第 130 页

comers.

After gazing at her in silence, Mrs Clennam turned to Rigaud. 'You

see and hear this foolish creature. Do you object to such a piece of

distraction remaining where she is?'

'I, madame,' he replied, 'do I? That's a question for you.'

'I do not,' she said, gloomily. 'There is little left to choose now.

Flintwinch, it is closing in.'

Mr Flintwinch replied by directing a look of red vengeance at his wife,

and then, as if to pinion himself from falling upon her, screwed his

crossed arms into the breast of his waistcoat, and with his chin very

near one of his elbows stood in a corner, watching Rigaud in the oddest

attitude. Rigaud, for his part, arose from his chair, and seated himself

on the table with his legs dangling. In this easy attitude, he met Mrs

Clennam's set face, with his moustache going up and his nose coming

down.

'Madame, I am a gentleman--'

'Of whom,' she interrupted in her steady tones, 'I have heard

disparagement, in connection with a French jail and an accusation of

murder.'

He kissed his hand to her with his exaggerated gallantry.

'Perfectly. Exactly. Of a lady too! What absurdity! How incredible! I

had the honour of making a great success then; I hope to have the

honour of making a great success now. I kiss your hands. Madame, I am a

gentleman (I was going to observe), who when he says, "I will definitely

finish this or that affair at the present sitting," does definitely

finish it. I announce to you that we are arrived at our last sitting on

our little business. You do me the favour to follow, and to comprehend?'

She kept her eyes fixed upon him with a frown. 'Yes.'

'Further, I am a gentleman to whom mere mercenary trade-bargains are

unknown, but to whom money is always acceptable as the means of pursuing

his pleasures. You do me the favour to follow, and to comprehend?'

'Scarcely necessary to ask, one would say. Yes.'

'Further, I am a gentleman of the softest and sweetest disposition,

but who, if trifled with, becomes enraged. Noble natures under such

circumstances become enraged. I possess a noble nature. When the lion

is awakened--that is to say, when I enrage--the satisfaction of my

animosity is as acceptable to me as money. You always do me the favour

to follow, and to comprehend?'

'Yes,' she answered, somewhat louder than before.

'Do not let me derange you; pray be tranquil. I have said we are now

arrived at our last sitting. Allow me to recall the two sittings we have

held.'

'It is not necessary.'

'Death, madame,' he burst out, 'it's my fancy! Besides, it clears the

way. The first sitting was limited. I had the honour of making your

acquaintance--of presenting my letter; I am a Knight of Industry, at

your service, madame, but my polished manners had won me so much of

success, as a master of languages, among your compatriots who are as

stiff as their own starch is to one another, but are ready to relax to

a foreign gentleman of polished manners--and of observing one or two

little things,' he glanced around the room and smiled, 'about this

honourable house, to know which was necessary to assure me, and

to convince me that I had the distinguished pleasure of making the

acquaintance of the lady I sought. I achieved this. I gave my word

of honour to our dear Flintwinch that I would return. I gracefully

departed.'

Her face neither acquiesced nor demurred. The same when he paused, and

when he spoke, it as yet showed him always the one attentive frown,

and the dark revelation before mentioned of her being nerved for the

occasion.

'I say, gracefully departed, because it was graceful to retire without

alarming a lady. To be morally graceful, not less than physically, is

a part of the character of Rigaud Blandois. It was also politic, as

leaving you with something overhanging you, to expect me again with a

little anxiety on a day not named. But your slave is politic. By Heaven,

madame, politic! Let us return. On the day not named, I have again the

honour to render myself at your house. I intimate that I have something

to sell, which, if not bought, will compromise madame whom I highly

esteem. I explain myself generally. I demand--I think it was a thousand

pounds. Will you correct me?'

Thus forced to speak, she replied with constraint, 'You demanded as much

as a thousand pounds.'

'I demand at present, Two. Such are the evils of delay. But to return

once more. We are not accordant; we differ on that occasion. I am

playful; playfulness is a part of my amiable character. Playfully, I

become as one slain and hidden. For, it may alone be worth half the sum

to madame, to be freed from the suspicions that my droll idea awakens.

