"I sha"nt have to invent much," said Wilfrid to himself, bitterly.
There was a momentary appearance of Adela at the library-door; and over her shoulder came an outcry from Mrs. Chump. Arabella then spoke: Mr.
Pole and Cornelia following with a word, to which Mrs. Chump responded shrilly: "Ye shan"t talk to "m, none of ye, till I"ve had the bloom of his ear, now!" A confused hubbub of English and Irish ensued. The ladies drew their brother into the library.
Doubtless you have seen a favourite sketch of the imaginative youthful artist, who delights to portray scenes on a raft amid the tossing waters, where sweet and satiny ladies, in a pardonable abandonment to the exigencies of the occasion, are exhibiting the full energy and activity of creatures that existed before sentiment was born. The ladies of Brookfield had almost as utterly cast off their garb of lofty reserve and inscrutable superiority. They were begging Mrs. Chump to be, for pity"s sake, silent. They were arguing with the woman. They were remonstrating--to such an extent as this, in reply to an infamous outburst: "No, no: indeed, Mrs. Chump, indeed!" They rose, as she rose, and stood about her, motioning a beseeching emphasis with their hands.
Not visible for one second was the intense indignation at their fate which Wilfrid, spying keenly into them, perceived. This taught him that the occasion was as grave as could be. In spite of the oily words his father threw from time to time abruptly on the tumult, he guessed what had happened.
Briefly, Mrs. Chump, aided by Braintop, her squire, had at last hunted Mr. Pericles down, and the wrathful Greek had called her a beggar. With devilish malice he had reproached her for speculating in such and such Bonds, and sending ventures to this and that hemisphere, laughing infernally as he watched her growing amazement. "Ye"re jokin", Mr.
Paricles," she tried to say and think; but the very naming of poverty had given her shivers. She told him how she had come to him because of Mr. Pole"s reproach, which accused her of causing the rupture. Mr.
Pericles twisted the waxy points of his moustache. "I shall advise you, go home," he said; "go to a lawyer: say, "I will see my affairs, how zey stand." Ze man will find Pole is ruined. It may be--I do not know--Pole has left a little of your money; yes, ma"am, it may be."
The end of the interview saw Mrs. Chump flying past Mr. Pericles to where Braintop stood awaiting her with a meditative speculation on that official promotion which in his attention to the lady he antic.i.p.ated.
It need scarcely be remarked that he was astonished to receive a scent-bottle on the spot, as the only reward his meritorious service was probably destined ever to meet with. Breathless in her panic, Mrs. Chump a.s.sured him she was a howling beggar, and the smell of a scent was like a crool blow to her; above all, the smell of Alderman"s Bouquet, which Chump--"tell"n a lie, ye know, Mr. Braintop, said was after him. And I, smell"n at "t over "n Ireland--a raw garl I was--I just thought "m a prince, the little sly fella! And oh! I"m a beggar, I am!" With which, she shouted in the street, and put Braintop to such confusion that he hailed a cab recklessly, declaring to her she had no time to lose, if she wished to catch the train. Mrs. Chump requested the cabman that as a man possessed of a feeling heart for the interests of a helpless woman, he would drive fast; and, at the station, disputed his charge on the ground of the knowledge already imparted to him of her precarious financial state. In this frame of mind she fell upon Brookfield, and there was clamour in the house. Wilfrid arrived two hours after Mrs.
Chump. For that s.p.a.ce the ladies had been saying over and over again empty words to pacify her. The task now devolved on their brother. Mr.
Pole, though he had betrayed nothing under the excitement of the sudden shock, had lost the proper control of his mask. Wilfrid commenced by fixedly listening to Mrs. Chump until for the third time her breath had gone. Then, taking on a smile, he said: "Perhaps you are aware that Mr.
Pericles has a particular reason for animosity tome. We"ve disagreed together, that"s all. I suppose it"s the habit of those fellows to attack a whole family where one member of it offends them." As soon as the meaning of this was made clear to Mrs. Chump, she caught it to her bosom for comfort; and finding it gave less than at the moment she required, she flung it away altogether; and then moaned, a suppliant, for it once more. "The only thing, if you are in a state of alarm about my father"s affairs, is for him to show you by his books that his house is firm," said Wilfrid, now that he had so far helped to eject suspicion from her mind.
"Will Pole do ut?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mrs. Chump, half off her seat.
"Of course I will--of course! of course. Haven"t I told you so?" said Mr. Pole, blinking mightily from his armchair over the fire. "Sit down, Martha."
"Oh! but how"ll I understand ye, Pole?" she cried.
"I"ll do my best to a.s.sist in explaining," Wilfrid condescended to say.
The ladies were touched when Mrs. Chump replied, with something of a curtsey, "I"ll thank ye vary much, sir." She added immediately, "Mr.
Wilfrud," as if correcting the "sir," for sounding cold.
It was so trustful and simple, that it threw alight on the woman under which they had not yet beheld her. Compa.s.sion began to stir in their bosoms, and with it an inexplicable sense of shame, which soon threw any power of compa.s.sion into the background. They dared not ask themselves whether it was true that their father had risked the poor thing"s money in some desperate stake. What hopeful force was left to them they devoted to her property, and Adela determined to pray that night for its safe preservation. The secret feeling in the hearts of the ladies was, that in putting them on their trial with poverty, Celestial Powers would never at the same time think it necessary to add disgrace. Consequently, and as a defence against the darker dread, they now, for the first time, fully believed that monetary ruin had befallen their father. They were civil to Mrs. Chump, and forgiving toward her brogue, and her naked outcries of complaint and suddenly--suggested panic; but their pity, save when some odd turn in her conduct moved them, was reserved dutifully for their father. His wretched sensations at the pouring of a storm of tears from the exhausted creature, caused Arabella to rise and say to Mrs. Chump kindly, "Now let me take you to bed."
