The Way We Live Now (19 page)

‘If he is to marry for that only, I cannot think that they will be happy.'

‘You had better go to bed, Henrietta. You never say a word to comfort me in all my troubles.'

Then Henrietta went to bed, and Lady Carbury absolutely sat up the whole night waiting for her son, in order that she might hear his tidings. She went up to her room, disembarrassed herself of her finery, and wrapped herself in a white dressing-gown. As she sat opposite to her glass, relieving her head from its garniture of false hair, she acknowledged to herself that age was coming on her. She could hide the unwelcome approach by art – hide it more completely than can most women of her age; but, there it was, stealing on her with short grey hairs over her ears and around her temples, with little wrinkles round her eyes easily concealed by unobjectionable cosmetics, and a look of weariness round the mouth which could only be removed by that self-assertion of herself which practice had made always possible to her in company, though it now so frequently deserted her when she was alone.

But she was not a woman to be unhappy because she was growing old. Her happiness, like that of most of us, was ever in the future – never reached but always coming. She, however, had not looked for happiness to love and loveliness, and need not therefore be disappointed on that score. She had never really determined what it was that might make her happy – having some hazy aspiration after social distinction and literary fame, in which was ever commingled solicitude respecting money. But at the present moment her great fears and her great hopes were centred on her son. She would not care how grey might be her hair, or how savage might be Mr Alf, if her Felix were to marry this heiress. On the other hand, nothing that pearl-powder or the
Morning Breakfast Table
could do would avail anything, unless he could be extricated from the ruin that now surrounded him. So she went down into the dining-room, that she might be sure to hear the key in the door, even should she sleep, and waited for him with a volume of French memoirs in her hand.

Unfortunate woman! she might have gone to bed and have been duly called about her usual time, for it was past eight and the full staring daylight shone into her room when Felix's cab brought him to the door. The night had been very wretched to her. She had slept, and the fire had sunk nearly to nothing and had refused to become again comfortable. She could not keep her mind to her book, and while she was awake the time seemed to be everlasting. And then it was so terrible to her that he should be gambling at such hours as these! Why should he desire to gamble if this girl's fortune was ready to fall into his hands? Fool, to risk his health, his character, his beauty, the little money which at this moment of time might be so indispensable to his great project, for the chance of winning something which in comparison with Marie Mel-motte's money must be despicable! But at last he came! She waited patiently till he had thrown aside his hat and coat, and then she appeared at the dining-room door. She had studied her part for the occasion. She would not say a harsh word, and now she endeavoured to meet him with a smile. ‘Mother,' he said, ‘you up at this hour!' His face was flushed, and she thought that there was some unsteadiness in his gait. She had never seen him tipsy, and it would be doubly terrible to her if such should be his condition.

‘I could not go to bed till I had seen you.'

‘Why not? why should you want to see me? I'll go to bed now. There'll be plenty of time by-and-by.'

‘Is anything the matter, Felix?'

‘Matter – what should be the matter? There's been a gentle row among the fellows at the club – that's all. I had to tell Grasslough a bit of my mind, and he didn't like it. I didn't mean that he should.'

‘There is not going to be any fighting, Felix?'

‘What, duelling; oh no – nothing so exciting as that. Whether somebody may not have to kick somebody is more than I can say at present. You must let me go to bed now, for I am about used up.'

‘What did Marie Melmotte say to you?'

‘Nothing particular.' And he stood with his hand on the door as he answered her.

‘And what did you say to her?'

‘Nothing particular. Good heavens, mother, do you think that a man is in a condition to talk about such stuff as that at eight o'clock in the morning, when he has been up all night?'

‘If you knew all that I suffer on your behalf you would speak a word to me,' she said, imploring him, holding him by the arm, and looking
into his purple face and bloodshot eyes. She was sure that he had been drinking. She could smell it in his breath.

‘I must go to the old fellow, of course.'

‘She told you to go to her father?'

‘As far as I remember, that was about it Of course, he means to settle it as he likes. I should say that it's ten to one against me.' Pulling himself away with some little roughness from his mother's hold, he made his way up to his own bedroom, occasionally stumbling against the stairs.

