"Dearest, kindest Mrs. Pendennis," Lady Clara wrote, with many italics, and evidently in much distress of mind. "Your visit is not to be.
I spoke about it to Sir B., who arrived this afternoon, and who has already begun to treat me in his usual way. Oh, I am so unhappy! Pray, pray do not be angry at this rudeness--though indeed it is only a kindness to keep you from this wretched place! I feel as if I cannot bear this much longer. But, whatever happens, I shall always remember your goodness, your beautiful goodness and kindness; and shall worship you as an angel deserves to be worshipped. Oh, why had I not such a friend earlier! But alas! I have none--only this odious family thrust upon me for companions to the wretched, lonely, C. N.
"P.S.--He does not know of my writing. Do not be surprised if you get another note from me in the morning, written in a ceremonious style and regretting that we cannot have the pleasure of receiving Mr. and Mrs.
Pendennis for the present at Newcome.
"P.S.--The hypocrite!"
This letter was handed to my wife at dinner-time, and she gave it to me as she pa.s.sed out of the room with the other ladies.
I told Florac that the Newcomes could not receive us, and that we would remain, if he willed it, his guests for a little longer. The kind fellow was only too glad to keep us. "My wife would die without Bebi," he said.
"She becomes quite dangerous about Bebi." It was gratifying that the good old lady was not to be parted as yet from the innocent object of her love.
My host knew as well as I the terms upon which Sir Barnes and his wife were living. Their quarrels were the talk of the whole county; one side brought forward his treatment of her, and his conduct elsewhere, and said that he was so bad that honest people should not know him. The other party laid the blame upon her, and declared that Lady Clara was a languid, silly, weak, frivolous creature; always crying out of season; who had notoriously taken Sir Barnes for his money and who as certainly had had an attachment elsewhere. Yes, the accusations were true on both sides. A bad, selfish husband had married a woman for her rank: a weak, thoughtless girl had been sold to a man for his money; and the union, which might have ended in a complete indifference, had taken an ill turn and resulted in misery, cruelty, fierce mutual recriminations, bitter tears shed in private, husband"s curses and maledictions, and open scenes of wrath and violence for servants to witness and the world to sneer at. We arrange such matches every day; we sell or buy beauty, or rank, or wealth; we inaugurate the bargain in churches with sacramental services, in which the parties engaged call upon Heaven to witness their vows--we know them to be lies, and we seal them with G.o.d"s name. "I, Barnes, promise to take you, Clara, to love and honour till death do us part" "I Clara, promise to take you, Barnes," etc, etc. Who has not heard the ancient words; and how many of us have uttered them, knowing them to be untrue: and is there a bishop on the bench that has not amen"d the humbug in his lawn sleeves and called a blessing over the kneeling perjurers?
"Does Mr. Harris know of Newcome"s return?" Florac asked, when I acquainted him with this intelligence. "Ce scelerat de Highgate--Va!"
"Does Newcome know that Lord Highgate is here?" I thought within myself, admiring my wife"s faithfulness and simplicity, and trying to believe with that pure and guileless creature that it was not yet too late to save the unhappy Lady Clara.
"Mr. Harris had best be warned," I said to Florac; "will you write him a word, and let us send a messenger to Newcome?"
At first Florac said, "Parbleu! No;" the affair was none of his, he attended himself always to this result of Lady Clara"s marriage. He had even complimented Jack upon it years before at Baden, when scenes enough tragic, enough comical, ma foi, had taken place apropos of this affair.
Why should he meddle with it now?
"Children dishonoured," said I, "honest families made miserable; for Heaven"s sake, Florac, let us stay this catastrophe if we can." I spoke with much warmth, eagerly desirous to avert this calamity if possible, and very strongly moved by the tale which I had heard only just before dinner from that n.o.ble and innocent creature, whose pure heart had already prompted her to plead the cause of right and truth, and to try and rescue an unhappy desperate sister trembling on the verge of ruin.
