"Then I do not understand," Mr. Thoma.s.son answered in his most dignified tone. "Are you aware that the woman is in the position of a college servant, inhabiting a cottage the property of the college? And liable to be turned out at the college will?"
"It may be so," said the attorney.
"Then, if you please, what is the meaning of her absence when requested by one of the Fellows of the college to attend?"
"I am here to represent her," said Mr. Fishwick.
"Represent her! Represent a college laundress! Pooh! I never heard of such a thing."
"But, sir, I am her legal adviser, and--"
"Legal adviser!" Mr. Thoma.s.son retorted, turning purple--he was really puzzled. "A bedmaker with a legal adviser! It"s the height of impudence!
Begone, sir, and take it from me, that the best advice you can give her is to attend me within the hour."
Mr. Fishwick looked rather blue. "If it has nothing to do with her property," he said reluctantly, and as if he had gone too far.
"Property!" said Mr. Thoma.s.son, gasping.
"Or her affairs."
"Affairs!" the tutor cried. "I never heard of a bedmaker having affairs."
"Well," said the lawyer doggedly, and with the air of a man goaded into telling what he wished to conceal, "she is leaving Oxford. That is the fact."
"Oh!" said Mr. Thoma.s.son, falling on a sudden into the minor key. "And her daughter?"
"And her daughter."
"That is unfortunate," the tutor answered, thoughtfully rubbing his hands. "The truth is--the girl proved so good a nurse in the case of my n.o.ble friend who was injured the other day--my lord Viscount Dunborough"s son, a most valuable life--that since she absented herself, he has not made the same progress. And as I am responsible for him--"
"She should never have attended him!" the attorney answered with unexpected sharpness.
"Indeed! And why not, may I ask?" the tutor inquired.
Mr. Fishwick did not answer the question. Instead, "She would not have gone to him in the first instance," he said, "but that she was under a misapprehension."
"A misapprehension?"
"She thought that the duel lay at her door," the attorney answered; "and in that belief was impelled to do what she could to undo the consequences. Romantic, but a most improper step!"
"Improper!" said the tutor, much ruffled. "And why, sir?"
"Most improper," the attorney repeated in a dry, business-like tone. "I am instructed that the gentleman had for weeks past paid her attentions which, his station considered, could scarcely be honourable, and of which she had more than once expressed her dislike. Under those circ.u.mstances, to expose her to his suit--but no more need be said," the attorney added, breaking off and taking a pinch of snuff with great enjoyment, "as she is leaving the city."
Mr. Thoma.s.son had much ado to mask his chagrin under a show of contemptuous incredulity. "The wench has too fine a conceit of herself!"
he blurted out. "Hark you, sir--this is a fable! I wonder you dare to put it about. A gentleman of the station of my lord Dunborough"s son does not condescend to the gutter!"
"I will convey the remark to my client," said the attorney, bristling all over.
"Client!" Mr. Thoma.s.son retorted, trembling with rage--for he saw the advantage he had given the enemy. "Since when had laundry maids lawyers?
Client! Pho! Begone, sir! You are abusive. I"ll have you looked up on the rolls. I"ll have your name taken!"
"I would not talk of names if I were you," cried Mr. Fishwick, reddening in his turn with rage. "Men give a name to what you are doing this morning, and it is not a pleasant one. It is to be hoped, sir, that Mr.
Dunborough pays you well for your services!"
"You--insolent rascal!" the tutor stammered, losing in a moment all his dignity and becoming a pale flabby man, with the spite and the terror of crime in his face. "You--begone! Begone, sir."
"Willingly," said the attorney, swelling with defiance. "You may tell your princ.i.p.al that when he means marriage, he may come to us. Not before. I take my leave, sir. Good morning." And with that he strutted out and marched slowly and majestically down the stairs.
He bore off the honours of war. Mr. Thoma.s.son, left among his t.i.tian copies, his gleaming Venuses, and velvet curtains, was a sorry thing.
The man who preserves a cloak of outward decency has always this vulnerable spot; strip him, and he sees himself as others see or may see him, and views his ugliness with griping qualms. Mr. Thoma.s.son bore the exposure awhile, sitting white and shaking in a chair, seeing himself and seeing the end, and, like the devils, believing and trembling. Then he rose and staggered to a little cupboard, the door of which was adorned with a pretty Greek motto, and a hovering Cupid painted in a blue sky; whence he filled himself a gla.s.s of cordial. A second gla.s.s followed; this restored the colour to his cheeks and the brightness to his eyes. He shivered; then smacked his lips and began to reflect what face he should put upon it when he went to report to his pupil.
