Complete Works of Wilkie Collins (135 page)

“Pray compose yourself, Mrs. Peckover,” said Doctor Joyce; “and kindly give me your best attention to what I am about to say. Let me beg you, in the first place, to excuse Mr. Blyth’s odd behavior, which I see has startled and astonished you. But, however wildly he may talk, I assure you he means honourably and truthfully in all that he says. You will understand this better if you will let me temperately explain to you the proposal, which he has just made so abruptly and confusedly in his own words.”

“Proposal, sir!” exclaimed Mrs. Peckover faintly, looking more frightened than ever — ”Proposal! Oh, sir! you don’t mean to say that you’re going to ask me to part from little Mary?”

“I will ask you to do nothing that your own good sense and kind heart may not approve,” answered the rector. “In plain terms then, and not to waste time by useless words of preface, my friend, Mr. Blyth, feels such admiration for your little Mary, and such a desire to help her, as far as may be, in her great misfortune, that he is willing and eager to make her future prospects in life his own peculiar care, by adopting her as his daughter. This offer, though coming, as I am aware, from a perfect stranger, can hardly astonish you, I think, if you reflect on the unusually strong claims which the child has to the compassion and kindness of all her fellow-creatures. Other strangers, as you have told us, have shown the deepest interest in her on many occasions. It is not therefore at all wonderful that a gentleman, whose Christian integrity of motive I have had opportunities of testing during a friendship of nearly twenty years, should prove the sincerity of his sympathy for the poor child, by such a proposal as I have now communicated to you.”

“Don’t ask me to say yes to it, sir!” pleaded Mrs. Peckover, with tears in her eyes. “Don’t ask me to do that! Anything else to prove my gratitude for your kindness to us; but how can I part from my own little Mary? You can’t have the heart to ask it of me!”

“I have the heart, Mrs. Peckover, to feel deeply for your distress at the idea of parting from the child; but, for her sake, I must again ask you to control your feelings. And, more than that, I must appeal to you by your love to her, to grant a fair hearing to the petition which I now make on Mr. Blyth’s behalf.”

“I would, indeed, if I could, sir, — but it’s just because I love her so, that I can’t! Besides, as you yourself said, he’s a perfect stranger.”

“I readily admit the force of that objection on your part, Mrs. Peckover; but let me remind you, that I vouch for the uprightness of his character, and his fitness to be trusted with the child, after twenty years’ experience of him. You may answer to that, that I am a stranger, too; and I can only ask you, in return, frankly to accept my character and position as the best proofs I can offer you that I am not unworthy of your confidence. If you placed little Mary for instruction (as you well might) in an asylum for the deaf and dumb, you would be obliged to put implicit trust in the authorities of that asylum, on much the same grounds as those I now advance to justify you in putting trust in me.”

“Oh, sir! don’t think — pray don’t think I am unwilling to trust you — so kind and good as you have been to us to-day — and a clergyman too — I should be ashamed of myself, if I could doubt — ”

“Let me tell you, plainly and candidly, what advantages to the child Mr. Blyth’s proposal holds out. He has no family of his own, and his wife is, as he has hinted to you, an invalid for life. If you could only see the gentleness and sweet patience with which she bears her affliction, you would acknowledge that little Mary could appeal for an affectionate welcome to no kinder heart than Mrs. Blyth’s. I assure you most seriously, that the only danger I fear for the child in my friend’s house, is that she would be spoilt by excessive indulgence. Though by no means a rich man, Mr. Blyth is in an independent position, and can offer her all the comforts of life. In one word, the home to which he is ready to take her, is a home of love and happiness and security, in the best and purest meaning of those words.”

“Don’t say any more, sir! Don’t break my heart by making me part with her!”

“You will live, Mrs. Peckover, to thank me for trying your fortitude as I try it now. Hear me a little longer, while I tell you what terms Mr. Blyth proposes. He is not only willing but anxious — if you give the child into his charge — that you should have access to her whenever you like. He will leave his address in London with you. He desires, from motives alike honourable to you and to himself, to defray your traveling expenses whenever you wish to see the child. He will always acknowledge your prior right to her affection and her duty. He will offer her every facility in his power for constantly corresponding with you; and if the life she leads in his house be, even in the slightest respect, distasteful to her, he pledges himself to give her up to you again — if you and she desire it — at any sacrifice of his own wishes and his own feelings. These are the terms he proposes, Mrs. Peckover, and I can most solemnly assure you on my honour as a clergyman and a gentleman, that he will hold sacred the strict performance of all and each of these conditions, exactly as I have stated them.”

“I ought to let her go, sir — I know I ought to show how grateful I am for Mr. Blyth’s generosity by letting her go — but how can I, after all the long time she’s been like my own child to me? Oh, ma’am, say a word for me! — I seem so selfish for not giving her up — say a word for me!”

“Will you let me say a word for little Mary, instead?” rejoined Mrs. Joyce. “Will you let me remind you that Mr. Blyth’s proposal offers her a secure protection against that inhuman wretch who has ill-used her already, and who may often ill-use her again, in spite of everything you can do to prevent him. Pray think of that, Mrs. Peckover — pray do!”

Poor Mrs. Peckover showed that she thought of it bitterly enough, by a fresh burst of tears.

The rector poured out a glass of water, and gave it to her. “Do not think us inconsiderate or unfeeling,” he said, “in pressing Mr. Blyth’s offer on you so perseveringly. Only reflect on Mary’s position, if she remains in the circus as she grows up! Would all your watchful kindness be sufficient to shield her against dangers to which I hardly dare allude? — against wickedness which would take advantage of her defenselessness, her innocence, and even her misfortune? Consider all that Mr. Blyth’s proposal promises for her future life; for the sacred preservation of her purity of heart and mind. Look forward to the day when little Mary will have gown up to be a young woman; and I will answer, Mrs. Peckover, for your doing full justice to the importance of my friend’s offer.”

