The Way We Live Now III

THE WAY WE LIVE NOW

I could not tell you about Mrs. Hurtle till you had accepted me, and, as you yourself must know, I had had no opportunity to tell you anything afterwards till the story had reached your ears. I hardly know what I said the other day, I was so miserable at your accusation. But I suppose I said then, and I again declare now, that I had made up my mind that circumstances would not admit of her becoming my wife before I had ever seen you, and that I have certainly never wavered in my determination since I saw you. I can with safety refer to Roger as to this, because I was with him when I so determined, and made up my mind very much at his instance. This was before I had ever even met you.

If I understand it all right you are angry because I have associated with Mrs. Hurtle since I so determined. I am not going back to my first acquaintance with her now. You may blame me for that if you please, — though it cannot have been a fault against you. But, after what had occurred, was I to refuse to see her when she came to England to see me? I think that would have been cowardly. Of course I went to her. And when she was all alone here, without a single other friend, and telling me that she was unwell, and asking me to take her down to the seaside, was I to refuse? I think that that would have been unkind. It was a dreadful trouble to me. But of course I did it.

She asked me to renew my engagement. I am bound to tell you that, but I know in telling you that it will go no farther. I declined, telling her that it was my purpose to ask another woman to be my wife. Of course there has been anger and sorrow, — anger on her part and sorrow on mine. But there has been no doubt. And at last she yielded. As far as she was con-

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him about it. He had quarrelled with one man for saying that Melmotte was a rogue, and had confidentially told his most intimate friends that in spite of a little vulgarity of manner, Melmotte at bottom was a very good fellow. How was he now to back out of his intimacy with the Melmottes generally? He was engaged to marry the girl, and there was nothing of which he could accuse her. He acknowledged to himself that she deserved well at his hands. Though at this moment he hated the father most bitterly, as those odious words, and the tone in which they had been pronounced, rang in his ears, nevertheless he had some kindly feeling for the girl. Of course he could not marry her now. That was manifestly out of the question. She herself, as well as all others, had known that she was to be married for her money, and now that bubble had been burst. But he felt that he owed it to her, as to a comrade who had on the whole been loyal to him, to have some personal explanation with herself. He arranged in his own mind the sort of speech that he would make to her. “Of course you know it can’t be. It was all arranged because you were to have a lot of money, and now it turns out that you haven’t got any. And I haven’t got any, and we should have nothing to live upon. It’s out of the question. But, upon my word, I’m very sorry, for I like you very much, and I really think we should have got on uncommon well together.” That was the kind of speech that he suggested to himself, but he did not know how to find for himself the opportunity of making it. He thought that he must put it all into a letter. But then that would be tantamount to a written confession that he had made her an offer of marriage, and he feared that Melmotte, — or Madame Melmotte on his be-

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half, if the great man himself were absent, in prison, — might make an ungenerous use of such an admission.

Between seven and eight he went into the Beargarden, and there he saw Dolly Longestaffe and others. Everybody was talking about Melmotte, the prevailing belief being that he was at this moment in custody. Dolly was full of his own griefs; but consoled amidst them by a sense of his own importance. “I wonder whether it’s true,” he was saying to Lord Grasslough. “He has an appointment to meet me and my governor at twelve o’clock to-morrow, and to pay us what he owes us. He swore yesterday that he would have the money to-morrow. But he can’t keep his appointment, you know, if he’s in prison.”

“You won’t see the money, Dolly, you may swear to that,” said Grasslough.

“I don’t suppose I shall. By George, what an ass my governor has been. He had no more right than you have to give up the property. Here’s Nidderdale. He could tell us where he is; but I’m afraid to speak to him since he cut up so rough the other night.”

In a moment the conversation was stopped; but when Lord Grasslough asked Nidderdale in a whisper whether he knew anything about Melmotte, the latter answered out loud, “Yes; — I left him in the House half an hour ago.”

“People are saying that he has been arrested.”

“I heard that also; but he certainly had not been arrested when I left the House.” Then he went up and put his hand on Dolly Longestaffe’s shoulder, and spoke to him. “I suppose you were about right the other night and I was about wrong; but

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you could understand what it was that I meant. I’m afraid this is a bad look out for both of us.”

“Yes; — I understand. It’s deuced bad for me,” said Dolly. “I think you’re very well out of it. But I’m glad there’s not to be a quarrel. Suppose we have a rubber of whist.”

Later on in the night news was brought to the club that Melmotte had tried to make a speech in the House, that he had been very drunk, and that he had tumbled over, upsetting Beauchamp Beauclerk in his fall. “By George, I should like to have seen that!” said Dolly.

“I am very glad I was not there,” said Nidderdale. It was three o’clock before they left the card table, at which time Melmotte was lying dead upon the floor in Mr. Longestaffe’s house.

On the following morning, at ten o’clock, Lord Nidderdale sat at breakfast with his father in the old lord’s house in Berkeley Square. From thence the house which Melmotte had hired was not above a few hundred yards distant. At this time the young lord was living with his father, and the two had now met by appointment in order that something might be settled between them as to the proposed marriage. The Marquis was not a very pleasant companion when the affairs in which he was interested did not go exactly as he would have them. He could be very cross and say most disagreeable words, — so that the ladies of the family, and others connected with him, for the most part, found it impossible to live with him. But his eldest son had endured him; — partly perhaps because, being the eldest, he had been treated with a nearer approach to courtesy, but chiefly by means of his own extreme good humour. What did a few hard words matter? If his father was ungra-

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cious to him, of course he knew what all that meant. As long as his father would make fair allowance for his own peccadilloes, — he also would make allowances for his father’s roughness. All this was based on his grand theory of live and let live. He expected his father to be a little cross on this occasion, and he acknowledged to himself that there was cause for it.