"If you will not write to him," said I, in some heat, "if your grooms don"t like to go out of a night" (this was one of the objections which Florac had raised), "I will walk." We were talking over the affair rather late in the evening, the ladies having retreated to their sleeping apartments, and some guests having taken leave, whom our hospitable host and hostess had entertained that night, and before whom I naturally did not care to speak upon a subject so dangerous.
"Parbleu, what virtue, my friend! what a Joseph!" cries Florac, puffing his cigar. "One sees well that your wife had made you the sermon. My poor Pendennis! You are henpecked, my pauvre bon! You become the husband model. It is true my mother writes that thy wife is an angel!"
"I do not object to obey such a woman when she bids me do right," I said; and would indeed at that woman"s request have gone out upon the errand, but that we here found another messenger. On days when dinner-parties were held at Rosebury, certain auxiliary waiters used to attend from Newcome whom the landlord of the King"s Arms was accustomed to supply; indeed, it was to secure these, and make other necessary arrangements respecting fish, game, etc., that the Prince de Moncontour had ridden over to Newcome on the day when we met Lord Highgate, alias Mr. Harris, before the bar of the hotel. Whilst we were engaged in the above conversation a servant enters, and says, "My lord, Jenkins and the other man is going back to Newcome in their cart, and is there anything wanted?"
"It is the Heaven which sends him," says Florac, turning round to me with a laugh; "make Jenkins to wait five minutes, Robert; I have to write to a gentleman at the King"s Arms." And so saying, Florac wrote a line which he showed me, and having sealed the note, directed it to Mr.
Harris at the King"s Arms. The cart, the note, and the a.s.sistant waiters departed on their way to Newcome. Florac bade me go to rest with a clear conscience. In truth, the warning was better given in that way than any other, and a word from Florac was more likely to be effectual than an expostulation from me. I had never thought of making it, perhaps; except at the expressed desire of a lady whose counsel in all the difficult circ.u.mstances of life I own I am disposed to take.
Mr. Jenkins"s horse no doubt trotted at a very brisk pace, as gentlemen"s horses will of a frosty night, after their masters have been regaled with plentiful supplies of wine and ale. I remember in my bachelor days that my horses always trotted quicker after I had had a good dinner; the champagne used to communicate itself to them somehow, and the claret get into their heels. Before midnight the letter for Mr.
Harris was in Mr. Harris"s hands in the King"s Arms.
It has been said that in the Boscawen Room at the Arms, some of the jolly fellows of Newcome had a club, of which Parrot the auctioneer, Tom Potts the talented reporter, now editor of the Independent, Vidler the apothecary, and other gentlemen, were members.
When we first had occasion to mention that society, it was at an early stage of this history, long before Clive Newcome"s fine moustache had grown. If Vidler the apothecary was old and infirm then, he is near ten years older now; he has had various a.s.sistants, of course, and one of them of late years had his become his partner, though the firm continues to be known by Viller"s ancient and respectable name. A jovial fellow was this partner--a capital convivial member of the Jolly Britons, where he used to sit very late, so as to be in readiness for any night-work that might come in.
So the Britons were all sitting, smoking, drinking, and making merry, in the Boscawen Room, when Jenkins enters with a note, which he straightway delivers to Mr. Vidler"s partner. "From Rosebury? The Princess ill again, I suppose," says the surgeon, not sorry to let the company know that he attends her. "I wish the old girl would be ill in the daytime.
Confound it," says he, "what"s this----" and he reads out, ""Sir Newcome est de retour. Bon voyage, mon ami.--F." What does this mean?"
"I thought you knew French, Jack Harris," says Tom Potts; "you"re always bothering us with your French songs."
"Of course I know French," says the other; "but what"s the meaning of this?"
"Screwcome came back by the five o"clock train. I was in it, and his royal highness would scarcely speak to me. Took Brown"s fly from the station. Brown won"t enrich his family much by the operation," says Mr.
Potts.
