"You have nothing more to say?" inquired the old man, laying his hand with unusual earnestness on Mr Pecksniff"s sleeve.
Mr Pecksniff would not say what rose to his lips. For reproaches he observed, were useless.
"You have nothing at all to urge? You are sure of that! If you have, no matter what it is, speak freely. I will oppose nothing that you ask of me," said the old man.
The tears rose in such abundance to Mr Pecksniff"s eyes at this proof of unlimited confidence on the part of his friend, that he was fain to clasp the bridge of his nose convulsively before he could at all compose himself. When he had the power of utterance again, he said with great emotion, that he hoped he should live to deserve this; and added, that he had no other observation whatever to make.
For a few moments the old man sat looking at him, with that blank and motionless expression which is not uncommon in the faces of those whose faculties are on the wane, in age. But he rose up firmly too, and walked towards the door, from which Mark withdrew to make way for him.
The obsequious Mr Pecksniff proffered his arm. The old man took it.
Turning at the door, he said to Martin, waving him off with his hand,
"You have heard him. Go away. It is all over. Go!"
Mr Pecksniff murmured certain cheering expressions of sympathy and encouragement as they retired; and Martin, awakening from the stupor into which the closing portion of this scene had plunged him, to the opportunity afforded by their departure, caught the innocent cause of all in his embrace, and pressed her to his heart.
"Dear girl!" said Martin. "He has not changed you. Why, what an impotent and harmless knave the fellow is!"
"You have restrained yourself so n.o.bly! You have borne so much!"
"Restrained myself!" cried Martin, cheerfully. "You were by, and were unchanged, I knew. What more advantage did I want? The sight of me was such a bitterness to the dog, that I had my triumph in his being forced to endure it. But tell me, love--for the few hasty words we can exchange now are precious--what is this which has been rumoured to me? Is it true that you are persecuted by this knave"s addresses?"
"I was, dear Martin, and to some extent am now; but my chief source of unhappiness has been anxiety for you. Why did you leave us in such terrible suspense?"
"Sickness, distance; the dread of hinting at our real condition, the impossibility of concealing it except in perfect silence; the knowledge that the truth would have pained you infinitely more than uncertainty and doubt," said Martin, hurriedly; as indeed everything else was done and said, in those few hurried moments, "were the causes of my writing only once. But Pecksniff? You needn"t fear to tell me the whole tale; for you saw me with him face to face, hearing him speak, and not taking him by the throat; what is the history of his pursuit of you? Is it known to my grandfather?"
"Yes."
"And he a.s.sists him in it?"
"No," she answered eagerly.
"Thank Heaven!" cried Martin, "that it leaves his mind unclouded in that one respect!"
"I do not think," said Mary, "it was known to him at first. When this man had sufficiently prepared his mind, he revealed it to him by degrees. I think so, but I only know it from my own impression: now from anything they told me. Then he spoke to me alone."
"My grandfather did?" said Martin.
"Yes--spoke to me alone, and told me--"
"What the hound had said," cried Martin. "Don"t repeat it."
"And said I knew well what qualities he possessed; that he was moderately rich; in good repute; and high in his favour and confidence.
But seeing me very much distressed, he said that he would not control or force my inclinations, but would content himself with telling me the fact. He would not pain me by dwelling on it, or reverting to it; nor has he ever done so since, but has truly kept his word."
"The man himself?--" asked Martin.
"He has had few opportunities of pursuing his suit. I have never walked out alone, or remained alone an instant in his presence. Dear Martin, I must tell you," she continued, "that the kindness of your grandfather to me remains unchanged. I am his companion still. An indescribable tenderness and compa.s.sion seem to have mingled themselves with his old regard; and if I were his only child, I could not have a gentler father.
What former fancy or old habit survives in this, when his heart has turned so cold to you, is a mystery I cannot penetrate; but it has been, and it is, a happiness to me, that I remained true to him; that if he should wake from his delusion, even at the point of death, I am here, love, to recall you to his thoughts."
Martin looked with admiration on her glowing face, and pressed his lips to hers.
"I have sometimes heard, and read," she said, "that those whose powers had been enfeebled long ago, and whose lives had faded, as it were, into a dream, have been known to rouse themselves before death, and inquire for familiar faces once very dear to them; but forgotten, unrecognized, hated even, in the meantime. Think, if with his old impressions of this man, he should suddenly resume his former self, and find in him his only friend!"
"I would not urge you to abandon him, dearest," said Martin, "though I could count the years we are to wear out asunder. But the influence this fellow exercises over him has steadily increased, I fear."
She could not help admitting that. Steadily, imperceptibly, and surely, until it was paramount and supreme. She herself had none; and yet he treated her with more affection than at any previous time. Martin thought the inconsistency a part of his weakness and decay.
