Part 61 (1/2)
”I know you are,” said Bence cordially. ”She has said so a hundred times.”
”Tell me how it began--the very beginning of things.”
A gloomy cloud pa.s.sed over Bence's animated face.
”Upon my word, I don't care to look back upon those days. I _was_ in such bitter trouble, Mr. Prentice.”
”When did you think of going to her?”
”I never thought of it. _She_ came to me. I couldn't believe my ears when she opened the matter.”
”What did she say?”
”Oh, she didn't beat about the bush. She said, if it was really true that I wanted money, she might supply it--on certain terms.”
”Yes, yes--and tell me, my dear fellow, what were her terms?”
”Mr. Prentice,” said Bence solemnly, ”her terms were terrible--it was just buying me at a knock-out price.”
”You don't say so?”
”The fact.... This is as between Masons, isn't it?... I may consider that we are tiled in.”
”Yes, yes--as brother to brother.”
And then Bence, who was never averse to hearing the sound of his own voice when safe and suitable occasions offered, talked with unchecked freedom and confidence.
”You know, I'd always entertained the highest and most genuine respect for her. When they used to say she was the best man of business in Mallingbridge, there was no one more ready to admit it than I was. I regarded her as right up there,” and he waved his hand towards the ceiling. ”Right up--one of the largest and most comprehensive int'lects of the age.”
”Just so--just so.”
”And I don't mind confessing I was always a bit afraid of her. Years ago--oh, I don't know how many years ago--when I was pa.s.sing compliments to her, she'd look at me, not a bit unkind, but inscrutable--yes, that's it--inscrutable, and say, 'You take care, Mr. Bence. Don't jump too big, or one day you'll jump over yourself.'”
”Meaning your various extensions?”
”Yes. It always made me uncomfortable when she spoke like that--though I just laughed it off. Anyhow, it seemed to show how clear she saw through one.”
”Yes, nothing escaped her.”
”So I thought I knew what she was--but I never did really know what she was, till we came to fair handy grips over this.... Mr. Prentice, I flattered her--no go. I tried to bluff her--ditto. Then I sued to her for mercy. I said, 'Madam, I'm like a wounded man on a field of battle asking for a cup of water.' But she said, 'If I understand the position correctly, Mr. Bence, you are more like a dead man; and you ask to be brought to life again.'... And it was true. I was dead--down--done for....
”It was my brothers--G.o.d forgive them--who had frustrated me--not bad luck--or any faults of mine. Take, take, take--whatever my work produced, out it went.... Well then, I was what she described--lying at her feet, and praying for life. So I said I'd take it--on her own terms....
”But when it was over, oh, Mr. Prentice the relief! I had lit'rally come to life again. I was _safe_--with money behind me,--with _driving_ power behind me. I went home that night to Mrs. Bence and cried as if I'd been a baby--and after I'd had my cry, I _slept_. What's that proverb? Sleep, it is a blessed thing! I hadn't slept sound for years. Don't you see? I was certain we should go on all right now--now that the burden was on _her_ shoulders.”
And then Bence had his idiosyncratic touch of self-pity.
”I don't know whether you were aware of it, Mr. Prentice--these things get about when one is more or less a public man,--but the incessant worry had given me kidney disease. Well,--will you believe it?--from that hour I got better. The doctors reported less,--less again,--and at last, not a trace of it. I was simply another man.”
”But, Bence, my dear fellow, what fills me with such amazement and admiration is the rapidity of your success from that point. You seemed to be on the crest of the wave instantaneously.”
”Ah! That was the magician's wand. Instead of having our earnings s.n.a.t.c.hed out the moment they reached the till, the profits were being put back into the concern. I was working on a salary--a very handsome one--with my commission; and she never took out a penny more than was absolutely necessary. There was the whole difference--and it's magic in trade. I was given scope, capital, an easy road--with no blind turnings.”