In this way Raffles had pushed the torture too far, and produced aneffect which had not been in his plan. By showing himself hopelesslyunmanageable he had made Bulstrode feel that a strong defiance was theonly resource left. After taking Raffles to bed that night the bankerordered his closed carriage to be ready at half-past seven the nextmorning. At six o'clock he had already been long dressed, and had spentsome of his wretchedness in prayer, pleading his motives for averting theworst evil if in anything he had used falsity and spoken what was nottrue before God. For Bulstrode shrank from a direct lie with an intensitydisproportionate to the number of his more indirect misdeeds. But manyof these misdeeds were like the subtle muscular movements which arenot taken account of in the consciousness, though they bring about theend that we fix our mind on and desire. And it is only what we arevividly conscious of that we can vividly imagine to be seen byOmniscience.
Bulstrode carried his candle to the bedside of Raffles, who wasapparently in a painful dream. He stood silent, hoping that the presenceof the light would serve to waken the sleeper gradually and gently, for hefeared some noise as the consequence of a too sudden awakening. Hehad watched for a couple of minutes or more the shudderings andpantings which seemed likely to end in waking, when Raffles, with along half-stifled moan, started up and stared round him in terror,trembling and gasping. But he made no further noise, and Bulstrode,setting down the candle, awaited his recovery.
It was a quarter of an hour later before Bulstrode, with a coldperemptoriness of manner which he had not before shown, said, "I cameto call you thus early, Mr. Raffles, because I have ordered the carriage tobe ready at half-past seven, and intend myself to conduct you as far asIlsely, where you can either take the railway or await a coach." Raffleswas about to speak, but Bulstrode anticipated him imperiously with thewords, "Be silent, sir, and hear what I have to say. I shall supply youwith money now, and I will furnish you with a reasonable sum from timeto time, on your application to me by letter; but if you choose to presentyourself here again, if you return to Middlemarch, if you use your tonguein a manner injurious to me, you will have to live on such fruits as yourmalice can bring you, without help from me. Nobody will pay you wellfor blasting my name: I know the worst you can do against me, and Ishall brave it if you dare to thrust yourself upon me again. Get up, sir,and do as I order you, without noise, or I will send for a policeman totake you off my premises, and you may carry your stories into everypothouse in the town, but you shall have no sixpence from me to payyour expenses there."
Bulstrode had rarely in his life spoken with such nervous energy: hehad been deliberating on this speech and its probable effects through alarge part of the night; and though he did not trust to its ultimatelysaving him from any return of Raffles, he had concluded that it was thebest throw he could make. It succeeded in enforcing submission from thejaded man this morning: his empoisoned system at this moment quailedbefore Bulstrode's cold, resolute bearing, and he was taken off quietly inthe carriage before the family breakfast time. The servants imagined himto be a poor relation, and were not surprised that a strict man like theirmaster, who held his head high in the world, should be ashamed of sucha cousin and want to get rid of him. The banker's drive of ten miles withhis hated companion was a dreary beginning of the Christmas day; but atthe end of the drive, Raffles had recovered his spirits, and parted in acontentment for which there was the good reason that the banker hadgiven him a hundred pounds. Various motives urged Bulstrode to thisopen-handedness, but he did not himself inquire closely into all of them.As he had stood watching Raffles in his uneasy sleep, it had certainlyentered his mind that the man had been much shattered since the firstgift of two hundred pounds.
He had taken care to repeat the incisive statement of his resolve notto be played on any more; and had tried to penetrate Raffles with thefact that he had shown the risks of bribing him to be quite equal to therisks of defying him. But when, freed from his repulsive presence,Bulstrode returned to his quiet home, he brought with him no confidencethat he had secured more than a respite. It was as if he had had aloathsome dream, and could not shake off its images with their hatefulkindred of sensations—as if on all the pleasant surroundings of his life adangerous reptile had left his slimy traces.
Who can know how much of his most inward life is made up of thethoughts he believes other men to have about him, until that fabric ofopinion is threatened with ruin?