“I know it’s all true, sir; I know I’m an ungrateful, selfish wretch — but only give me a little time to think; a little time longer to be with the poor darling that I love like my own child!”

Doctor Joyce was just drawing his chair closer to Mrs. Peckover before he answered, when the door opened, and the respectable Vance softly entered the room.

“What do you want here?” said the rector, a little irritably. “Didn’t I tell you not to come in again till I rang for you?’

“I beg your pardon, sir,” answered Vance, casting rather a malicious look at the clown’s wife as he closed the door behind him — ”but there’s a person waiting in the hall, who says he comes on important business, and must see you directly.”

“Who is he? What’s his name?”

“He says his name is Jubber, if you please, sir.”

Mrs. Peckover started from her chair with a scream. “Don’t — pray, for mercy’s sake, sir, don’t let him into the garden where Mary is!” she gasped, clutching Doctor Joyce by the arm in the extremity of her terror. “He’s found us out, and come here in one of his dreadful passions! He cares for nothing and for nobody, sir: he’s bad enough to ill-treat her even before you. What am I to do? Oh, good gracious heavens! what am I to do?”

“Leave everything to me, and sit down again,” said the rector kindly. Then, turning to Vance, he added: — ”Show Mr. Jubber into the cloak-room, and say I will be with him directly.”

“Now, Mrs. Peckover,” continued Doctor Joyce, in the most perfectly composed manner, “before I see this man (whose business I can guess at) I have three important questions to ask of you. In the first place, were you not a witness, last night, of his cruel ill-usage of that poor child? (Mr. Blyth told me of it.) The fellow actually beat her, did he not?”

“Oh, indeed he did, sir! — beat her most cruelly with a cane.”

“And you saw it all yourself?”

“I did, sir. He’d have used her worse, if I hadn’t been by to prevent him.”

“Very well. Now tell me if you or your husband have signed any agreement — any papers, I mean, giving this man a right to claim the child as one of his performers?”

“Me
sign an agreement, sir! I never did such a thing in all my life. Jubber would think himself insulted, if you only talked of his signing an agreement with such as me or Jemmy.”

“Better and better. Now, my third question refers to little Mary herself. I will undertake to put it out of this blackguard’s power ever to lay a finger on her again — but I can only do so on one condition, which it rests entirely with you to grant.”

“I’ll do anything to save her, sir; I will indeed.”

“The condition is that you consent to Mr. Blyth’s proposal; for I can only ensure the child’s safety on those terms.”

“Then, sir, I consent to it,” said Mrs. Peckover, speaking with a sudden firmness of tone and manner which almost startled Mrs. Joyce, who stood by listening anxiously. “I consent to it; for I should be the vilest wretch in the world, if I could say ‘no’ at such a time as this. I will trust my precious darling treasure to you, sir, and to Mr. Blyth; from this moment. God bless
her,
and comfort
me!
for I want comfort badly enough. Oh, Mary! Mary! my own little Mary! to think of you and me ever being parted like this!” The poor woman turned towards the garden as she pronounced those words; all her fortitude forsook her in an instant; and she sank back in her chair, sobbing bitterly.

“Take her out into the shrubbery where the children are, as soon as she recovers a little,” whispered the rector to his wife, as he opened the dining-room door.

Though Mr. Jubber presented, to all appearance, the most scoundrelly aspect that humanity can assume, when he was clothed in his evening uniform, and illuminated by his own circus lamplight, he nevertheless reached an infinitely loftier climax of blackguard perfection when he was arrayed in his private costume, and was submitted to the tremendous ordeal of pure daylight. The most monstrous ape that could be picked from the cages of the Zoological Gardens would have gained by comparison with him as he now appeared, standing in the Rectory cloak-room, with his debauched bloodshot eyes staring grimly contemptuous all about him, with his yellow flabby throat exposed by a turn-down collar and a light blue neck-tie, with the rouge still smeared over his gross unhealthy cheeks, with his mangy shirt-front bespattered with bad embroidery and false jewelry that had not even the politic decency to keep itself clean. He had his hat on, and was sulkily running his dirty fingers through the greasy black ringlets that flowed over his coat-collar, when Doctor Joyce entered the cloak-room.

“You wished to speak with me?” said the rector, not sitting down himself, and not asking Mr. Jubber to sit down.

“Oh! you’re Doctor Joyce?” said the fellow, assuming his most insolent familiarity of manner directly.

“That is my name,” said Dr. Joyce very quietly. “Will you have the goodness to state your business with me immediately, and in the fewest possible words?”

“Hullo! You take that tone with me, do you?” said Jubber, setting his arms akimbo, and tapping his foot fiercely on the floor; “you’re trying to come Tommy Grand over me already, are you? Very good! I’m the man to give you change in your own coin — so here goes! What do you mean by enticing away my Mysterious Foundling? What do you mean by this private swindle of talent that belongs to my circus?”

“You had better proceed a little,” said the rector, more quietly than before. “Thus far I understand nothing whatever, except that you wish to behave offensively to me; which, in a person of your appearance, is, I assure you, of not the slightest consequence. You had much better save time by stating what you have to say in plain words.”

“You want plain words — eh?” cried Jubber, losing his temper. “Then, by God, you shall have them, and plain enough!”

“Stop a minute,” said Doctor Joyce. “If you use oaths in my presence again, I shall ring for my servant, and order him to show you out of the house.”