIGNIFIED POSITION ON the south-east slope of Beacon Hill, such as becomes a man of consequence. It was built some fifteen years ago or more, and the building abruptly halted by the inconvenience of a series of landslips in the area. That part of the Crescent sited upon solid rock is at present habitable, but presents a ludicrous facade to the world’s view, in having fourteen houses erected to the left of the central pediment, and only four to the right. The north-east pavilion remains, a picturesque ruin perched atop a crag of rock, in mute testament to the triumph of nature over the ingenuity of man.[39]

The fractured Crescent takes its name from the Marquis of Camden, whose elephant crest surmounts the keystone of nearly every residence’s door, as though an entire herd had condescended to winter in Bath. As I laboured up the long approach by Lord Harold’s side, glorying in the exercise, I contemplated the nature of lodgers and lodgings. The precarious ground of Camden Place might readily serve as metaphor, for all in mankind that prefer false grandeur to a more stable propriety.[40]

“An excellent morning for exercise, Miss Austen.”

“Indeed it is, my lord.”

“I had considered employing my curricle, or perhaps a brace of chairs — but reflected that neither man nor beast, when burdened with ourselves, should be expected to labour the length of such a hill. I felt certain you would feel the same.”

“Are you possessed, then, of prescience as regards my thoughts and feelings?”

Lord Harold cast me a knowing look. “I flatter myself otherwise. You remain one of the few ladies whose thoughts I cannot read. But perhaps, having found a virtue in this once before, I prolong the effect for the sake of my enjoyment, when, in fact, it is no more than illusion.”

“Then pray tell me of what I am considering now”

“You are abusing me for a very unhandsome escort, in having failed to procure either a carriage or a chair, for the salvation of your half-boots,” he rejoined.

“Your illusion may be sustained yet a little while,” I replied with satisfaction. “I was considering, rather, the Earl of Swithin’s intended removal to a residence opposite your own.”

“That minor intelligence is circulating about all of Bath, I fancy,” Lord Harold observed, “even as the Earl’s carters were circulating about Laura Place this morning. Lord Swithin’s descent has not escaped my notice — nor, I might add, the fact that any wheeled traffic must immediately come to a halt, when Laura Place is choked with even the slightest conveyance. For though the streets in the newer part of town may command a wider breadth than those within the old walls, they remain sadly narrow; and any might come to blows over the rights of passage. The night of Her Grace’s rout, the assemblage of chairs must have considerably clogged the square.”

“I believe they did.”

“And thus inspired by the Earl’s display, I embarked upon my enquiries among the chairmen not long after breakfast.”

“Excellent despatch, my lord. You adventured Stall Street?”[41]

“Both the stand near the Pump Room and the one closer to the Abbey. I questioned every chairman present, to no avail; of those who had indeed been in Laura Place two nights ago, none could recall an altercation with a waggon or carriage; and so I turned my steps to the Gravel Walk.”

“The better to contemplate the problem?”

“The better to examine the chairmen in their resting huts along Queen Place Parade, my dear.[42] There were ten fellows at least, quite splendid in their blue greatcoats and peaked caps, divided between the two fires and blowing upon their chapped fingers.”

I stopped a moment, from as strong a desire to draw breath in the midst of my exertions, as to pay heed to Lord Harold’s words. “And what did they tell you, my lord?”

“Amidst much contradiction, abuse, and bestowing of oaths — and a remarkable expense of coin, I might add — something of no little worth. One of the chairmen — a broad Irishman who stood well back in the crowd attending the end of my mother’s rout — claims to have seen something to our advantage. He will have it that an open carriage attempted to pass through Laura Place in the wee hours of Wednesday morning; and after hesitating some moments, the driver was forced to descend to the horses’ heads, and back his pair the length of the street. The chairmen closest to Her Grace’s door were unlikely to have observed the debacle — which accounts for the ignorance of the men I questioned in Stall Street.”

