Part 14 (1/2)
”You've a mighty coaxing tongue, you baggage. Keep it to yourself that I gave you what you asked, lest my reputation as a fair dealing man be gone for ever.”
”Oh, you may trust me to keep my mouth shut,” said Lavinia with mock gravity.
A sweeping curtsey and she turned towards the door. At the same moment a lady cloaked and hooded like herself entered. They stared at each other as they pa.s.sed.
Lavinia recognised Sally Salisbury, though the latter was much more finely dressed than when they encountered each other outside the Maidenhead Tavern in St. Giles. Sally was not so sure about Lavinia. The slim girl was now a woman. She carried herself with an air. She had exchanged her shabby garments for clothes of a fas.h.i.+onable cut which she knew how to wear. Still, some chord in Sally's memory was stirred and she advanced into the shop with a puzzled look on her face.
Mountchance received his fresh customer obsequiously. He had made a good deal of money out of Sally; she never brought him anything which was not valuable and worth buying. Sometimes her treasures were presents from admirers, sometimes they were the proceeds of highway robberies. The latter yielded the most profit. The would-be sellers dared not haggle.
They were only too anxious to get rid of their ill-gotten gains.
The old man bowed Sally Salisbury into his inner room. He knew that the business which had brought her to him was one that meant privacy. He ceremoniously placed a chair for her and awaited her pleasure.
The lady was in no hurry. She caught sight of the gold brooch lying on the table, took it up and examined it. On the back was graven ”A.D. to Lavinia.” Sally's dark arched eyebrows contracted.
”Lavinia,” she thought. ”So it _was_ that little squalling cat. I hate her. She's tumbled on her feet--like all cats. But for the letters I'd say she'd flung herself at the head of _my_ man.”
Sally was thinking of her encounter with Lavinia outside the Maiden Head tavern. Lancelot Vane was then sitting in the bow window of the coffee-room. True he was in a drunken sleep but this would make no difference. Lavinia, Sally decided, was in a fair way to earn her living, much as Sally herself did--the toy of the bloods of fas.h.i.+on one day, the companions of highwaymen and bullies the next.
”Where did the impertinent young madam get her fine clothes and her quality air if not?” Sally asked herself, and the question was a reasonable one.
”Have you brought me ought that I care to look at, Mistress Salisbury?”
broke in the old man impatiently. ”You haven't come to buy that paltry trinket, I'll swear.”
”How do you knew? It takes my fancy. Where did you get it?”
”I've had it but five minutes. You pa.s.sed the girl who sold it me as you came in. A pretty coaxing wench. She'd make a man pour out his gold at her feet if she cared to try.”
Sally's lips went pallid with pa.s.sion and her white nostrils quivered.
”A common little trull,” she burst out. ”She should be sent to Bridewell and soundly whipped. 'Tis little more than six months she was a street squaller cadging for pence round the boozing kens of St. Giles and Clare Market. And now--pah! it makes me sick.”
Sally flung the brooch upon the table with such violence it bounced a foot in the air.
”Gently--gently, my good Sally,” remonstrated Mountchance, ”if you must vent your fury upon anything choose your own property, not mine.”
It was doubtful if the virago heard the request. She was not given to curbing her temper, and leaning back in the chair, her body rigid, she beat a tattoo with her high-heeled shoes and clenched her fists till the knuckles whitened.
Mountchance had seen hysterical women oft times and was not troubled. He opened a stoppered bottle and held its rim to the lady's nose. The moment was well chosen, Sally was in the act of drawing a deep breath, probably with the intention of relieving her feelings by shrieking aloud. The ammonia was strong and she inhaled a full dose. She gasped, she coughed, her eyes streamed, the current of her thoughts changed, she poured a torrent of unadulterated Billingsgate upon the imperturbable doctor who busied himself about other matters until Sally should think fit to regain her senses.
That time came when after a brief interval of sullenness, accompanied by much heaving of the bosom and biting of lips she deigned to produce the pearl necklace, the spoil of Rofflash's highway robbery on the Bath Road.
Mountchance looked at the pearls closely and his face became very serious.
”The High Toby game I'll take my oath,” said he in a low voice. ”Such a bit of plunder as this must be sent abroad. I dursn't attempt to get rid of it here.”
”That's _your_ business. My business is how much'll you give.”
Dr. Mountchance named a sum ridiculously low so Sally thought. Then ensued a long haggle which was settled at last by a compromise and Sally departed.