Accident and spies intermix themselves against my playfulness, and spoil

the fruit, perhaps--who knows? only you and Flintwinch--when it is just

ripe. Thus, madame, I am here for the last time. Listen! Definitely the

last.'

As he struck his straggling boot-heels against the flap of the table,

meeting her frown with an insolent gaze, he began to change his tone for

a fierce one.

'Bah! Stop an instant! Let us advance by steps. Here is my Hotel-note to

be paid, according to contract. Five minutes hence we may be at daggers'

points. I'll not leave it till then, or you'll cheat me. Pay it! Count

me the money!'

'Take it from his hand and pay it, Flintwinch,' said Mrs Clennam.

He spirted it into Mr Flintwinch's face when the old man advanced to

take it, and held forth his hand, repeating noisily, 'Pay it! Count it

out! Good money!' Jeremiah picked the bill up, looked at the total with

a bloodshot eye, took a small canvas bag from his pocket, and told the

amount into his hand.

Rigaud chinked the money, weighed it in his hand, threw it up a little

way and caught it, chinked it again.

'The sound of it, to the bold Rigaud Blandois, is like the taste of

fresh meat to the tiger. Say, then, madame. How much?'

He turned upon her suddenly with a menacing gesture of the weighted hand

that clenched the money, as if he were going to strike her with it.

'I tell you again, as I told you before, that we are not rich here, as

you suppose us to be, and that your demand is excessive. I have not the

present means of complying with such a demand, if I had ever so great an

inclination.'

'If!' cried Rigaud. 'Hear this lady with her If! Will you say that you

have not the inclination?'

'I will say what presents itself to me, and not what presents itself to

you.'

'Say it then. As to the inclination. Quick! Come to the inclination, and

I know what to do.'

She was no quicker, and no slower, in her reply. 'It would seem that

you have obtained possession of a paper--or of papers--which I assuredly

have the inclination to recover.'

Rigaud, with a loud laugh, drummed his heels against the table, and

chinked his money. 'I think so! I believe you there!'

'The paper might be worth, to me, a sum of money. I cannot say how much,

or how little.'

'What the Devil!' he asked savagely.'Not after a week's grace to

consider?'

'No! I will not out of my scanty means--for I tell you again, we are

poor here, and not rich--I will not offer any price for a power that I

do not know the worst and the fullest extent of. This is the third time

of your hinting and threatening. You must speak explicitly, or you may

go where you will, and do what you will. It is better to be torn to

pieces at a spring, than to be a mouse at the caprice of such a cat.'

He looked at her so hard with those eyes too near together that the

sinister sight of each, crossing that of the other, seemed to make the

bridge of his hooked nose crooked. After a long survey, he said, with

the further setting off of his internal smile:

'You are a bold woman!'

'I am a resolved woman.'

'You always were. What? She always was; is it not so, my little

Flintwinch?'

'Flintwinch, say nothing to him. It is for him to say, here and now,

all he can; or to go hence, and do all he can. You know this to be our

determination. Leave him to his action on it.'

She did not shrink under his evil leer, or avoid it. He turned it upon

her again, but she remained steady at the point to which she had fixed

herself. He got off the table, placed a chair near the sofa, sat down in

it, and leaned an arm upon the sofa close to her own, which he touched

with his hand. Her face was ever frowning, attentive, and settled.

'It is your pleasure then, madame, that I shall relate a morsel of

family history in this little family society,' said Rigaud, with a

warning play of his lithe fingers on her arm. 'I am something of a

doctor. Let me touch your pulse.'

She suffered him to take her wrist in his hand. Holding it, he proceeded

to say:

'A history of a strange marriage, and a strange mother, and a revenge,

and a suppression.--Aye, aye, aye? this pulse is beating curiously!

It appears to me that it doubles while I touch it. Are these the usual

changes of your malady, madame?'

There was a struggle in her maimed arm as she twisted it away, but there

was none in her face. On his face there was his own smile.