He was a little late himself, and he found his father already buttering his toast. “I don’t believe you’d get out of bed a moment sooner than you liked if you could save the whole property by it.”

“You show me how I can make a guinea by it, sir, and see if I don’t earn the money.” Then he sat down and poured himself out a cup of tea, and looked at the kidneys and looked at the fish.

“I suppose you were drinking last night,” said the old lord. “Not particular.” The old man turned round and gnashed his teeth at him. “The fact is, sir, I don’t drink. Everybody

knows that.”

“I know when you’re in the country you can’t live without champagne. Well; — what have you got to say about all this?”

“What have you got to say?”

“You’ve made a pretty kettle of fish of it.”

“I’ve been guided by you in everything. Come, now; you ought to own that. I suppose the whole thing is over?”

“I don’t see why it should be over. I’m told she has got her own money.” Then Nidderdale described to his father Melmotte’s behaviour in the House on the preceding evening. “What the devil does that matter?” said the old man. “You’re not going to marry the man himself.”

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“I shouldn’t wonder if he’s in gaol now.”

“And what does that matter? She’s not in gaol. And if the money is hers, she can’t lose it because he goes to prison. Beggars mustn’t be choosers. How do you mean to live if you don’t marry this girl?”

“I shall scrape on, I suppose. I must look for somebody else.” The Marquis showed very plainly by his demeanour that he did not give his son much credit either for diligence or for ingenuity in making such a search. “At any rate, sir, I can’t marry the daughter of a man who is to be put upon his trial for forgery.”

“I can’t see what that has to do with you.”

“I couldn’t do it, sir. I’d do anything else to oblige you, but I couldn’t do that. And, moreover, I don’t believe in the money.”

“Then you may just go to the devil,” said the old Marquis turning himself round in his chair, and lighting a cigar as he took up the newspaper. Nidderdale went on with his breakfast with perfect equanimity, and when he had finished lighted his cigar. “They tell me,” said the old man, “that one of those Goldsheiner girls will have a lot of money.”

“A Jewess,” suggested Nidderdale. “What difference does that make?”

“Oh no; — not in the least; — if the money’s really there. Have you heard any sum named, sir?” The old man only grunted. “There are two sisters and two brothers. I don’t suppose the girls would have a hundred thousand each.”

“They say the widow of that brewer who died the other day has about twenty thousand a year.”

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“It’s only for her life, sir.”

“She could insure her life. D — — me, sir, we must do something. If you turn up your nose at one woman after another how do you mean to live?”

“I don’t think that a woman of forty with only a life interest would be a good speculation. Of course I’ll think of it if you press it.” The old man growled again. “You see, sir, I’ve been so much in earnest about this girl that I haven’t thought of inquiring about any one else. There always is some one up with a lot of money. It’s a pity there shouldn’t be a regular statement published with the amount of money, and what is expected in return. It ‘d save a deal of trouble.”

“If you can’t talk more seriously than that you’d better go away,” said the old Marquis.

At that moment a footman came into the room and told Lord Nidderdale that a man particularly wished to see him in the hall. He was not always anxious to see those who called on him, and he asked the servant whether he knew who the man was. “I believe, my lord, he’s one of the domestics from Mr. Melmotte’s in Bruton Street,” said the footman, who was no doubt fully acquainted with all the circumstances of Lord Nidderdale’s engagement. The son, who was still smoking, looked at his father as though in doubt. “You’d better go and see,” said the Marquis. But Nidderdale before he went asked a question as to what he had better do if Melmotte had sent for him. “Go and see Melmotte. Why should you be afraid to see him? Tell him that you are ready to marry the girl if you can see the money down, but that you won’t stir a step till it has been actually paid over.”

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“He knows that already,” said Nidderdale as he left the room.

In the hall he found a man whom he recognised as Melmotte’s butler, a ponderous, elderly, heavy man who now had a letter in his hand. But the lord could tell by the man’s face and manner that he himself had some story to tell. “Is there anything the matter?”

“Yes, my lord, — yes. Oh, dear, — oh, dear! I think you’ll be sorry to hear it. There was none who came there he seemed to take to so much as your lordship.”

“They’ve taken him to prison!” exclaimed Nidderdale. But the man shook his head. “What is it then? He can’t be dead.” Then the man nodded his head, and, putting his hand up to his face, burst into tears. “Mr. Melmotte dead! He was in the House of Commons last night. I saw him myself. How did he die?” But the fat, ponderous man was so affected by the tragedy he had witnessed, that he could not as yet give any account of the scene of his master’s death, but simply handed the note which he had in his hand to Lord Nidderdale. It was from Marie, and had been written within half an hour of the time at which news had been brought to her of what had occurred. The note was as follows: —

' / 1,

The man will tell you what has happened. I feel as though I was mad. I do not know who to send to. Will you come to me, only for a few minutes?

0.

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