Sir Brook Fossbrooke Volume Ii Part 35

"Still he persisted in saying there must be no separation."

"That was hard upon you; did you not tell him that was hard upon _you?_"

"No; I avoided mixing myself up in the discussion. I had come to treat for you, and you alone."

"But you might have said that he had no right to impose upon you a life of--what shall I call it?--incompatibility or cruelty."

"I did not; I told him I would repeat to you whatever he told me as nearly as I could. He then said: 'Go abroad and live together in some cheap place, where you can find means to educate the children. I,' said he, 'will take the cost of that, and allow you five hundred a year for your own expenses. If I am satisfied with your husband's conduct, and well a.s.sured of his reformation, I will increase this allowance. '"

"He said nothing about you nor _your_ reformation,--did he?"

"Not a word."

"How much will he make it if we separate?"

"He did not say. Indeed, he seemed to make our living together the condition of aiding us."

"And if he knew of anything harder or harsher he 'd have added it. Why, he has gone about the world these dozen years back telling every one what a brute and blackguard you had for a husband; that, short of murder, I had gone through every crime towards you. Where was it I beat you with a hunting-whip?"

"At Rangoon," said she, calmly.

"And where did I turn you into the streets at midnight?"

"At Winchester."

"Exactly; these were the very lies--the infernal lies--he has been circulating for years; and now he says, 'If you have not yet found out how suited you are to each other, how admirably your tastes and dispositions agree, it's quite time you should do so. Go back and live together, and if one of you does not poison the other, I 'll give you a small annuity.'"

"Five hundred a year is very liberal," said she, coldly.

"I could manage on it for myself alone, but it 's meant to support a family. It 's beggary, neither more nor less."

"We have no claim upon him."

"No claim! What! no claim on your G.o.dfather, your guardian, not to say the impa.s.sioned and devoted admirer who followed you over India just to look at you, and spent a little fortune in getting portraits of you!

Why, the man must be a downright impostor if he does not put half his fortune at your feet!"

"I ought to tell you that he annexed certain conditions to any help he tendered us. 'They were matters,' he said, 'could best be treated between you and himself; that I did not, nor need not, know any of them.'"

"I know what he alluded to."

"Last of all, he said you must give him your answer promptly, for he would not be long in this country."

"As to that, time is fully as pressing to me as to him. The only question is, Can we make no better terms with him?"

"You mean more money?".

"Of course I mean more money. Could you make him say one thousand, or at least eight hundred, instead of five?"

"It would not be a pleasant mission," said she, with a bitter smile.

"I suppose not; a ruined man's wife need not look for many 'pleasant missions,' as you call them. This same one of to-day was not over-gratifying."

"Less even than you are aware," said she, slowly.

"Oh, I can very well imagine the tone and manner of the old fellow; how much of rebuke and severity he could throw into his voice; and how minutely and painstakingly he would dwell upon all that could humiliate you."

"No; you are quite wrong. There was not a word of reproach, not a syllable of blame; his manner was full of gentle and pitying kindness, and when he tried to comfort and cheer me, it was like the affection of a father."

"Where, then, was this great trial and suffering of which you have just said I could take no full measure?"

"I was thinking of what occurred before I met Sir Brook," said she, looking up, and with her eyes now widely opened, and a nostril distended as she spoke. "I was thinking of an incident of the morning. I have told you that when I reached the cottage where Sir Brook lived, I found that he was absent, and would not return till a late hour. Tired with my long walk from the station, I wished to sit down and rest before I had determined what to do, whether to await his arrival or go back to town.

I saw the door open, I entered the little sitting-room, and found myself face to face with Major Trafford."

"Lionel Trafford?"

"Yes; he had come by that morning's packet from England, and gone straight out to see his friend."

"He was alone, was he?"

"Alone! there was no one in the house but ourselves."

Sewell shrugged his shoulders, and said, "Go on."

The insult of his gesture sent the blood to her face and forehead, and for an instant she seemed too much overcome by anger to speak.

"Am I to tell you what this man said to me? Is _that_ what you mean?"

said she, in a voice that almost hissed with pa.s.sion.

"Better not, perhaps," replied he, calmly, "if the very recollection overcame you so completely."

"That is to say, it is better I should bear the insult how I may than reveal it to one who will not resent it."

"When you say resent, do you intend I should call him out?--fight him?"

"If I were the husband instead of the wife, it is what I should do,--ay," cried she, wildly, "and thank Fortune that gave me the chance."

"I don't think I'm going to show any such grat.i.tude," said he, with a cold grin. "If he made love to you, I take it he fancied you had given him some encouragement When you showed him that he was mistaken, he met his punishment. A woman always knows how to make a man look like a confounded fool at such a moment."

"And is that enough?"

"Is _what_ enough?"

"I ask, is it enough to make him look like a confounded fool? Will _that_ soothe a wife's insulted pride, or avenge a husband's injured honor?"

"I don't know much of the wife's part; but as to the husband's share in the matter, if I had to fight every fellow who made up to you, my wedding garment ought to have been a suit of chain-armor."

"A husband need not fight for his wife's flirtations; be-. sides, he can make her give these up if he likes. There are insults, however, that a man"--; and she said the word with a fierce emphasis--"resents with the same instinct that makes him defend his life."