“An open carriage? But it snowed!”

“And so the chairmen observed. It must have been, they affirmed, a party caught out late by the weather — a party that had not considered of snow, when they undertook to drive about the countryside in a curricle. But as they were happily in possession of a wealth of blankets, in which one passenger at least, was effectively cocooned, we may congratulate them on having sustained no very great evil.”

“Our murderer!” I exclaimed. “He had only to drop from the Dowager’s window to the open carriage, while the driver was abusing the chairmen — and conceal himself among the lap robes within. Did the chairmen remark the driver’s face?”

“He was heavily muffled against the snow, as should not be extraordinary. But he did approach their stand, and exhort them in the foulest language to clear a passage; which engaged their attention so thoroughly, they could say nothing of the equipage’s passenger.”

“And the curricle itself?”

“Indistinct in every respect. No coat of arms, no device upon its doors — a common black carriage, such as might be offered for hire at one of the inns.”

“And so it might, indeed,” I thoughtfully replied. We walked on some moments in silence, and then I added, “Did the murderer depart the anteroom by the open window, my affection for the cunning passage must be entirely at an end. I think, Lord Harold, that we should examine it thoroughly at the nearest opportunity, the better to dismiss its claims upon our attention.”

“It shall be done directly we have consulted with your Mr. Cosway, my dear. I should have attended to it before, but that I believed the passage already searched by Mr. Wilberforce Elliot.”

“I cannot be easy in my mind, regarding Mr. Elliot’s searches,” I replied firmly; but further speculation was at an end. We had achieved our object.

Mr. Richard Cosway had taken up his abode in no less than the foremost residence of Camden Place — that distinguished by the broad central pediment and coat of arms of the Marquis of Camden. The artist’s taste, as Eliza had assured me, was exquisite in this as in all things.

We mounted the steps, pulled the bell, and were speedily admitted to the foyer, which was dominated by a spiral stair ascending to the drawing-room. A footman in sky-blue livery, and possessed of the chilliest countenance, received Lord Harold’s card together with Eliza’s hasty scrawl, and made his stately progress towards the first floor.

I profited from the interval in surveying my surroundings — and found them unlike anything I had encountered to date. Even so humble a space as this entry was marked by the hand of the collector. What appeared to be excellent Flemish tapestries of considerable age depended from the ceiling, the richness of their hues fired by the light of the clerestory windows. Two chairs, carved and gilded as thrones, offered the weary their damasked laps; and at their feet lay a veritable tide of Turkey carpet, its design at once intricate and bewildering. Surely the house had been hired furnished? Or had Mr. Cosway seen fit to travel with his belongings, like an Oriental potentate?

“Mr. Cosway is at home,” the footman told us with a bow. Lord Harold inclined his head, I took up my reticule, and we followed the man above.

The drawing-room itself was more akin to enchantment than anything in my experience — Mr. Mozart’s seraglio come vividly to life. Everywhere about were scattered small ivory cabinets and mosaic tables inlaid with curious stones, their feet carved in the form of fantastic animals. Groups of ottomans, upholstered in the richest damask, were set off by Japanese screens; a profusion of Persian rugs ran the length of the marble floor; and poised for appreciation and display were choice bronzes, artists’ models in wax and terra-cotta, specimens of antique Sevres, Blue Mandar, Nankin and Dresden china. I blinked, and turned about in wonder — and caught at the last the amused smile of the painter himself, as comfortable as a monkey in a jungle of his own making. Richard Cosway was half-hidden by a suit of armour, but a flash of sunlight revealed a waistcoat of cerise and yellow to my eye, as surely as exotic plumage betrays an elusive bird.

“Lord Harold,” he said, coming forward with a bow, “and the delightful Miss Austen.” He was so diminutive a figure, and possessed of such awkward features, as to seem almost a gargoyle stepped down from the piers of Winchester; but I made him a courtesy, and took the hand he extended in greeting. “It is a pleasure to see you again.”

