Part 45 (1/2)
However, I am tired of all that now, and I came here to-day to talk about something else.”
”I rather like Mr. Supplehouse myself,” exclaimed Miss Dunstable. ”He never makes any bones about the matter. He has a certain work to do, and a certain cause to serve--namely, his own; and in order to do that work, and serve that cause, he uses such weapons as G.o.d has placed in his hands.”
”That's what the wild beasts do.”
”And where will you find men honester than they? The tiger tears you up because he is hungry and wants to eat you. That's what Supplehouse does. But there are so many among us tearing up one another without any excuse of hunger. The mere pleasure of destroying is reason enough.”
”Well, my dear, my mission to you to-day is certainly not one of destruction, as you will admit when you hear it. It is one, rather, very absolutely of salvation. I have come to make love to you.”
”Then the salvation, I suppose, is not for myself,” said Miss Dunstable.
It was quite clear to Mrs. Harold Smith that Miss Dunstable had immediately understood the whole purport of this visit, and that she was not in any great measure surprised. It did not seem from the tone of the heiress's voice, or from the serious look which at once settled on her face, that she would be prepared to give a very ready compliance. But then great objects can only be won with great efforts.
”That's as may be,” said Mrs. Harold Smith. ”For you and another also, I hope. But I trust, at any rate, that I may not offend you?”
”Oh, laws, no; nothing of that kind ever offends me now.”
”Well, I suppose you're used to it.”
”Like the eels, my dear. I don't mind it the least in the world--only sometimes, you know, it is a little tedious.”
”I'll endeavour to avoid that, so I may as well break the ice at once. You know enough of Nathaniel's affairs to be aware that he is not a very rich man.”
”Since you do ask me about it, I suppose there's no harm in saying that I believe him to be a very poor man.”
”Not the least harm in the world, but just the reverse. Whatever may come of this, my wish is that the truth should be told scrupulously on all sides; the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
”_Magna est veritas_,” said Miss Dunstable. ”The Bishop of Barchester taught me as much Latin as that at Chaldicotes; and he did add some more, but there was a long word, and I forgot it.”
”The bishop was quite right, my dear, I'm sure. But if you go to your Latin, I'm lost. As we were just now saying, my brother's pecuniary affairs are in a very bad state. He has a beautiful property of his own, which has been in the family for I can't say how many centuries--long before the Conquest, I know.”
”I wonder what my ancestors were then?”
”It does not much signify to any of us,” said Mrs. Harold Smith, with a moral shake of her head, ”what our ancestors were; but it's a sad thing to see an old property go to ruin.”
”Yes, indeed; we none of us like to see our property going to ruin, whether it be old or new. I have some of that sort of feeling already, although mine was only made the other day out of an apothecary's shop.”
”G.o.d forbid that I should ever help you to ruin it,” said Mrs. Harold Smith. ”I should be sorry to be the means of your losing a ten-pound note.”
”_Magna est veritas_, as the dear bishop said,” exclaimed Miss Dunstable. ”Let us have the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, as we agreed just now.”
Mrs. Harold Smith did begin to find that the task before her was difficult. There was a hardness about Miss Dunstable when matters of business were concerned on which it seemed almost impossible to make any impression. It was not that she had evinced any determination to refuse the tender of Mr. Sowerby's hand; but she was so painfully resolute not to have dust thrown in her eyes! Mrs. Harold Smith had commenced with a mind fixed upon avoiding what she called humbug; but this sort of humbug had become so prominent a part of her usual rhetoric, that she found it very hard to abandon it.
”And that's what I wish,” said she. ”Of course my chief object is to secure my brother's happiness.”
”That's very unkind to poor Mr. Harold Smith.”
”Well, well, well--you know what I mean.”
”Yes, I think I do know what you mean. Your brother is a gentleman of good family, but of no means.”