'I have lived an adventurous life. I am an adventurous character. I have

known many adventurers; interesting spirits--amiable society! To one

of them I owe my knowledge and my proofs--I repeat it, estimable

lady--proofs--of the ravishing little family history I go to commence.

You will be charmed with it. But, bah! I forget. One should name a

history. Shall I name it the history of a house? But, bah, again. There

are so many houses. Shall I name it the history of this house?'

Leaning over the sofa, poised on two legs of his chair and his left

elbow; that hand often tapping her arm to beat his words home; his

legs crossed; his right hand sometimes arranging his hair, sometimes

smoothing his moustache, sometimes striking his nose, always threatening

her whatever it did; coarse, insolent, rapacious, cruel, and powerful,

he pursued his narrative at his ease.

'In fine, then, I name it the history of this house. I commence it.

There live here, let us suppose, an uncle and nephew. The uncle, a

rigid old gentleman of strong force of character; the nephew, habitually

timid, repressed, and under constraint.'

Mistress Affery, fixedly attentive in the window-seat, biting the

rolled up end of her apron, and trembling from head to foot, here cried

out,'Jeremiah, keep off from me! I've heerd, in my dreams, of Arthur's

father and his uncle. He's a talking of them. It was before my time

here; but I've heerd in my dreams that Arthur's father was a poor,

irresolute, frightened chap, who had had everything but his orphan life

scared out of him when he was young, and that he had no voice in the

choice of his wife even, but his uncle chose her. There she sits! I

heerd it in my dreams, and you said it to her own self.'

As Mr Flintwinch shook his fist at her, and as Mrs Clennam gazed upon

her, Rigaud kissed his hand to her. 'Perfectly right, dear Madame

Flintwinch. You have a genius for dreaming.'

'I don't want none of your praises,' returned Affery. 'I don't want to

have nothing at all to say to you. But Jeremiah said they was dreams,

and I'll tell 'em as such!' Here she put her apron in her mouth again,

as if she were stopping somebody else's mouth--perhaps jeremiah's, which

was chattering with threats as if he were grimly cold.

'Our beloved Madame Flintwinch,' said Rigaud, 'developing all of a

sudden a fine susceptibility and spirituality, is right to a marvel.

Yes. So runs the history. Monsieur, the uncle, commands the nephew to

marry. Monsieur says to him in effect, "My nephew, I introduce to you a

lady of strong force of character, like myself--a resolved lady, a stern

lady, a lady who has a will that can break the weak to powder: a lady

without pity, without love, implacable, revengeful, cold as the stone,

but raging as the fire."

Ah! what fortitude! Ah, what superiority of intellectual strength!

Truly, a proud and noble character that I describe in the supposed words

of Monsieur, the uncle. Ha, ha, ha! Death of my soul, I love the sweet

lady!'

Mrs Clennam's face had changed. There was a remarkable darkness of

colour on it, and the brow was more contracted. 'Madame, madame,' said

Rigaud, tapping her on the arm, as if his cruel hand were sounding a

musical instrument, 'I perceive I interest you. I perceive I awaken your

sympathy. Let us go on.'

The drooping nose and the ascending moustache had, however, to be hidden

for a moment with the white hand, before he could go on; he enjoyed the

effect he made so much.

'The nephew, being, as the lucid Madame Flintwinch has remarked, a poor

devil who has had everything but his orphan life frightened and famished

out of him--the nephew abases his head, and makes response: "My uncle,

it is to you to command. Do as you will!" Monsieur, the uncle, does as

he will. It is what he always does. The auspicious nuptials take place;

the newly married come home to this charming mansion; the lady is

received, let us suppose, by Flintwinch. Hey, old intriguer?'

Jeremiah, with his eyes upon his mistress, made no reply. Rigaud looked

from one to the other, struck his ugly nose, and made a clucking with

his tongue.

'Soon the lady makes a singular and exciting discovery. Thereupon,

full of anger, full of jealousy, full of vengeance, she forms--see you,

madame!--a scheme of retribution, the weight of which she ingeniously

forces her crushed husband to bear himself, as well as execute upon her