Then the heiress herself had accepted her son! If so, surely the thing might be done. Lady Carbury recalled to mind her old conviction that a daughter may always succeed in beating a hard-hearted parent in a contention about marriage, if she be well in earnest. But then the girl must be really in earnest, and her earnestness will depend on that of her lover. In this case, however, there was as yet no reason for supposing that the great man would object. As far as outward signs went, the great man had shown some partiality for her son. No doubt it was Mr Melmotte who had made Sir Felix a director of the great American company. Felix had also been kindly received in Grosvenor Square. And then Sir Felix was Sir Felix – a real baronet. Mr Melmotte had no doubt endeavoured to catch this and that lord; but, failing a lord, why should he not content himself with a baronet? Lady Carbury thought that her son wanted nothing but money to make him an acceptable suitor to such a father-in-law as Mr Melmotte; not money in the funds,
¹
not a real fortune, not so many thousands a year that could be settled; the man's own enormous wealth rendered this unnecessary; but such a one as Mr Melmotte would not like outward palpable signs of immediate poverty. There should be means enough for present sleekness and present luxury. He must have a horse to ride, and rings and coats to wear, and bright little canes to carry, and above all the means of making presents. He must not be seen to be poor. Fortunately, most fortunately, Chance had befriended him lately and had given him some ready money. But if he went on gambling Chance would certainly take it all away again. For aught that the poor mother knew, Chance might have done so already. And then again, it was indispensable that he should abandon the habit of play – at any rate for the present, while his prospects depended on the good opinions of Mr Melmotte. Of course such a one as Mr Melmotte could not like gambling at a club, however much he might approve of it in the City. Why, with such a preceptor to help him, should not Felix learn to do his gambling on the Exchange, or among the brokers, or in the purlieus of the Bank? Lady Carbury would at any rate instigate him
to be diligent in his position as director of the Great Mexican Railway – which position ought to be the beginning to him of a fortune to be made on his own account. But what hope could there be for him if he should take to drink? Would not all hopes be over with Mr Melmotte should he ever learn that his daughter's lover reached home and tumbled upstairs to bed between eight and nine o'clock in the morning?

She watched for his appearance on the following day, and began at once on the subject.

‘Do you know, Felix, I think I shall go down to your cousin Roger for Whitsuntide.'

‘To Carbury Manor!' said he, as he ate some devilled kidneys which the cook had been specially ordered to get for his breakfast. ‘I thought you found it so dull that you didn't mean to go there any more.'

‘I never said so, Felix. And now I have a great object.'

‘What will Hetta do?'

‘Go too – why shouldn't she?'

‘Oh; I didn't know. I thought that perhaps she mightn't like it.'

‘I don't see why she shouldn't like it. Besides, everything can't give way to her.'

‘Has Roger asked you?'

‘No; but I'm sure he'd be pleased to have us if I proposed that we should all go.'

‘Not me, mother!'

‘Yes; you especially.'

‘Not if I know it, mother. What on earth should I do at Carbury Manor?'

‘Madame Melmotte told me last night that they were all going down to Caversham to stay three or four days with the Longestaffes. She spoke of Lady Pomona as quite her particular friend.'

‘Oh – h! that explains it all.'

‘Explains what, Felix?' said Lady Carbury, who had heard of Dolly Longestaffe, and was not without some fear that this projected visit to Caversham might have some matrimonial purpose in reference to that delightful young heir.

‘They say at the club that Melmotte has taken up old Longestaffe's affairs, and means to put them straight. There's an old property in Sussex as well as Caversham, and they say that Melmotte is to have that himself There's some bother because Dolly, who would do anything for anybody else, won't join his father in selling. So the Melmottes are going to Caversham!'

‘Madame Melmotte told me so.'

‘And the Longestaffes are the proudest people in England.'

‘Of course we ought to be at Carbury Manor while they are there. What can be more natural? Everybody goes out of town at Whitsuntide; and why shouldn't we run down to the family place?'

‘All very natural if you can manage it, mother.'

‘And you'll come?'

‘If Marie Melmotte goes, I'll be there at any rate for one day and night,' said Felix.

His mother thought that, for him, the promise had been graciously made.