"But what do I care?" cries Jack Harris; "we don"t attend him, and we don"t lose much by that. Howell attends him, ever since Vidler and he had that row."
"Hulloh! I say, it"s a mistake," cries Mr. Taplow, smoking in his chair.
"This letter is for the party in the Benbow. The gent which the Prince spoke to him, and called him Jack the other day when he was here. Here"s a nice business, and the seal broke, and all. Is the Benbow party gone to bed? John, you must carry him in this here note." John, quite innocent of the note and its contents, for he that moment had entered the clubroom with Mr. Potts"s supper, took the note to the Benbow, from which he presently returned to his master with a very scared countenance. He said the gent in the Benbow was a most harbitrary gent.
He had almost choked John after reading the letter, and John wouldn"t stand it; and when John said he supposed that Mr. Harris in the Boscawen--that Mr. Jack Harris, had opened the letter, the other gent cursed and swore awful.
"Potts," said Taplow, who was only too communicative on some occasions after he had imbibed too much of his own brandy-and-water, "it"s my belief that that party"s name is no more Harris than mine is. I have sent his linen to the wash, and there was two white pocket-handkerchiefs with H. and a coronet."
On the next day we drove over to Newcome, hoping perhaps to find that Lord Highgate had taken the warning sent to him and quitted the place.
But we were disappointed. He was walking in front of the hotel, where a thousand persons might see him as well as ourselves.
We entered into his private apartment with him, and there expostulated upon his appearance in the public street, where Barnes Newcome or any pa.s.ser-by might recognise him. He then told us of the mishap which had befallen Florac"s letter on the previous night.
"I can"t go away now, whatever might have happened previously: by this time that villain knows that I am here. If I go, he will say I was afraid of him, and ran away. Oh, how I wish he would come and find me!"
He broke out with a savage laugh.
"It is best to run away," one of us interposed sadly.
"Pendennis," he said with a tone of great softness, "your wife is a good woman. G.o.d bless her! G.o.d bless her for all she has said and done--would have done, if that villain had let her! Do you know the poor thing hasn"t a single friend in the world, not one, one--except me, and that girl they are selling to Farintosh, and who does not count for much. He has driven away all her friends from her: one and all turn upon her. Her relations, of course; when did they ever fail to hit a poor fellow or a poor girl when she was down? The poor angel! The mother who sold her comes and preaches at her; Kew"s wife turns up her little cursed nose and scorns her; Rooster, forsooth, must ride high the horse, now he is married and lives at Chanticlere, and give her warning to avoid my company or his! Do you know the only friend she ever had was that old woman with the stick--old Kew; the old witch whom they buried four months ago after n.o.bbling her money for the beauty of the family? She used to protect her--that old woman; heaven bless her for it, wherever she is now, the old hag--a good word won"t do her any harm. Ha! ha!" His laughter was cruel to hear.
"Why did I come down?" he continued in reply to our sad queries. "Why did I come down, do you ask? Because she was wretched, and sent for me.
Because if I was at the end of the world, and she was to say, "Jack, come!" I"d come."
"And if she bade you go?" asked his friends.
"I would go; and I have gone. If she told me to jump into the sea, do you think I would not do it? But I go; and when she is alone with him, do you know what he does? He strikes her. Strikes that poor little thing! He has owned to it. She fled from him and sheltered with the old woman who"s dead. He may be doing it now. Why did I ever shake hands with him? that"s humiliation sufficient, isn"t it? But she wished it; and I"d black his boots, curse him, if she told me. And because he wanted to keep my money in his confounded bank; and because he knew he might rely upon my honour and hers, poor dear child, he chooses to shake hands with me--me, whom he hates worse than a thousand devils--and quite right too. Why isn"t there a place where we can go and meet, like man to man, and have it over! If I had a ball through my brains I shouldn"t mind, I tell you. I"ve a mind to do it for myself, Pendennis. You don"t understand me, Viscount."