Bulstrode was only the more conscious that there was a deposit ofuneasy presentiment in his wife's mind, because she carefully avoidedany allusion to it. He had been used every day to taste the flavor ofsupremacy and the tribute of complete deference: and the certainty thathe was watched or measured with a hidden suspicion of his having somediscreditable secret, made his voice totter when he was speaking toedification. Foreseeing, to men of Bulstrode's anxious temperament, isoften worse than seeing; and his imagination continually heightened theanguish of an imminent disgrace. Yes, imminent; for if his defiance ofRaffles did not keep the man away—and though he prayed for this resulthe hardly hoped for it—the disgrace was certain. In vain he said tohimself that, if permitted, it would be a divine visitation, a chastisement,a preparation; he recoiled from the imagined burning; and he judged thatit must be more for the Divine glory that he should escape dishonor.That recoil had at last urged him to make preparations for quittingMiddlemarch. If evil truth must be reported of him, he would then be ata less scorching distance from the contempt of his old neighbors; and ina new scene, where his life would not have gathered the same widesensibility, the tormentor, if he pursued him, would be less formidable.To leave the place finally would, he knew, be extremely painful to hiswife, and on other grounds he would have preferred to stay where hehad struck root. Hence he made his preparations at first in a conditionalway, wishing to leave on all sides an opening for his return after briefabsence, if any favorable intervention of Providence should dissipate hisfears. He was preparing to transfer his management of the Bank, and togive up any active control of other commercial affairs in theneighborhood, on the ground of his failing health, but without excludinghis future resumption of such work. The measure would cause him someadded expense and some diminution of income beyond what he hadalready undergone from the general depression of trade; and the Hospitalpresented itself as a principal object of outlay on which he could fairlyeconomize.
This was the experience which had determined his conversation withLydgate. But at this time his arrangements had most of them gone nofarther than a stage at which he could recall them if they proved to beunnecessary. He continually deferred the final steps; in the midst of hisfears, like many a man who is in danger of shipwreck or of being dashedfrom his carriage by runaway horses, he had a clinging impression thatsomething would happen to hinder the worst, and that to spoil his life bya late transplantation might be over-hasty—especially since it wasdifficult to account satisfactorily to his wife for the project of theirindefinite exile from the only place where she would like to live.
Among the affairs Bulstrode had to care for, was the management ofthe farm at Stone Court in case of his absence; and on this as well as onall other matters connected with any houses and land he possessed in orabout Middlemarch, he had consulted Caleb Garth. Like every one elsewho had business of that sort, he wanted to get the agent who was moreanxious for his employer's interests than his own. With regard to StoneCourt, since Bulstrode wished to retain his hold on the stock, and tohave an arrangement by which he himself could, if he chose, resume hisfavorite recreation of superintendence, Caleb had advised him not totrust to a mere bailiff, but to let the land, stock, and implements yearly,and take a proportionate share of the proceeds.
"May I trust to you to find me a tenant on these terms, Mr. Garth?"said Bulstrode. "And will you mention to me the yearly sum which wouldrepay you for managing these affairs which we have discussed together?"
"I'll think about it," said Caleb, in his blunt way. "I'll see how I canmake it out."
If it had not been that he had to consider Fred Vincy's future, Mr.Garth would not probably have been glad of any addition to his work, ofwhich his wife was always fearing an excess for him as he grew older.But on quitting Bulstrode after that conversation, a very alluring ideaoccurred to him about this said letting of Stone Court. What if Bulstrodewould agree to his placing Fred Vincy there on the understanding thathe, Caleb Garth, should be responsible for the management? It would bean excellent schooling for Fred; he might make a modest income there,and still have time left to get knowledge by helping in other business. Hementioned his notion to Mrs. Garth with such evident delight that shecould not bear to chill his pleasure by expressing her constant fear of hisundertaking too much.
"The lad would be as happy as two," he said, throwing himself backin his chair, and looking radiant, "if I could tell him it was all settled.Think; Susan! His mind had been running on that place for years beforeold Featherstone died. And it would be as pretty a turn of things ascould be that he should hold the place in a good industrious way afterall—by his taking to business. For it's likely enough Bulstrode might lethim go on, and gradually buy the stock. He hasn't made up his mind, Ican see, whether or not he shall settle somewhere else as a lasting thing.I never was better pleased with a notion in my life. And then thechildren might be married by-and-by, Susan."