Mr Adolphus Longestaffe, the squire of Caversham in Suffolk, and of Pickering Park in Sussex, was closeted on a certain morning for the best part of an hour with Mr Melmotte in Abchurch Lane, had there discussed all his private affairs, and was about to leave the room with a very dissatisfied air. There are men – and old men too, who ought to know the world – who think that if they can only find the proper Medea
¹
to boil the cauldron for them, they can have their ruined fortunes so cooked that they shall come out of the pot fresh and new and unembarrassed. These great conjurors are generally sought for in the City; and in truth the cauldrons are kept boiling though the result of the process is seldom absolute rejuvenescence. No greater Medea than Mr Melmotte had ever been potent in money matters, and Mr Longestaffe had been taught to believe that if he could get the necromancer even to look at his affairs everything would be made right for him. But the necromancer had explained to the squire that property could not be created by the waving of any wand or the boiling of any cauldron. He, Mr Melmotte, could put Mr Longestaffe in the way of realizing property without delay, of changing it from one shape into another, or could find out the real market value of the property in question; but he could create nothing. ‘You have only a life interest, Mr Longestaffe.'

‘No; only a life interest. That is customary with family estates in this country, Mr Melmotte.'

‘Just so. And therefore you can dispose of nothing else. Your son, of course, could join you, and then you could sell either one estate or the other.'

‘There is no question of selling Caversham, sir. Lady Pomona and I reside there.'

‘Your son will not join you in selling the other place?'

‘I have not directly asked him; but he never does do anything that I wish. I suppose you would not take Pickering Park on a lease for my life.'

‘I think not, Mr Longestaffe. My wife would not like the uncertainty.'

Then Mr Longestaffe took his leave with a feeling of outraged aristocratic pride. His own lawyer would almost have done as much for him, and he need not have invited his own lawyer as a guest to Caversham – and certainly not his own lawyer's wife and daughter. He had indeed succeeded in borrowing a few thousand pounds from the great man at a rate of interest which the great man's head clerk was to arrange, and this had been effected simply on the security of the lease of a house in town. There had been an ease in this, an absence of that delay which generally took place between the expression of his desire for money and the acquisition of it – and this had gratified him. But he was already beginning to think that he might pay too dearly for that gratification. At the present moment, too, Mr Melmotte was odious to him for another reason. He had condescended to ask Mr Melmotte to make him a director of the South Central Pacific and Mexican Railway, and he – Adolphus Longestaffe of Caversham – had had his request refused! Mr Longestaffe had condescended very low. ‘You have made Lord Alfred Grendall one!' he had said in a complaining tone. Then Mr Melmotte explained that Lord Alfred possessed peculiar aptitudes for the position.‘ I'm sure I could do anything that he does,' said Mr Longestaffe. Upon this Mr Melmotte, knitting his brows and speaking with some roughness, replied that the number of directors required was completed. Since he had had two duchesses at his house Mr Melmotte was beginning to feel that he was entitled to bully any mere commoner, especially a commoner who could ask him for a seat at his board.

Mr Longestaffe was a tall, heavy man, about fifty, with hair and whiskers carefully dyed, whose clothes were made with great care, though they always seemed to fit him too tightly, and who thought very much of his personal appearance. It was not that he considered himself handsome, but that he was specially proud of his aristocratic bearing. He entertained an idea that all who understood the matter would
perceive at a single glance that he was a gentleman of the first water, and a man of fashion. He was intensely proud of his position in life, thinking himself to be immensely superior to all those who earned their bread. There were no doubt gentlemen of different degrees, but the English gentleman of gentlemen was he who had land, and family title-deeds, and an old family place, and family portraits, and family embarrassments, and a family absence of any useful employment. He was beginning even to look down upon peers, since so many men of much less consequence than himself had been made lords; and, having stood and been beaten three or four times for his county, he was of opinion that a seat in the House was rather a mark of bad breeding. He was a silly man, who had no fixed idea that it behoved him to be of use to any one; but, yet, he had compassed a certain nobility of feeling. There was very little that his position called upon him to do, but there was much that it forbad him to do. It was not allowed to him to be close in money matters. He could leave his tradesmen's bills unpaid till the men were clamorous, but he could not question the items in their accounts. He could be tyrannical to his servants, but he could not make inquiry as to the consumption of his wines in the servants' hall. He had no pity for his tenants in regard to game, but he hesitated much as to raising their rent He had his theory of life and endeavoured to live up to it; but the attempt had hardly brought satisfaction to himself or to his family.