Complete Works of Wilkie Collins (1091 page)

“Tell me, David,” she began, as soon as the first greetings were over, “what do you think of Jack Straw? Was my poor dear husband not right? and have I not done well to prove it?”

I could, and did, honestly congratulate her on the result of the visit to Bedlam.

“And now about the people here,” she went on. “I find Fritz’s father completely changed on the subject of Fritz’s marriage. And when I ask what it means, I am told that Madame Fontaine has set everything right, in the most wonderful manner, by saving Mr. Keller’s life. Is this true?”

“Quite true. What do you think of Madame Fontaine?”

“Ask me that, David, to-morrow or the next day. My head is muddled by traveling — I have not made up my mind yet.”

“Have you seen Minna?”

“Seen her, and kissed her too! There’s a girl after my own heart. I consider our scatter-brained friend Fritz to be the luckiest young fellow living.”

“If Minna was not going to be married,” I suggested, “she would just do for one of your young-lady clerks, wouldn’t she?”

My aunt laughed. “Exactly what I thought myself, when I saw her. But you are not to make a joke of my young-lady clerks. I am positively determined to carry out that useful reform in the office here. However, as Mr. Keller has been so lately ill, and as we are sure to have a fight about it, I will act considerately towards my opponent — I won’t stir in the matter until he is quite himself again. In the meantime, I must find somebody, while I am away, to take my place in the London house. The business is now under the direction of Mr. Hartrey. He is perfectly competent to carry it on; but, as you know, our excellent head-clerk has his old — fashioned prejudices. According to strict rule, a partner ought always to be in command, at the London business — and Hartrey implores me (if Mr. Keller is not well enough to take the journey) to send Mr. Engelman to London. Where is Mr. Engelman? How is it that I have neither heard nor seen anything of him?”

This was a delicate and difficult question to answer — at least, to my way of thinking. There was little prospect of keeping the poor old gentleman’s sad secret. It was known to Fritz and Minna, as well as to Mr. Keller. Still, I felt an unconquerable reluctance to be the first person who revealed the disaster that had befallen him.

“Mr. Engelman is not in good health and spirits,” I said. “He has gone away for a little rest and change.”

My aunt looked astonished.

“Both the partners ill!” she exclaimed. “I remember Mr. Engelman, in the days when I was first married. He used to boast of never having had a day’s illness in his life. Not at all a clever man — but good as gold, and a far more sensitive person than most people gave him credit for being. He promised to be fat as years grew on him. Has he kept his promise? What is the matter with him?”

I hesitated. My aunt eyed me sharply, and put another question before I had quite made up my mind what to say.

“If you can’t tell me what is the matter with him, can you tell me where he is? I may want to write to him.”

I hesitated again. Mr. Engelman’s address had been confidentially communicated to me, for reasons which I was bound to respect. “I am afraid I can’t answer that question either,” I said awkwardly enough.

“Good heavens!” cried my aunt, “what does all this mystery mean? Has Mr. Engelman killed a man in a duel? or run away with an opera-dancer? or squandered the whole profits of the business at the gambling-table? or what? As she put these bold views of the case, we heard voices outside, followed by a gentle knock at the door. Minna entered the room with a message.

“Mamma has sent me, Mrs. Wagner, to ask at what time you would like to dine.”

“My dear, I am much obliged to your mother. I have only just breakfasted, and I can wait quite well till supper-time comes. Stop a minute! Here is my nephew driving me to the utmost verge of human endurance, by making a mystery of Mr. Engelman’s absence from Frankfort. Should I be very indiscreet if I asked — Good gracious, how the girl blushes! You are evidently in the secret too, Miss Minna.
Is
it an opera-dancer? Leave us together, David.”

This made Minna’s position simply unendurable. She looked at me appealingly. I did at last, what I ought to have done at first — I spoke out plainly.

“The fact is, aunt,” I said, “poor Mr. Engelman has left us for awhile, sadly mortified and distressed. He began by admiring Madame Fontaine; and he ended in making her an offer of marriage.”

“Mamma was indeed truly sorry for him,” Minna added; “but she had no other alternative than to refuse him, of course.”

“Upon my word, child, I see no ‘of course’ in the matter!” my aunt answered sharply.

Minna was shocked. “Oh, Mrs. Wagner! Mr. Engelman is more than twenty years older than mamma — and (I am sure I pity him, poor man) — and
so
fat!”

“Fat is a matter of taste,” my aunt remarked, more and more resolute in taking Mr. Engelman’s part. “And as for his being twenty years older than your mother, I can tell you, young lady, that my dear lost husband was twenty years my senior when he married me — and a happier couple never lived. I know more of the world than you do; and I say Madame Fontaine has made a great mistake. She has thrown away an excellent position in life, and has pained and humiliated one of the kindest-hearted men living. No! no! I am not going to argue the matter with you now; I’ll wait till you are married to Fritz. But I own I should like to speak to your mother about it. Ask her to favor me by stepping this way for a few minutes, when she has nothing to do.”

Minna seemed to think this rather a high-handed method of proceeding, and entered a modest protest accordingly.

“Mamma is a very sensitive person,” she began with dignity.

My aunt stopped her with a pat on the cheek.

“Good child! I like you for taking your mother’s part. Mamma has another merit, my dear. She is old enough to understand me better than you do. Go and fetch her.”

