Complete Works of Wilkie Collins (2043 page)

My dear, I told you this morning that a governess had answered the advertisement.

MISS M.

Has she given you a good reference?

MAJOR M.

An excellent reference.

MISS M.

What is her name?

MAJOR M.

Miss Gwilt.

MISS M.

I don’t like her name, to begin with. Is she an old woman?

MAJOR M.

No.

MISS M.

Is she a young woman?

MAJOR M.

Yes.

MISS M.

Where did she live last?

MAJOR M.

Bless my soul! what a number of questions! Are you to manage this matter? or am I?

MISS M.

I had rather we neither of us managed it. The fact is, papa, I don’t want a governess at all.

MAJOR M.

Then you must go to school.

MISS M.

I don’t want to go to school either.

MAJOR M.

My dear! pray be reasonable, if it is only for a minute! You know that I am not a rich man. The one thing I can give you is a good education. Choose for yourself, between an education at home and an education at school.

MISS M.

Choose? Do you suppose that I could be happy for a moment out of my own dear little room at the cottage?

MAJOR M.

In other words, you choose the governess — and there is an end of the matter. As for your little room at the cottage, my dear, I only hope it may not be some other young lady’s little room before long.

MISS M.

What do you mean?

MAJOR M.

Our cottage belongs to the owner of the Thorpe-Ambrose estate, and our lease expires next month.

MISS M.

Well?

MAJOR M.

Well, the death of our old landlord, Mr. Blanchard, has transferred the Thorpe-Ambrose estates into the hands of a stranger. (MR. DARCH
appears at the back.
) And that stranger may not choose to renew our lease.

MR. D. (
advancing
).

Make your mind easy, Major. I answer for his renewing your lease.

MAJOR M.

You, Mr. Darch! Why, I thought you were entirely unacquainted with our new landlord, like all the rest of us?

MR. D.

I have been in correspondence with him, Major. It was my business to inform the new heir, Mr. Allan Armadale, of the inheritance to which he has succeeded. He has appointed me his lawyer, and, take my word for it, he will renew your lease.

MISS M.

Is our new landlord a young man, Mr. Darch?

MR. D.

A very young man, Miss Milroy.

MISS M.

Handsome and agreeable, Mr. Darch?

MR. D.

I must leave you to judge for yourself, Miss Milroy. I have not seen him.

MAJOR M. (
to
MR. DARCH)

One word on the subject of our late landlord. All we have heard here is that Mr. Blanchard died unexpectedly in London. Do you know how it happened?

MR. D.

It happened in this way. Mr. Blanchard was in London on business, and was a passenger on board on of the river steamers —
 
—

MAJOR M. (
interrupting him
).

Drowned?

MR. D.

On the contrary, he was the means of saving a person who might have been drowned but for
him.
A woman among the passengers threw herself overboard. (MAJOR MILROY
and
MISS MILROY
both start.
) Mr. Blanchard jumped into the river and rescued her. They were both brought on shore safely to the nearest police station. The woman soon recovered her senses, thanks to the readiness of a young man who witnessed the accident and who ran for the nearest doctor.

MISS M.

Was the young man Mr. Armadale?

MR. D.

Certainly not. The young man’s name was reported to be Midwinter.

MISS M.

Midwinter? What an extraordinary name!

MAJOR M. (
interposing
)

My dear! we have still to hear about Mr. Blanchard’s death.

MR. D.

Mr. Blanchard might have been alive at this moment if he had been wise enough to get into a warm bath and send for dry clothes. The medical man who had been called in — a certain Dr. Downward — gave him that advice. Mr. Blanchard laughed at Dr. Downward — and went home in a cab. The next day he was too ill to attend the examination before the magistrates. A fortnight afterwards he was a dead man.

MAJOR M.

Is it known who the woman was?

MR. D.

Nobody knows who she was. The name she gave at the examination was evidently assumed.

MAJOR M.

And this attempted suicide, on the part of a perfect stranger —
 
— ?

MR. D.

Has made Mr. Armadale (through his mother) possessor of the Thorpe-Ambrose estates.

