Part 52 (1/2)
Ba.s.sett ground his teeth with vexation.
No train to London for an hour and a half. He took a stroll through the town to fill up the time.
How often, when a man abandons or remits his search for a time, Fate sends in his way the very thing he is after, but has given up hunting just then! As he walked along the north side of a certain street, what should he see but the truly beautiful and remarkable eyes and eyebrows of Mr. Angelo, s.h.i.+ning from afar.
That gentleman was standing, in a reverie, on the steps of a small hotel.
Ba.s.sett drew back at first, not to be seen. Looking round he saw he was at the door of a respectable house that let apartments. He hurried in, examined the drawing-room floor, took it for a week, paid in advance, and sent to the Royal for his bag.
He installed himself near the window, to await one of two things, and act accordingly. If Angelo left the place he should go by the same train, and so catch the parties together; if the lady doubled back to Bath, or had only pretended to leave it, he should soon know that, by diligent watch and careful following.
He wrote to Wheeler to announce this first step toward success.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
SOME days after this Mr. Rolfe received a line from Lady Ba.s.sett, to say she was at the Adelphi Hotel, in John Street. He put some letters into his pocket and called on her directly.
She received him warmly, and told him, more fully than she had by letter, how she had acted on his advice; then she told him of Richard Ba.s.sett's last act, and showed him her retort.
He knitted his brows at first over it; but said he thought her proclamation could do no harm.
”As a rule,” said he, ”I object to flicking with a lady's whip when I am going to crush, but--yes--it is able, and gives you a good excuse for keeping out of the way of annoyances till we strike the blow. And now I have something to consult you upon. May I read you some extracts from your husband's letters to me?”
”Oh, yes.”
”Forgive a novelist; but this is a new situation, reading a husband's letters to his wife. However, I have a motive, and so I had in soliciting the correspondence with Sir Charles.” He then read her the letters that are already before the reader, and also the following extracts:
”Mr. Johnson, a broken tradesman, has some imagination, though not of a poetic kind; he is imbued with trade, and, in the daytime, exercises several, especially a butcher's. When he sees any of us coming, he whips before the nearest door or gate, and sells meat. He sells it very cheap; the reason is, his friends allow him only a s.h.i.+lling or two in coppers, and as every madman is the center of the universe, he thinks that the prices of all commodities are regulated by the amount of specie in his pocket. This is his style, 'Come, buy, buy, choice mutton three farthings the carca.s.s. Retail shop next door, ma'am. Jack, serve the lady. Bill, tell him he can send me home those twenty bullocks, at three half-pence each--' and so on. But at night he subsides into an auctioneer, and, with knocking down lots while others are conversing, gets removed occasionally to a padded room. Sometimes we humor him, and he sells us the furniture after a spirited compet.i.tion, and debits the amounts, for cash is not abundant here. The other night, heated with business, he went on from the articles of furniture to the company, and put us all up in succession.
”Having a good many dislikes, he sometimes forgot the auctioneer in the man, and depreciated some lots so severely that they had to be pa.s.sed; but he set Miss Wieland in a chair, and descanted on her beauty, good temper, and other gifts, in terms florid enough for Robins, or any other poet. Sold for eighteen pounds, and to a lady. This lady had formed a violent attachment to Miss W.; so next week they will be at daggers drawn. My turn came, and the auctioneer did me the honor to describe me as 'the lot of the evening.' He told the bidders to mind what they were about, they might never again be able to secure a live baronet at a moderate price, owing to the tightness of the money market. Well, sir, I was honored with bids from several ladies; but they were too timid and too honest to go beyond their means; my less scrupulous s.e.x soared above these considerations, and I was knocked down for seventy-nine pounds fifteen s.h.i.+llings, amid loud applause at the spirited result. My purchaser is a shop-keeper mad after gardening.
Dr. Suaby has given him a plot to cultivate, and he whispered in my ear, 'The reason I went to a fancy price was, I can kill two birds with one stone with you. You'll make a very good statee stuck up among my flowers; and you can hallo, and keep those plaguy sparrows off.'”
”Oh, what creatures for my darling to live among!” cried Lady Ba.s.sett piteously.
Mr. Rolfe stared, and said, ”What, then, you are like all your s.e.x--no sense of humor?”
”Humor! when my husband is in misery and degradation!”
”And don't you see that the brave writer of these letters is steeled against misery, and above degradation? Such men are not the mere sport of circ.u.mstances. Your husband carries a soul not to be quelled by three months in a well-ordered mad-house. But I will read no more, since what gives me satisfaction gives you pain.”
”Oh, yes, yes! Don't let me lose a word my husband has ever uttered.”
”Well, I'll go on; but I'm horribly discouraged.”