In deciding that point he made a mistake. Unluckily for himself and others, in the version which he chose he was careful to include all matters likely to arouse Dunborough"s resentment; in particular he laid malicious stress upon the attorney"s scornful words about a marriage.
This, however--and perhaps the care he took to repeat it--had an unlooked-for result. Mr. Dunborough began by cursing the rogue"s impudence, and did it with all the heat his best friend could desire.
But, being confined to his room, haunted by the vision of his flame, yet debarred from any attempt to see her, his mood presently changed; his heart became as water, and he fell into a maudlin state about her.
Dwelling constantly on memories of his Briseis--whose name, by the way, was Julia--having her shape and complexion, her gentle touch and her smile, always in his mind, while he was unable in the body to see so much as the hem of her gown, Achilles grew weaker in will as he grew stronger in body. Headstrong and reckless by nature, unaccustomed to thwart a desire or deny himself a gratification, Mr. Dunborough began to contemplate paying even the last price for her; and one day, about three weeks after the duel, dropped a word which frightened Mr. Thoma.s.son.
He was well enough by this time to be up, and was looking through one window while the tutor lounged in the seat of another. On a sudden "Lord!" said he, with a laugh that broke off short in the middle. "What was the queer catch that fellow sang last night? About a bailiff"s daughter. Well, why not a porter"s daughter?"
"Because you are neither young enough, nor old enough, nor mad enough!"
said Mr. Thoma.s.son cynically, supposing the other meant nothing.
"It is she that would be mad," the young gentleman answered, with a grim chuckle. "I should take it out of her sooner or later. And, after all, she is as good as Lady Macclesfield or Lady Falmouth! As good? She is better, the saucy baggage! By the Lord, I have a good mind to do it!"
Mr. Thoma.s.son sat dumbfounded. At length, "You are jesting! You cannot mean it," he said.
"If it is marriage or nothing--and, hang her, she is as cold as a church pillar--I do mean it," the gentleman answered viciously; "and so would you if you were not an old insensible sinner! Think of her ankle, man!
Think of her waist! I never saw a waist to compare with it! Even in the Havanna! She is a pearl! She is a jewel! She is incomparable!"
"And a porter"s daughter!"
"Faugh, I don"t believe it." And he took his oath on the point.
"You make me sick!" Mr. Thoma.s.son said; and meant it. Then, "My dear friend, I see how it is," he continued. "You have the fever on you still, or you would not dream of such things."
"But I do dream of her--every night, confound her!" Mr. Dunborough said; and he groaned like a love-sick boy. "Oh, hang it, Tommy," he continued plaintively, "she has a kind of look in her eyes when she is pleased--that makes you think of dewy mornings when you were a boy and went fishing."
"It _is_ the fever!" Mr. Thoma.s.son said, with conviction. "It is heavy on him still." Then, more seriously, "My very dear sir," he continued, "do you know that if you had your will you would be miserable within the week. Remember--
""Tis tumult, disorder, "tis loathing and hate; Caprice gives it birth, and contempt is its fate!"
"Gad, Tommy!" said Mr. Dunborough, aghast with admiration at the aptness of the lines. "That is uncommon clever of you! But I shall do it all the same," he continued, in a tone of melancholy foresight. "I know I shall.
I am a fool, a particular fool. But I shall do it. Marry in haste and repent at leisure!"
"A porter"s daughter become Lady Dunborough!" cried Mr. Thoma.s.son with scathing sarcasm.
"Oh yes, my tulip," Mr. Dunborough answered with gloomy meaning. "But there have been worse. I know what I know. See Collins"s Peerage, volume 4, page 242: "Married firstly Sarah, widow of Colonel John Clark, of Exeter, in the county of Devon"--all a hum, Tommy! If they had said spinster, of Bridewell, in the county of Middles.e.x, "twould have been as true! I know what I know."
After that Mr. Thoma.s.son went out of Magdalen, feeling that the world was turning round with him. If Dunborough were capable of such a step as this--Dunborough, who had seen life and service, and of whose past he knew a good deal--where was he to place dependence? How was he to trust even the worst of his acquaintances? The matter shook the pillars of the tutor"s house, and filled him with honest disgust.