Phoebe turned her great, inquiring eyes on the speaker, and it was a sight to see amazement, doubt, hope, and happiness animating her features, one after another.
"Is this real?" said she.
"I will sail with you to-morrow, Phoebe; and I will make you a good husband, if you will have me."
"That is spoke like a man," said d.i.c.k. "You take him at his word, Phoebe; and if he ill-uses you out there, I"ll break every bone in his skin."
"How dare you threaten him?" said Phoebe. "You had best leave the room."
Out went poor d.i.c.k, with the tear in his eye at being snubbed so. While he was putting up the shutters, Phoebe was making love to her pseudo penitent. "My dear," said she, "trust yourself to me. You don"t know all my love yet; for I have never been your wife, and I would not be your jade; that is the only thing I ever refused you. Trust yourself to me.
Why, you never found happiness with others; try it with me. It shall be the best day"s work you ever did, going out in the ship with me. You don"t know how happy a loving wife can make her husband. I"ll pet you out there as man was never petted. And besides, it isn"t for life; d.i.c.k and me will soon make a fortune out there, and then I"ll bring you home, and see you spend it any way you like but one. Oh, how I love you! do you love me a little? I worship the ground you walk on. I adore every hair of your head!" Her n.o.ble arm went round his neck in a moment, and the grandeur of her pa.s.sion electrified him so far that he kissed her affectionately, if not quite so warmly as she did him: and so it was all settled. The maid was discharged that night instead of the morning, and Reginald was to occupy her bed. Phoebe went up-stairs with her heart literally on fire, to prepare his sleeping-room, and so d.i.c.k and Reginald had a word.
"I say, d.i.c.k, how long will this voyage be?"
"Two months, sir, I am told."
"Please to cast your eyes on this suit of mine. Don"t you think it is rather seedy--to go to Africa with? Why, I shall disgrace you on board the ship. I say, d.i.c.k, lend me three sovs., just to buy a new suit at the slop-shop."
"Well, brother-in-law," said d.i.c.k, "I don"t see any harm in that. I"ll go and fetch them for you."
What does this sensible d.i.c.k do but go up-stairs to Phoebe, and say, "He wants three pounds to buy a suit; am I to lend it him?"
Phoebe was shaking and patting her penitent"s pillow. She dropped it on the bed in dismay. "Oh, d.i.c.k, not for all the world! Why, if he had three sovereigns, he"d desert me at the water"s edge. Oh, G.o.d help me, how I love him! G.o.d forgive me, how I mistrust him! Good d.i.c.k! kind d.i.c.k! say we have suits of clothes, and we"ll fit him like a prince, as he ought to be, on board ship; but not a shilling of money: and, my dear, don"t put the weight on ME. You understand?"
"Ay, mistress, I understand."
"Good d.i.c.k!"
"Oh, all right! and then don"t you snap this here good, kind d.i.c.k"s nose off at a word again."
"Never. I get wild if anybody threatens him. Then I"m not myself.
Forgive my hasty tongue. You know I love you, dear!"
"Oh, ay! you love me well enough. But seems to me your love is precious like cold veal, and your love for that chap is hot roast beef."
"Ha, ha, ha, ha!"
"Oh, ye can laugh now, can ye?"
"Ha, ha, ha!"
"Well, the more of that music, the better for me."
"Yes, dear; but go and tell him."
d.i.c.k went down, and said, "I"ve got no money to spare, till I get to the Cape; but Phoebe has got a box full of suits, and I made her promise to keep it out. She will dress you like a prince, you may be sure."
"Oh, that is it, is it?" said Reginald dryly.
d.i.c.k made no reply.
At nine o"clock they were on board the vessel; at ten she weighed anchor, and a steam-vessel drew her down the river about thirty miles, then cast off, and left her to the south-easterly breeze. Up went sail after sail; she nodded her lofty head, and glided away for Africa.
Phoebe shed a few natural tears at leaving the sh.o.r.es of Old England; but they soon dried. She was demurely happy, watching her prize, and asking herself had she really secured it, and all in a few hours?
They had a prosperous voyage: were married at Cape Town, and went up the country, bag and baggage, looking out for a good bargain in land.
Reginald was mounted on an English horse, and allowed to zigzag about, and shoot, and play, while his wife and brother-in-law marched slowly with their cavalcade.
What with air, exercise, wholesome food, and smiles of welcome, and delicious petting, this egotist enjoyed himself finely. He admitted as much. Says he, one evening to his wife, who sat by him for the pleasure of seeing him feed, "It sounds absurd; but I never was so happy in all my life."
At that, the celestial expression of her pastoral face, and the maternal gesture with which she drew her pet"s head to her queenly bosom, was a picture for celibacy to gnash the teeth at.
CHAPTER IX.
During this period, the most remarkable things that happened to Dr. and Mrs. Staines were really those which I have related as connecting them with Phoebe Dale and her brother; to which I will now add that Dr.
Staines detailed d.i.c.k"s case in a remarkable paper, ent.i.tled "Oedema of the Glottis," and showed how the patient had been brought back from the grave by tracheotomy and artificial respiration. He received a high price for this article.
To tell the truth, he was careful not to admit that it was he who had opened the windpipe; so the credit of the whole operation was given to Mr. Jenkyn; and this gentleman was naturally pleased, and threw a good many consultation fees in Staines"s way.
The Lucases, to his great comfort--for he had an instinctive aversion to Miss Lucas--left London for Paris in August, and did not return all the year.
In February he reviewed his year"s work and twelve months" residence in the Bijou. The pecuniary result was, outgoings, nine hundred and fifty pounds; income, from fees, two hundred and eighty pounds; writing, ninety pounds.
He showed these figures to Mrs. Staines, and asked her if she could suggest any diminution of expenditure. Could she do with less housekeeping money?
"Oh, impossible! You cannot think how the servants eat; and they won"t touch our home-made bread."
"The fools! Why?"
"Oh, because they think it costs us less. Servants seem to me always to hate the people whose bread they eat."
"More likely it is their vanity. Nothing that is not paid for before their eyes seems good enough for them. Well, dear, the bakers will revenge us. But is there any other item we could reduce? Dress?"
"Dress! Why, I spend nothing."
"Forty-five pounds this year."
"Well, I shall want none next year."
"Well, then, Rosa, as there is nothing we can reduce, I must write more, and take more fees, or we shall be in the wrong box. Only eight hundred and sixty pounds left of our little capital; and, mind, we have not another shilling in the world. One comfort, there is no debt. We pay ready money for everything."
Rosa colored a little, but said nothing.
Staines did his part n.o.bly. He read; he wrote; he paced the yard. He wore his old clothes in the house; he took off his new ones when he came in. He was all genius, drudgery, patience.