Part 84 (1/2)
MY DEAR MRS. HANBURY SMITH,
Lucinda has received your little brooch, and is much obliged to you for thinking of her; but you must remember that when you were married, I sent you a bracelet which cost 10. If I had a daughter of my own, I should, of course, expect that she would reap the benefit of this on her marriage;--and my niece is the same to me as a daughter. I think that this is quite understood now among people in society. Lucinda will be disappointed much if you do not send her what she thinks she has a right to expect. Of course you can deduct the brooch if you please.
Yours very sincerely,
JANE CARBUNCLE.
Mr. Hanbury Smith was something of a wag, and caused his wife to write back as follows:--
DEAR MRS. CARBUNCLE,
I quite acknowledge the reciprocity system, but don't think it extends to descendants,--certainly not to nieces.
I acknowledge, too, the present quoted at 10. I thought it had been 7 10s.--[”The nasty, mean creature,” said Mrs. Carbuncle, when showing the correspondence to Lizzie, ”must have been to the tradesman to inquire! The price named was 10, but I got 2 l0s. off for ready money.”]--At your second marriage I will do what is needful; but I can a.s.sure you I haven't recognised nieces with any of my friends.
Yours very truly,
CAROLINE HANBURY SMITH.
The correspondence was carried no further, for not even can a Mrs.
Carbuncle exact payment of such a debt in any established court; but she inveighed bitterly against the meanness of Mrs. Smith, telling the story openly, and never feeling that she told it against herself.
In her set it was generally thought that she had done quite right.
She managed better with old Mr. Cabob, who had certainly received many of Mrs. Carbuncle's smiles, and who was very rich. Mr. Cabob did as he was desired, and sent a cheque,--a cheque for 20; and added a message that he hoped Miss Roanoke would buy with it any little thing that she liked. Miss Roanoke,--or her aunt for her,--liked a thirty-guinea ring, and bought it, having the bill for the balance sent in to Mr. Cabob. Mr. Cabob, who probably knew that he must pay well for his smiles, never said anything about it.
Lady Eustace went into all this work, absolutely liking it. She had felt nothing of anger even as regarded her own contribution,--much as she had struggled to reduce the amount. People, she felt, ought to be sharp;--and it was nice to look at pretty things, and to be cunning about them. She would have applied to the Duke of Omnium had she dared, and was very triumphant when she got the smelling-bottle from Lady Glencora. But Lucinda herself took no part whatever in all these things. Nothing that Mrs. Carbuncle could say would induce her to take any interest in them, or even in the trousseau, which, without reference to expense, was being supplied chiefly on the very indifferent credit of Sir Griffin. What Lucinda had to say about the matter was said solely to her aunt. Neither Lady Eustace, nor Lord George, nor even the maid who dressed her, heard any of her complaints. But complain she did, and that with terrible energy.
”What is the use of it, Aunt Jane? I shall never have a house to put them into.”
”What nonsense, my dear! Why shouldn't you have a house as well as others?”
”And if I had, I should never care for them. I hate them. What does Lady Glencora Palliser or Lord Fawn care for me?” Even Lord Fawn had been put under requisition, and had sent a little box full of stationery.
”They are worth money, Lucinda; and when a girl marries she always gets them.”
”Yes;--and when they come from people who love her, and who pour them into her lap with kisses, because she has given herself to a man she loves, then it must be nice. Oh,--if I were marrying a poor man, and a poor friend had given me a gridiron to help me to cook my husband's dinner, how I could have valued it!”
”I don't know that you like poor things and poor people better than anybody else,” said Aunt Jane.
”I don't like anything or anybody,” said Lucinda.
”You had better take the good things that come to you, then; and not grumble. How I have worked to get all this arranged for you, and now what thanks have I?”
”You'll find you have worked for very little, Aunt Jane. I shall never marry the man yet.” This, however, had been said so often that Aunt Jane thought nothing of the threat.
CHAPTER LXVI
The Aspirations of Mr. Emilius
It was acknowledged by Mrs. Carbuncle very freely that in the matter of tribute no one behaved better than Mr. Emilius, the fas.h.i.+onable, foreign, ci-devant Jew preacher, who still drew great congregations in the neighbourhood of Mrs. Carbuncle's house. Mrs. Carbuncle, no doubt, attended regularly at Mr. Emilius's church, and had taken a sitting for thirteen Sundays at something like ten s.h.i.+llings a Sunday. But she had not as yet paid the money, and Mr. Emilius was well aware that if his tickets were not paid for in advance, there would be considerable defalcations in his income. He was, as a rule, very particular as to such payments, and would not allow a name to be put on a sitting till the money had reached his pockets; but with Mrs. Carbuncle he had descended to no such commercial accuracy. Mrs.