Volume Ii Part 2 (2/2)
”Then, Mr. Dodd, we may understand that Georgina is the wife of a murderer,” said Mrs. Dodd.
”Well, my dear, not exactly that; you see they say he received great provocation, so he was bound to go out with him, I suppose.”
”Then my husband, a beneficed clergyman of the Church of England, approves of duelling, and is actually the champion of the--the--the a.s.sa.s.sin.”
The vicar's wife was fond of strong words; this was the strongest one she knew of, so she used it.
”Well, but, my dear, consider the circ.u.mstances.”
”No circ.u.mstances can excuse a murder, Mr. Dodd. I hope he won't come here; don't let him dare to offer me his blood-stained hand; his mere presence would be enough to contaminate the whole village. Will they hang him?” she asked with interest.
”Oh, Mrs. Dodd,” said the brewer's daughter, clasping her hands, for the thought that she herself had witnessed the marriage of this interesting criminal thrilled her very soul.
”Of course she will leave him at once,” continued the vicar's wife; ”were the case my own,” she said, ”I should not hesitate for an instant.”
A slight smile rippled across the broad countenance of the vicar; perhaps it pa.s.sed through his mind that were he not a clergyman there might yet be a means of escape for him.
”It is of men such as this,” cried the indignant vicar's wife, ”that Shakespeare speaks. Yes,” she said clenching her fingers, ”every honest hand should hold a whip to lash the rascal naked through the world.”
”It would be a highly indecent spectacle, my dear,” said the vicar with a chuckle.
”I am speaking figuratively, Mr. Dodd.”
”Of course, my dear, of course. In the meanwhile old Warrender is horribly angry, as well he may be.”
The ladies' little meeting now broke up. Old Mrs. Wurzel hastened to the stationer's to order a copy of _The Sphere_ and all the society papers, then, bursting with the news, she proceeded to call upon the Misses Sleek to tell her tale.
By midnight every soul in King's Warren was in possession of the fact that Georgie Haggard's husband had fought a duel and had killed his man.
The Misses Sleek did not hesitate to express to each other when retiring for the night their united opinion that Mrs. Haggard was a very lucky girl.
”I always said he was a hero,” said the younger sister with a sigh, and then she went to sleep to dream of him.
It is a moot question as to who can claim the t.i.tle of esquire.
Now a-days everybody is Mr., Mrs., or Miss. But Mrs. Dodd was uncompromising; in her mind servants, labourers and criminals should be addressed by their Christian and surname, and no more. When she was unaware of the name she was accustomed to address all males by the epithet ”man.” There is something very scathing, very exasperating too, in being addressed in this way. Had poor Hephzibah herself been actually in the flesh at King's Warren, Mrs. Dodd would, undoubtedly, have addressed her as ”girl;” as it was she merely adopted the Spartan mode which is used by judges at a jail delivery. The tone of the judgment, for we can hardly call it a letter, will be best seen if given at length:
”HEPHZIBAH WALLIS,
”Your poor mother came to me in great trouble yesterday bringing with her the flippant, the almost indecent letter, which you had thought proper to send her. Little did I think, Hephzibah Wallis, when I placed in your hands the beautiful copy of the 'Dairyman's Daughter,' which I had intended should be your guide through life, and which you afterwards so hypocritically informed me you frequently perused, that I was patronizing a girl who was about to rush headlong to her own destruction. If I remember rightly, the dairyman's daughter was a sickly person like yourself, but _she_ would never have degraded herself by even hinting at an immoral marriage with a foreigner; nor would she have ever dared to propose such an abomination to her own mother as a marriage which should be kept secret from her mistress and from the wife of her parochial clergyman. I shall not, then, shrink, Hephzibah Wallis, from the duty of warning you. Except among the upper cla.s.ses marriages with foreigners always end in misery; and it is extremely doubtful whether such unions in the eyes of heaven are marriages at all. I have repeatedly pointed out to my girls at the Sunday school, and to you among the number, that no young woman in domestic service should think of entering upon the marriage state till she is past all work. I was pained to see by your letter that you have evidently hardened your heart, and I am aware that the deaf adder will not listen to the voice of the charmer, charm he (or she) never so wisely. I know that you are exposed to the dangerous fascinations of a designing foreign manservant, who, to use your own expression, only addresses you in 'dictionary words;' no doubt such language is apt to turn the head of any young woman. But let me tell you, Hephzibah Wallis, that you will have a far greater chance of happiness in this world, and the next, as the wife of an English deaf mute of high principle, than you would have if married (even in the unlikely contingency of such a marriage turning out to be legal) to any foreigner, however eloquent, who is of course, as all such people are, wholly irreligious.
”If this letter, as I trust it may, should be the means of softening your heart and so saving you from the ruin to which you are evidently hastening, it will not have been written in vain. I grudge no trouble in the duty that Providence has forced upon me of superintending the lives of any of my girls. You of course are subject to great temptations, but you must never forget your duty to me and to your mistress, particularly now that she (your unhappy mistress) is, as I hear with pain and consternation, the wife of a murderer. I trust that you will frequently read this letter when in doubt or temptation, and that it may be the means of preserving you is the earnest desire of
”Your well-wisher, ”CECILIA DODD.”
Mrs. Dodd posted her letter herself, and to make a.s.surance doubly sure she registered it.
When at lunch with her husband she broke to him the fact that she had written a letter ”full of kind advice,” as she phrased it, ”to that flighty creature, Goody Wallis's daughter.”
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