“The pleasure is entirely mine, sir,” I replied. “You are very good to receive us on so little notice, and we are sensible of the charge upon your time.”

“The notice of the Comtesse de Feuillide — forgive me, of Mrs. Henry Austen — is hardly little,” he assured me with becoming grace. “She is one of the few women of fashion who retains both her understanding and her heart — and is thus to be prized as the rarest porcelain.”

“I see you value her as I do.”

He inclined his head, and gestured towards two of the formidable chairs. “My deepest sympathies, Lord Harold, at your nephew’s present misfortunes. Shocking how little the authorities are to be trusted in a matter of this kind! But, however, all earthly authority must give way to a Higher Power in a very little time, as I have presumed to instruct His Royal Highness. All mortal concerns are fleeting, when the world is near its end.”

Lord Harold glanced enquiringly at me, then bowed to the painter and seated himself without a word.

“The Comtesse suggests, Miss Austen, that you are desirous of having your likeness taken in miniature; and knowing that such is my primary avocation, you have sought my talents and advice.”

“Indeed, sir, I fear that she has imposed upon you,” I said hastily. “It is not the matter of my own portrait, but another’s, on which we have come.”

One eyebrow was suffered to rise, and the great man settled himself upon an ottoman, his splendid coattails arranged behind. I observed he had chosen his seat with care, to accommodate his short legs; for they should have dangled from the height of the chair upon which I perched.

“Pray tell me how I may be of service.”

Lord Harold withdrew the small paper parcel from his coat and set it on a table close at hand. “We had hoped, Mr. Cosway, that you might recognise this piece — or perhaps, its subject.”

The slight foolishness of expression instantly fled. It was replaced by an appearance of the most intense interest. Cosway undid the paper, and drawing forth a quizzing glass, examined its contents minutely.

“Yes,” he mused, “a lovely thing, to be sure. Probably a woman’s eye — you will remark the delicacy of the brow, the excessive length of the lashes, and the provocative glance. I should think it is a French piece.”

“French?”

“Observe the hazing around the portrait’s edge — the suggestion of the eye’s suspension in a cloud of mist. It might almost seem to float, like an image in a dream. I devised the style when I painted Mrs. Fitzherbert’s eye for His Royal Highness, of course; but it has long since been abandoned among English painters for a more realistic representation. It is usual, now, to frame the eye in a curl of hair, or to suggest the bridge of the nose.”

“Might not it be an older portrait?” Lord Harold enquired. “Executed in the ‘eighties or ‘nineties, perhaps?”

“Such things were not quite the fashion then,” Mr. Cosway mused, “for I only painted Mrs. Fitzherbert’s eye in 1790. Had the portrait dated from so early a period, I should have recognised it instantly as one of my own. Engleheart adopted the practice, of course, and turned it almost from art to commerce—anyone might have an Engleheart eye for the asking — but he is often given to working in enamel, and this is clearly done in watercolours, and painted on ivory. Besides, Engleheart paints in a far more realistic style, and signs the obverse with the initials G.E.”

“So enquiry in that quarter would avail us nothing,” I said in some disappointment.

The painter shook his head. “May I enquire, my lord, how you came by the item?”

“Upon the death of its owner,” Lord Harold replied, without a blush; and indeed, his words were not very far from the truth. “I thought it possible that the lady whose eye is here represented would wish to know of the gentleman’s demise; and that in returning it to its subject I might attempt to perform some final service on behalf of my friend. Miss Austen was so kind as to suggest an appeal to yourself, who must be acclaimed the acknowledged expert in such things.”

“And this friend conveyed to you nothing of the portrait’s history before his death?”

“He did not. It came to me, as it were, in all the silence of the tomb.”

“A pity. We may suppose that the gentleman preferred to shroud the circumstances of the portrait’s commission in mystery. That is not uncommon, my lord, I may assure you, with miniatures of this sort. They were devised as tokens for illicit lovers, and many a possessor has gone to his grave with the name of the subject sealed upon his lips. Pray forgive me — I risk a gross impertinence — but why should you struggle to betray the grave’s confidence?”