Enter
DR. DOWNWARD.
His grey hair is parted in the middle, and falls to his shoulders. He wears a large “turn-down collar,” a long, black frock-coat, and a broad-brimmed hat. His whole exterior announces an assumption of patriarchal simplicity. His manner is smoothly benevolent. He looks at everybody with the same bland smile.

DR. D. (
addressing a servant who accompanies him
).

Is that Major Milroy’s residence?

THE SERVANT.

There is the Major himself, Sir.

(
The servant goes out.
DR. DOWNWARD
advances to the
MAJOR. MR. DARCH,
after a glance at the
DOCTOR,
withdraws to the back.
)

DR. D.

I think, sir, I have the honour of addressing the gentleman who advertised, under the initial “M.,” for a governess in the
Times?

MAJOR M.

I am that person, sir.

DR. D.

I am that other person whom you applied to when the governess had answered your advertisement. Miss Gwilt referred you to Doctor Downward: I am Doctor Downward.

MAJOR M.

I hardly anticipated the pleasure of
seeing
you as well as hearing from you, doctor. Have you made the journey from London to Norfolk to answer personally for Miss Gwilt?

DR. D.

By no means! I have been sent for professionally to a patient of mine residing in your neighbourhood, and I have brought Miss Gwilt to Norfolk with me at the request of relatives of my patient, who wish to secure her services.

MAJOR M.

I
am anxious to secure her services, doctor, for my daughter here.

DR. D. (
bowing to
MISS MILROY)

Exactly! Your application having reached Miss Gwilt first, I think it an act of justice to inform you that other persons are anxious to engage her. If you feel the least hesitation —
 
—

MAJOR M.

I feel no hesitation.

DR. D. (
resignedly
).

Very good! Those other persons must put up with their disappointment as well as they can. I will do myself the honour of escorting Miss Gwilt to her new sphere of action. I am unhappily old enough, Miss Milroy, to acknowledge openly that I feel a deep interest in your new governess. A very painful circumstance, Major, has enabled me to be of some slight service to Miss Gwilt, and has caused me to feel an esteem for that lady which it is not in words to express. What a charming situation you have here! The shining sun, the warbling birds, the growing grass! — such luxuries to a worn-out London doctor like me! In an hour, Major, I shall have the pleasure of presenting Miss Gwilt. (
Exit.
)

MAJOR M.

A very agreeable man!

MISS M.

I don’t at all like him, papa. Didn’t his name strike you when he mentioned it?

MAJOR M.

Of course. It was Doctor Downward who advised Mr. Blanchard to change his wet clothes.

MISS M.

And it was Doctor Downward who attended the woman who tried to drown herself. Who can she have been?

(
Enter
ABRAHAM SAGE. SAGE
is an infirm old man.
)

MR. DARCH (
observing him
).

The head gardener at Thorpe-Ambrose! Abraham Sage, what’s the matter now?

SAGE.

The matter now, Mr. Darch, is the Mayor and Corporation and all the folk, gentle and simple, out of the town. They are asking for you, sir. There is to be speeches and fireworks, and eating and drinking, and music and dancing — all for to welcome Mr. Armadale. (
The
MAYOR
and the
TOWN COUNCIL
enter from the back, followed by the
INHABITANTS.)

THE MAYOR (
excitedly
).

Mr. Darch, I have been looking for you everywhere. I have called a public meeting, sir, and the public have responded in such numbers that there is no room big enough to hold us, except the hall at the great house. As Mr. Armadale’s representative, will you allow us to meet under Mr. Armadale’s roof?

MR. D.

May I ask, Mr. Mayor, what the object of the meeting is?

THE MAYOR.

The object of the meeting, sir, is to give a public welcome to Mr. Armadale on his arrival at Thorpe-Ambrose.

(
As the
MAYOR
pronounces his last words,
ALLAN
and
MIDWINTER
appear quietly among the crowd, and pass quite unnoticed — the general attention being fixed on the
MAYOR
and
MR. DARCH —
down to the front, at one extremity of the stage.
)