"You will not give any hint of the plan to Fred, until you are surethat Bulstrode would agree to the plan?" said Mrs. Garth, in a tone ofgentle caution. "And as to marriage, Caleb, we old people need not helpto hasten it."
"Oh, I don't know," said Caleb, swinging his head aside. "Marriage isa taming thing. Fred would want less of my bit and bridle. However, Ishall say nothing till I know the ground I'm treading on. I shall speak toBulstrode again."
He took his earliest opportunity of doing so. Bulstrode had anythingbut a warm interest in his nephew Fred Vincy, but he had a strong wishto secure Mr. Garth's services on many scattered points of business atwhich he was sure to be a considerable loser, if they were under lessconscientious management. On that ground he made no objection to Mr.Garth's proposal; and there was also another reason why he was notsorry to give a consent which was to benefit one of the Vincy family. Itwas that Mrs. Bulstrode, having heard of Lydgate's debts, had beenanxious to know whether her husband could not do something for poorRosamond, and had been much troubled on learning from him thatLydgate's affairs were not easily remediable, and that the wisest plan wasto let them "take their course." Mrs. Bulstrode had then said for the firsttime, "I think you are always a little hard towards my family, Nicholas.And I am sure I have no reason to deny any of my relatives. Too worldlythey may be, but no one ever had to say that they were not respectable."
"My dear Harriet," said Mr. Bulstrode, wincing under his wife's eyes,which were filling with tears, "I have supplied your brother with a greatdeal of capital. I cannot be expected to take care of his married children."
That seemed to be true, and Mrs. Bulstrode's remonstrance subsidedinto pity for poor Rosamond, whose extravagant education she hadalways foreseen the fruits of.
But remembering that dialogue, Mr. Bulstrode felt that when he hadto talk to his wife fully about his plan of quitting Middlemarch, heshould be glad to tell her that he had made an arrangement which mightbe for the good of her nephew Fred. At present he had merely mentionedto her that he thought of shutting up The Shrubs for a few months, andtaking a house on the Southern Coast.
Hence Mr. Garth got the assurance he desired, namely, that in caseof Bulstrode's departure from Middlemarch for an indefinite time, FredVincy should be allowed to have the tenancy of Stone Court on the termsproposed.
Caleb was so elated with his hope of this "neat turn" being given tothings, that if his self-control had not been braced by a little affectionatewifely scolding, he would have betrayed everything to Mary, wanting "togive the child comfort." However, he restrained himself, and kept instrict privacy from Fred certain visits which he was making to StoneCourt, in order to look more thoroughly into the state of the land andstock, and take a preliminary estimate. He was certainly more eager inthese visits than the probable speed of events required him to be; but hewas stimulated by a fatherly delight in occupying his mind with this bitof probable happiness which he held in store like a hidden birthday giftfor Fred and Mary.
"But suppose the whole scheme should turn out to be a castle in theair?" said Mrs. Garth.
"Well, well," replied Caleb; "the castle will tumble about nobody'shead."
CHAPTER LXIX.
"If thou hast heard a word, let it die with thee."
—Ecclesiasticus.
Mr. Bulstrode was still seated in his manager's room at the Bank,about three o'clock of the same day on which he had received Lydgatethere, when the clerk entered to say that his horse was waiting, and alsothat Mr. Garth was outside and begged to speak with him.
"By all means," said Bulstrode; and Caleb entered. "Pray sit down,Mr. Garth," continued the banker, in his suavest tone.
"I am glad that you arrived just in time to find me here. I know youcount your minutes."
"Oh," said Caleb, gently, with a slow swing of his head on one side,as he seated himself and laid his hat on the floor.
He looked at the ground, leaning forward and letting his long fingersdroop between his legs, while each finger moved in succession, as if itwere sharing some thought which filled his large quiet brow.
Mr. Bulstrode, like every one else who knew Caleb, was used to hisslowness in beginning to speak on any topic which he felt to beimportant, and rather expected that he was about to recur to the buyingof some houses in Blindman's Court, for the sake of pulling them down,as a sacrifice of property which would be well repaid by the influx of airand light on that spot. It was by propositions of this kind that Caleb wassometimes troublesome to his employers; but he had usually foundBulstrode ready to meet him in projects of improvement, and they hadgot on well together. When he spoke again, however, it was to say, inrather a subdued voice—