But such a novel mark of tender civility caused the woman to exclaim: "Oh, dear! if ye don"t sound like wheedlin" to keep me blind."
Even this was borne with. "Come; it will do you good to rest," said Arabella.
"And how"ll I sleep?"
"By shutting my eye--"peeps,"--as I used to tell my old nurse," said Adela; and Mrs. Chump, accustomed to an occasional (though not public) bit of wheedling from her, was partially rea.s.sured.
"I"ll sit with you till you do sleep," said Arabella.
"Suppose," Mrs. Chump moaned, "suppose I"m too poor aver to repay ye? If I"m a bankrup"?--oh!"
Arabella smiled. "Whatever I may do is certainly not done for a remuneration, and such a service as this, at least, you need not speak of."
Mrs. Chump"s evident surprise, and doubt of the honesty of the change in her manner, caused Arabella very acutely to feel its dishonesty. She looked at Cornelia with envy. The latter lady was leaning meditatively, her arm on a side of her chair, like a pensive queen, with a ready, mild, embracing look for the company. "Posture" seemed always to triumph over action.
Before quitting the room, Mrs. Chump asked Mr. Pole whether he would be up early the next morning.
"Very early,--you beat me, if you can," said he, aware that the question was put as a test to his sincerity.
"Oh, dear! Suppose it"s onnly a false alarrm of the "bomunable Mr.
Paricles--which annybody"d have listened to--ye know that!" said Mrs.
Chump, going forth.
She stopped in the doorway, and turned her head round, sniffing, in a very p.r.o.nounced way. "Oh, it"s you," she flashed on Wilfrid; "it"s you, my dear, that smell so like poor Chump. Oh! if we"re not rooned, won"t we dine together! Just give me a kiss, please. The smell of ye"s comfortin"."
Wilfrid bent his cheek forward, affecting to laugh, though the subject was tragic to him.
"Oh! perhaps I"ll sleep, and not look in the mornin" like that beastly tallow, Mr. Paricles says I spent such a lot of money on, speculator--whew, I hate ut!--and hemp too! Me!--Martha Chump! Do I want to hang myself, and burn forty thousand pounds worth o" candles round my corpse danglin" there? Now, there, now! Is that sense? And what"d Pole want to buy me all that grease for? And where"d I keep ut, I"ll ask ye?
And sure they wouldn"t make me a bankrup" on such a pretence as that.
For, where"s the Judge that"s got the heart?"
Having apparently satisfied her reason with these interrogations, Mrs.
Chump departed, shaking her head at Wilfrid: "Ye smile so nice, ye do!"
by the way. Cornelia and Adela then rose, and Wilfrid was left alone with his father.
It was natural that he should expect the moment for entire confidence between them to have come. He crossed his legs, leaning over the fireplace, and waited. The old man perceived him, and made certain humming sounds, as of preparation. Wilfrid was half tempted to think he wanted a.s.sistance, and signified attention; upon which Mr. Pole became immediately absorbed in profound thought.
"Singular it is, you know," he said at last, with a candid air, "people who know nothing about business have the oddest ideas--no common sense in "em!"
After that he fell dead silent.
Wilfrid knew that it would be hard for him to speak. To encourage him, he said: "You mean Mrs. Chump, sir?"
"Oh! silly woman--absurd! No, I mean all of you; every man Jack, as Martha"d say. You seem to think--but, well! there! let"s go to bed."
"To bed?" cried Wilfrid, frowning.
"Why, when it"s two or three o"clock in the morning, what"s an old fellow to do? My feet are cold, and I"m queer in the back--can"t talk!
Light my candle, young gentleman--my candle there, don"t you see it? And you look none of the freshest. A nap on your pillow"ll do you no harm."
"I wanted to talk to you a little, sir," said Wilfrid, about as much perplexed as he was irritated.
"Now, no talk of bankers" books to-night!" rejoined his father. "I can"t and won"t. No cheques written "tween night and morning. That"s positive.
There! there"s two fingers. Shall have three to-morrow morning--a pen in "em, perhaps."
With which wretched pleasantry the little merchant nodded to his son, and s.n.a.t.c.hing up his candle, trotted to the door.
"By the way, give a look round my room upstairs, to see all right when you"re going to turn in yourself," he said, before disappearing.
The two fingers given him by his father to shake at parting, had told Wilfrid more than the words. And yet how small were these troubles around him compared with what he himself was suffering! He looked forward to the bittersweet hour verging upon dawn, when he should be writing to Emilia things to melt the vilest obduracy. The excitement which had greeted him on his arrival at Brookfield was to be thanked for its having made him partially forget his humiliation. He had, of course, sufficient rational feeling to be chagrined by calamity, but his dominant pa.s.sion sucked sustaining juices from every pa.s.sing event.
In obedience to his father"s request, Wilfrid went presently into the old man"s bedroom, to see that all was right. The curtains of the bed were drawn close, and the fire in the grate burnt steadily. Calm sleep seemed to fill the chamber. Wilfrid was retiring, with a revived anger at his father"s want of natural confidence in him, or cowardly secresy.
His name was called, and he stopped short.
"Yes, sir?" he said.
"Door"s shut?"