“My friend died suddenly, in the flower of his youth, and I am certain that he would not have wished his beloved to go unremarked at his passing. A legacy, perhaps, conveyed anonymously — I feel it incumbent upon me to do something.”

“Though your nephew’s affairs are so sadly entangled at present?” Mr. Cosway’s protuberant eyes were fixed steadily upon Lord Harold’s face. “It is singular that so active a benevolence, on behalf of another wholly unconnected to your misfortunes, should possess you at such a time.”

“And now I believe, sir, that you do risk impertinence,” Lord Harold replied evenly.

“It is very probable. But I cannot think you approach me with any degree of frankness, my lord, and every kind of deceit is my abhorrence. Good day to you — and to you, Miss Austen. My compliments to the Comtesse.”

“Mr. Cosway—” I sprang up, a most beseeching expression upon my face. “Do permit me to speak a word, I beg. Lord Harold is perhaps too discreet. But I may inform you that a greater knowledge of the portrait’s particulars, might swifty avert his nephew’s misery.”

“I thought it possible,” Mr. Cosway replied, and smiled faintly. “But I cannot like the want of confidence his lordship betrays.”

“Your pardon, Mr. Cosway,” Lord Harold managed, with a quelling glance for myself; “I spoke perhaps too hastily.”

There was a lengthy pause, in which the painter took up the miniature once more and examined it narrowly. At length, however, he set it aside, and folded his hands upon his knee.

“I should like to propose a method of enquiry, my lord.”

“Pray do so at once.”

“My wife, Maria, of whom you may have heard—”

“And who has not? She is very nearly as celebrated an artist as yourself,” Lord Harold acknowledged.

Mr. Cosway bowed. “My wife, Maria, is presently resident in France — and acquainted with the principal painters of the Emperor’s circle. Though she makes her home in Lyons, I know that she is often in the capital, and might readily make enquiries regarding your portrait. She might first locate the hand that captured the likeness — and from him, the name of the subject.”

“I am afraid it is beyond my power to part with the pendant,” Lord Harold said, frowning. “Affairs are too delicate to risk its seizure, through some misadventure of war.”

“But you need not give it up for longer than the space of an hour,” Mr. Cosway cried. “I shall sketch the piece, front and back; shade the whole in watercolours — and we may have the sending of it by the next packet that serves!”

Lord Harold paused to reflect; but Mr. Cosway’s enthusiasm was at a considerable pitch. He hastened to support his first inspiration with another.

“You are intimate in Government circles, my lord. It is everywhere acknowledged among the fashionable of the ton that none may move heaven and earth so easily as Lord Harold Trowbridge — and the insertion of a letter in the mail pouch of a secret craft, such as plies the Channel in defiance of blockades and shot, should be the matter of a moment, for one of your influence!”[43]

“Your notion has considerable merit, Cosway,” Lord Harold replied, rising to his feet, “and I believe I shall avail myself of it. I shall call for the portrait in exactly one hour, and receive from your hands the coloured sketch, along with a letter of explanation intended for your wife — and may I ask, my good sir, whether His Majesty’s Government might offer any favour to the lady in return? Papers of safe conduct for a voyage to England, perhaps?”

“I shall extend the offer to her with pleasure and gratitude,” Mr. Cosway said; but a sadness suffused his ugly countenance, and I did not believe that his Maria should find safe conduct necessary. “It is much to think that she shall have news of home with all despatch! I have been sadly vexed by the trials of the foreign post — and so we serve each other a turn, my lord. I shall expect you in an hour!”

He rang for the footman, and bowed us to the door; and I departed Camden Place with a heightened respect for Mr. Richard Cosway. For any man may possess a heart, and the most wounded sensibility, though he parade like a peacock and grin like a monkey.