Minna left us, with her pretty little head carried high in the air. “Mrs. Wagner is a person entirely without sentiment!” she indignantly whispered to me in passing, when I opened the door for her.

“I declare that girl is absolute perfection!” my aunt exclaimed with enthusiasm. “The one thing she wanted, as I thought, was spirit — and I find she has got it. Ah! she will take Fritz in hand, and make something of him. He is one of the many men who absolutely need being henpecked. I prophesy confidently — their marriage will be a happy one.”

“I don’t doubt it, aunt. But tell me, what are you going to say to Madame Fontaine?”

“It depends on circumstances. I must know first if Mr. Engelman has really set his heart on the woman with the snaky movements and the sleepy eyes. Can you certify to that?”

“Positively. Her refusal has completely crushed him.”

“Very well. Then I mean to make Madame Fontaine marry him — always supposing there is no other man in his way.”

“My dear aunt, how you talk! At Madame Fontaine’s age! With a grown-up daughter!”

“My dear nephew, you know absolutely nothing about women. Counting by years, I grant you they grow old. Counting by sensations, they remain young to the end of their days. Take a word of advice from me. The evidence of their gray hair may look indisputable; the evidence of their grown-up children may look indisputable. Don’t believe it! There is but one period in the women’s lives when you may feel quite certain that they have definitely given the men their dismissal — the period when they are put in their coffins. Hush! What’s that outside? When there is a noisy silk dress and a silent foot on the stairs, in this house, I know already what it means. Be off with you!”

She was quite right. Madame Fontaine entered, as I rose to leave the room.

The widow showed none of her daughter’s petulance. She was sweet and patient; she saluted Mrs. Wagner with a sad smile which seemed to say, “Outrage my most sacred feelings, dear madam; they are entirely at your disposal.” If I had believed that my aunt had the smallest chance of carrying her point, I should have felt far from easy about Mr. Engelman’s prospects. As it was, I left the two ladies to their fruitless interview, and returned composedly to my work.

CHAPTER XXV

When supper was announced, I went upstairs again to show my aunt the way to the room in which we took our meals.

“Well?” I said.

“Well,” she answered coolly, “Madame Fontaine has promised to reconsider it.”

I confess I was staggered. By what possible motives could the widow have been animated? Even Mr. Engelman’s passive assistance was now of no further importance to her. She had gained Mr. Keller’s confidence; her daughter’s marriage was assured; her employment in the house offered her a liberal salary, a respectable position, and a comfortable home. Why should she consent to reconsider the question of marrying a man, in whom she could not be said to feel any sort of true interest, in any possible acceptation of the words? I began to think that my aunt was right, and that I really did know absolutely nothing about women.

At supper Madame Fontaine and her daughter were both unusually silent. Open-hearted Minna was not capable of concealing that her mother’s concession had been made known to her in some way, and that the disclosure had disagreeably surprised her. However, there was no want of gaiety at the table — thanks to my aunt, and to her faithful attendant.

Jack Straw followed us into the room, without waiting to be invited, and placed himself, to Joseph’s disgust, behind Mrs. Wagner’s chair.

“Nobody waits on Mistress at table,” he explained, “but me. Sometimes she gives me a bit or a drink over her shoulder. Very little drink — just a sip, and no more. I quite approve of only a sip myself. Oh, I know how to behave. None of your wine-merchant’s fire in
my
head; no Bedlam breaking loose again. Make your minds easy. There are no cooler brains among you than mine.” At this, Fritz burst into one of his explosions of laughter. Jack appealed to Fritz’s father, with unruffled gravity. “Your son, I believe, sir? Ha! what a blessing it is there’s plenty of room for improvement in that young man. I only throw out a remark. If I was afflicted with a son myself, I think I should prefer David.”

This specimen of Jack’s method of asserting himself, and other similar outbreaks which Fritz and I mischievously encouraged, failed apparently to afford any amusement to Madame Fontaine. Once she roused herself to ask Mr. Keller if his sister had written to him from Munich. Hearing that no reply had been received, she relapsed into silence. The old excuse of a nervous headache was repeated, when Mr. Keller and my aunt politely inquired if anything was amiss.

When the letters were delivered the next morning, two among them were not connected with the customary business of the office. One (with the postmark of Bingen) was for me. And one (with the postmark of Wurzburg) was for Madame Fontaine. I sent it upstairs to her immediately.

When I opened my own letter, I found sad news of poor Mr. Engelman. Time and change had failed to improve his spirits. He complained of a feeling of fullness and oppression in his head, and of hissing noises in his ears, which were an almost constant annoyance to him. On two occasions he had been cupped, and had derived no more than a temporary benefit from the employment of that remedy. His doctor recommended strict attention to diet, and regular exercise. He submitted willingly to the severest rules at table — but there was no rousing him to exert himself in any way. For hours together, he would sit silent in one place, half sleeping, half waking; noticing no one, and caring for nothing but to get to his bed as soon as possible.

This statement of the case seemed to me to suggest very grave considerations. I could no longer hesitate to inform Mr. Keller that I had received intelligence of his absent partner, and to place my letter in his hands.

Whatever little disagreements there had been between them were instantly forgotten. I had never before seen Mr. Keller so distressed and so little master of himself.

“I must go to Engelman directly,” he said.

I ventured to submit that there were two serious objections to his doing this: In the first place, his presence in the office was absolutely necessary. In the second place, his sudden appearance at Bingen would prove to be a serious, perhaps a fatal, shock to his old friend.