Such were the eagles that gathered round the carca.s.s of George Hawker; and at last these eagles began to bring the hen-birds with them, who frightened our poor little dove with the amplitude and splendour of their feathers, and their harsh, strange notes. George knew the character of those women well enough, but already he cared little enough about his wife, even before they had been a month married, going on the principle that the sooner she learned to take care of herself, the better for her; and after they had been married little more than a month, Mary thought she began to see a change in her husband"s behaviour to her.
He grew sullen and morose, even to her. Every day almost he would come to her with a scowl upon his face; and when she asked if he was angry with her, would say, "No, that he wasn"t angry with her; but that things were going wrong--altogether wrong; and if they didn"t mend, he couldn"t see his way out of it at all."
But one night he came home cheerful and hilarious, though rather the worse for liquor. He showed her a roll of notes which he had won at roulette--over a hundred pounds--and added, "That shall be the game for me in future, Polly; all square and above-board there."
"My dear George, I wish you"d give up gambling."
"So I will, some of these fine days, my dear. I only do it to pa.s.s the time. It"s cursed dull having nothing to do."
"To-morrow is the great day at the races, George. I wish you would take me; I never saw a horserace."
"Ay, to be sure," said he; "we"ll go, and, what"s more, we"ll go alone.
I won"t have you seen in public with those dowdy drabs."
So they went alone. Such a glorious day as it was--the last happy day she spent for very long! How delightful it was, all this rush and crush, and shouting and hubbub around, while you were seated in a phaeton, secure above the turmoil! What delight to see all the beautiful women in the carriages, and, grandest sight of all, which struck awe and admiration into Mary"s heart, was the great Prince himself, that n.o.ble gentleman, in a gutter-sided hat, and a wig so fearfully natural that Mary secretly longed to pull his hair.
But princes and d.u.c.h.esses were alike forgotten when the course was cleared for the great event of the day, and, one by one, the sleek beauties came floating along, above the crowd, towards the starting-post. Then George, leaving Mary in the phaeton to the care of their landlady, pushed his way among the crowd, and, by dint of hard squeezing, got against the rail. He had never seen such horses as these; he had never known what first-cla.s.s horse-racing was. Here was a new pa.s.sion for him, which, like all his others, should only by its perversion end in his ruin.
He had got some money on one of the horses, though he, of course, had never seen it. There was a cheer all along the line, and a dark bay fled past towards the starting-post, seeming rather to belong to the air than the ground. "By George," he said, aloud, as the blood mounted to his face, and tingled in his ears, "I never saw such a sight as that before."
He was ashamed of having spoken aloud in his excitement, but a groom who stood by said, for his consolation,--
"I don"t suppose you ever did, sir, nor no man else. That"s young Velocipede, and that"s Chiffney a-ridin" him. You"ll see that horse walk over for everything next year."
But now the horses came down, five of them abreast; at a walk, amid a dead silence from the crowd, three of them, steady old stagers, but two jumping and pulling. "Back, Velocipede; back, Lara!" says the starter; down goes the flag, they dart away, and then there is a low hum of conversation, until a murmur is heard down the course, which swells into a roar as you notice it. The horses are coming. One of the royal huntsmen gallops by, and then, as the noise comes up towards you, you can hear the maddening rush of the horses" feet upon the turf, and, at the same time, a bay and a chestnut rush past in the last fierce struggle, and no man knows yet who has won.
Then the crowd poured once more over the turf, and surged and cheered round the winning horses. Soon it came out that Velocipede had won, and George, turning round delighted, stood face to face with a gipsy woman.
She had her hood low on her head, so that he could not see her face, but she said, in a low voice, "Let me tell your fortune."
"It is told already, mother," said George. "Velocipede has won; you won"t tell me any better news than that this day, I know."
"No, George Hawker, I shan"t," replied the gipsy, and, raising her hood for an instant, she discovered to his utter amazement the familiar countenance of Madge.
"Will you let me tell your fortune now, my boy?" she said.
"What, Madge, old girl! By Jove, you shall. Well, who"d a" thought of seeing you here?"
"I"ve been following you, and looking for you ever so long," she said.
"They at the Nag"s Head didn"t know where you were gone, and if I hadn"t been a gipsy, and o" good family, I"d never have found you."
"You"re a good old woman," he said. "I suppose you"ve some news for me?"
"I have," she answered; "come away after me."
He followed her into a booth, and they sat down. She began the conversation.
"Are you married?" she asked.
"Ay; a month since."
"And you"ve got her money?"
"Yes," he said; "but I"ve been walking into it."
"Make the most of it," said Madge. "Your father"s dead."
"Dead!"
"Ay, dead. And, what"s worse, lad, he lived long enough to alter his will."
"Oh, Lord! What do you mean?"
"I mean," she said, "that he has left all his money to your cousin. He found out everything, all in a minute, as it were; and he brought a new will home from Exeter, and I witnessed it. And he turned me out of doors, and, next morning, after I was gone, he was found dead in his bed. I got to London, and found no trace of you there, till, by an accident, I heard that you had been seen down here, so I came on. I"ve got my living by casting fortins, and begging, and cadging, and such like. Sometime I"ve slept in a barn, and sometime in a hedge, but I"ve fought my way to you, true and faithful, through it all, you see."
"So he"s gone," said George, between his teeth, "and his money with him. That"s awful. What an unnatural old villain!"
"He got it into his head at last, George, that you weren"t his son at all."
"The lunatic!--and what put that into his head?"
"He knew you weren"t his wife"s son, you see, and he had heard some stories about me before I came to live with him, and so, at the last, he took to saying he"d nought to do with you."
"Then you mean to say----"
"That you are my boy," she said, "my own boy. Why, lad, who but thy own mother would a" done for thee what I have? And thou never thinking of it all these years! Blind lad!"
"Good G.o.d!" said George. "And if I had only known that before, how differently I"d have gone on. How I"d have sneaked and truckled, and fetched and carried for him! Bah, it"s enough to drive one mad. All this hide-and-seek work don"t pay, old woman. You and I are bowled out with it. How easy for you to have given me a hint of this years ago, to make me careful! But you delight in mystery and conglomeration, and you always will. There--I ain"t ungrateful, but when I think of what we"ve lost, no wonder I get wild. And what the devil am I to do now?"
"You"ve got the girl"s money to go on with," she said.
"Not so very much of it," he replied. "I tell you I"ve been playing like--never mind what, this last month, and I"ve lost every night. Then I"ve got another woman in tow, that costs--oh curse her, what don"t she cost, what with money and bother?--In short, if I don"t get something from somewhere, in a few months I shall be in Queer Street. What chance is there of the parson"s dying?"
"It don"t matter much to you when he dies, I expect," said she, "for you may depend that those that"s got hold of him won"t let his money come into your hands. He"s altered his will, you may depend on it."
"Do you really think so?"
"I should think it more probable than not. You see that old matter with the Bank is known all over the country, although they don"t seem inclined to push it against you, for some reason. Yet it"s hardly likely that the Vicar would let his money go to a man who couldn"t be seen for fear of a rope."
"You"re a raven, old woman," he said. "What am I to do?"
"Give up play, to begin with."
"Well?"
"Start some business with what"s left."
"Ha, ha! Well, I"ll think of it. You must want some money, old girl!
Here"s a fipunnote."