"Does the influence extend to fear?" said Martin. "Is he timid of a.s.serting his own opinion in the presence of this infatuation? I fancied so just now."
"I have thought so, often. Often when we are sitting alone, almost as we used to do, and I have been reading a favourite book to him or he has been talking quite cheerfully, I have observed that the entrance of Mr Pecksniff has changed his whole demeanour. He has broken off immediately, and become what you have seen to-day. When we first came here he had his impetuous outbreaks, in which it was not easy for Mr Pecksniff with his utmost plausibility to appease him. But these have long since dwindled away. He defers to him in everything, and has no opinion upon any question, but that which is forced upon him by this treacherous man."
Such was the account, rapidly furnished in whispers, and interrupted, brief as it was, by many false alarms of Mr Pecksniff"s return; which Martin received of his grandfather"s decline, and of that good gentleman"s ascendancy. He heard of Tom Pinch too, and Jonas too, with not a little about himself into the bargain; for though lovers are remarkable for leaving a great deal unsaid on all occasions, and very properly desiring to come back and say it, they are remarkable also for a wonderful power of condensation, and can, in one way or other, give utterance to more language--eloquent language--in any given short s.p.a.ce of time, than all the six hundred and fifty-eight members in the Commons House of Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; who are strong lovers no doubt, but of their country only, which makes all the difference; for in a pa.s.sion of that kind (which is not always returned), it is the custom to use as many words as possible, and express nothing whatever.
A caution from Mr Tapley; a hasty interchange of farewells, and of something else which the proverb says must not be told of afterwards; a white hand held out to Mr Tapley himself, which he kissed with the devotion of a knight-errant; more farewells, more something else"s; a parting word from Martin that he would write from London and would do great things there yet (Heaven knows what, but he quite believed it); and Mark and he stood on the outside of the Pecksniffian halls.
"A short interview after such an absence!" said Martin, sorrowfully.
"But we are well out of the house. We might have placed ourselves in a false position by remaining there, even so long, Mark."
"I don"t know about ourselves, sir," he returned; "but somebody else would have got into a false position, if he had happened to come back again, while we was there. I had the door all ready, sir. If Pecksniff had showed his head, or had only so much as listened behind it, I would have caught him like a walnut. He"s the sort of man," added Mr Tapley, musing, "as would squeeze soft, I know."
A person who was evidently going to Mr Pecksniff"s house, pa.s.sed them at this moment. He raised his eyes at the mention of the architect"s name; and when he had gone on a few yards, stopped and gazed at them. Mr Tapley, also, looked over his shoulder, and so did Martin; for the stranger, as he pa.s.sed, had looked very sharply at them.
"Who may that be, I wonder!" said Martin. "The face seems familiar to me, but I don"t know the man."
"He seems to have a amiable desire that his face should be tolerable familiar to us," said Mr Tapley, "for he"s a-staring pretty hard. He"d better not waste his beauty, for he ain"t got much to spare."
Coming in sight of the Dragon, they saw a travelling carriage at the door.
"And a Salisbury carriage, eh?" said Mr Tapley. "That"s what he came in depend upon it. What"s in the wind now? A new pupil, I shouldn"t wonder.
P"raps it"s a order for another grammar-school, of the same pattern as the last."
Before they could enter at the door, Mrs Lupin came running out; and beckoning them to the carriage showed them a portmanteau with the name of CHUZZLEWIT upon it.
"Miss Pecksniff"s husband that was," said the good woman to Martin. "I didn"t know what terms you might be on, and was quite in a worry till you came back."
"He and I have never interchanged a word yet," observed Martin; "and as I have no wish to be better or worse acquainted with him, I will not put myself in his way. We pa.s.sed him on the road, I have no doubt. I am glad he timed his coming as he did. Upon my word! Miss Pecksniff"s husband travels gayly!"
"A very fine-looking gentleman with him--in the best room now,"
whispered Mrs Lupin, glancing up at the window as they went into the house. "He has ordered everything that can be got for dinner; and has the glossiest moustaches and whiskers ever you saw."
"Has he?" cried Martin, "why then we"ll endeavour to avoid him too, in the hope that our self-denial may be strong enough for the sacrifice.
It is only for a few hours," said Martin, dropping wearily into a chair behind the little screen in the bar. "Our visit has met with no success, my dear Mrs Lupin, and I must go to London."
"Dear, dear!" cried the hostess.
"Yes, one foul wind no more makes a winter, than one swallow makes a summer. I"ll try it again. Tom Pinch has succeeded. With his advice to guide me, I may do the same. I took Tom under my protection once, G.o.d save the mark!" said Martin, with a melancholy smile; "and promised I would make his fortune. Perhaps Tom will take me under HIS protection now, and teach me how to earn my bread."