"Il est vrai," said Florac, with a shrug, "I comprehend neither the suicide nor the chaise-de-poste. What will you? I am not yet enough English, my friend. We make marriages of convenance in our country, que diable, and what follows follows; but no scandal afterwards! Do not adopt our inst.i.tutions a demi, my friend. Vous ne me comprenez pas non plus, men pauvre Jack!"
"There is one way still, I think," said the third of the speakers in this scene. "Let Lord Highgate come to Rosebury in his own name, leaving that of Mr. Harris behind him. If Sir Barnes Newcome wants you, he can seek you there. If you will go, as go you should, and G.o.d speed you, you can go, and in your own name, too."
"Parbleu, c"est ca," cries Florac, "he speaks like a book--the romancier!" I confess, for my part, I thought that a good woman might plead with him, and touch that manly not disloyal heart now trembling on the awful balance between evil and good.
"Allons! let us make to come the drague!" cries Florac. "Jack, thou returnest with us, my friend! Madame Pendennis, an angel, my friend, a quakre the most charming, shall roucoule to thee the sweetest sermons.
My wife shall tend thee like a mother--a grandmother. Go make thy packet!"
Lord Highgate was very much pleased and relieved seemingly. He shook our hands, he said he should never forget our kindness, never! In truth, the didactic part of our conversation was carried on at much greater length than as here noted down: and he would come that evening, but not with us, thank you; he had a particular engagement, some letters he must write. Those done, he would not fail us, and would be at Rosebury by dinner-time.
CHAPTER LVIII. "One more Unfortunate"
The Fates did not ordain that the plan should succeed which Lord Highgate"s friends had devised for Lady Clara"s rescue or respite. He was bent upon one more interview with the unfortunate lady; and in that meeting the future destiny of their luckless lives was decided. On the morning of his return home, Barnes Newcome had information that Lord Highgate, under a feigned name, had been staying in the neighbourhood of his house, and had repeatedly been seen in the company of Lady Clara.
She may have gone out to meet him but for one hour more. She had taken no leave of her children on the day when she left her home, and, far from making preparations for her own departure, had been engaged in getting the house ready for the reception of members of the family, whose arrival her husband announced as speedily to follow his own. Ethel and Lady Anne and some of the children were coming. Lord Farintosh"s mother and sisters were to follow. It was to be a reunion previous to the marriage which was closer to unite the two families. Lady Clara said Yes to her husband"s orders; rose mechanically to obey his wishes and arrange for the reception of the guests; and spoke tremblingly to the housekeeper as her husband gibed at her. The little ones had been consigned to bed early and before Sir Barnes"s arrival. He did not think fit to see them in their sleep; nor did their mother. She did not know, as the poor little creatures left her room in charge of their nurses, that she looked on them for the last time. Perhaps, had she gone to their bedsides that evening, had the wretched panic-stricken soul been allowed leisure to pause, and to think, and to pray, the fate of the morrow might have been otherwise, and the trembling balance of the scale have inclined to right"s side. But the pause was not allowed her. Her husband came and saluted her with his accustomed greetings of scorn, and sarcasm, and brutal insult. On a future day he never dared to call a servant of his household to testify to his treatment of her; though many were ready to attend to prove his cruelty and her terror. On that very last night, Lady Clara"s maid, a country girl from her father"s house at Chanticlere, told Sir Barnes in the midst of a conjugal dispute that her lady might bear his conduct but she could not, and that she would no longer live under the roof of such a brute. The girl"s interference was not likely to benefit her mistress much: the wretched Lady Clara pa.s.sed the last night under the roof of her husband and children, unattended save by this poor domestic who was about to leave her, in tears and hysterical outcries, and then in moaning stupor. Lady Clara put to sleep with laudanum, her maid carried down the story of her wrongs to the servants" quarters; and half a dozen of them took in their resignation to Sir Barnes as he sat over his breakfast the next morning--in his ancestral hall--surrounded by the portraits of his august forefathers--in his happy home.