 Chapter 42 of the Way We Live Now. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollop. Chapter 42. Can you be ready in 10 minutes? After leaving Melmont's house on Sunday morning, Paul Montague went to Roger Carberry's hotel and found his friend just returning from church. He was bound to go to Islington on that day, but had made up his mind that he would defer his visit till the evening. He would dine early and be with Mrs. Hurdle about seven o'clock. But it was necessary that Roger should hear the news about Ruby Ruggles. It's not so bad as you thought, said he, as she is living with her aunt. I never heard of such an aunt. She says her grandfather knows where she is and that he doesn't want her back again. Does she see Felix Carberry? I think she does, said Paul. Then it doesn't matter whether the woman's her aunt or not. I'll go and see her and try to get her back to Bungay. Why not send for John Crumb? Roger hesitated for a moment and then answered. He'd give Felix such a thrashing as no man ever had before. My cousin deserves it as well as any man ever deserved a thrashing, but there are reasons why I should not like it. And he could not force her back with him. I don't suppose the girl is all bad if she could see the truth. I don't think she's bad at all. At any rate, I'll go and see her, said Roger. Perhaps I shall see your widow at the same time. Paul sighed but said nothing more about his widow at that moment. I'll walk up to Wellbeck Street now, said Roger, taking his hat. Perhaps I shall see you tomorrow. Paul felt that he could not go to Wellbeck Street with his friend. He dined in solitude at the Bear Garden and then again made that journey to Islington in a cab. As he went, he thought of the proposal that had been made to him by Melmont. If he could do it with a clear conscience, if he could really make himself believe in the railway, such an expedition would not be displeasing to him. He had said already more than he had intended to say to Hedda Carberry, and though he was by no means disposed to flatter himself, yet he almost thought that what he had said had been well received. At the moment they had been disturbed, but she, as she heard the sound of her mother coming, had at any rate expressed no anger. He had almost been betrayed into breaking a promise. Were he to start now on this journey, the period of the promise would have passed by before his return. Of course he would take care that she should know that he had gone in the performance of a duty, and then he would escape from Mrs. Hurdle and would be able to make those inquiries which had been suggested to him. It was possible that Mrs. Hurdle should offer to go with him an arrangement which would not at all suit him. That, at any rate, must be avoided. But then how could he do this without a belief in the railway generally? And how was it possible that he should have such a belief? Mr. Ramsbottom did not believe in it, nor did Roger Carberry. He himself did not in the least believe in Fisker, and Fisker had originated the railway. Then would it not be best that he should take the chairman's offer as to his own money? If he could get his six thousand pounds back and have done with the railway, he would certainly think himself a lucky man. But he did not know how far he could with honesty lay aside his responsibility, and then he doubted whether he could put implicit trust in Melmont's personal guarantee for the amount. This, at any rate, was clear to him that Melmont was very anxious to secure his absence from the meetings of the board. Now he was again at Mrs. Pipkin's door, and again it was opened by Ruby Ruggles. His heart was in his mouth as he thought of the things he had to say. The ladies have come back from south-end, Mrs. Ruggles? Oh yes, sir, and Mrs. Hurdle is expecting you all the day. Then she put in a whisper on her own account. You didn't tell him as you'd seen me, Mr. Monogue? Indeed I did, Mrs. Ruggles. Then you might as well have left it alone and not have been ill-natured, that's all, said Ruby, as she opened the door of Mrs. Hurdle's room. Mrs. Hurdle got up to receive him with her sweetest smile, and her smile could be very sweet. She was a witch of a woman, and as like most witches she could be terrible, so like most witches she could charm. Only fancy, she said, that you should have come the only day I have been two hundred yards from the house, except that evening when you took me to the play. I was so sorry. Why should you be sorry? It is easy to come again. Because I don't like to miss you even for a day. But I wasn't well, and I fancied that the house was stuffy, and Mrs. Pipkin took a bright idea and proposed to carry me off to Southend. She was dying to go herself. She declared that Southend was paradise. A cockney paradise? Oh, what a place it is. Do your people really go to Southend, and fancy that that is the sea? I believe they do. I never went to Southend myself, so that you know more about it than I do. How very English it is. A little yellow river, and you call it the sea. Ah, you never were at Newport, but have been at San Francisco. Yes, you've been at San Francisco and heard the seals howling. Well, that's better than Southend. I suppose we do have the sea here in England. It's generally supposed we're an island. Of course, but things are so small. If you choose to go to the west of Ireland, I suppose you'd find the Atlantic, but nobody ever does go there for fear of being murdered. Paul thought of the gentleman in Oregon, but said nothing. Thought, perhaps, of his own condition, and remembered that a man might be murdered without going either to Oregon or the west of Ireland. But we went to Southend. I and Mrs. Pipkin and the baby, and upon my word, I enjoyed it. She was so afraid that the baby would annoy me, and I thought the baby was so much the best of it. And then we ate shrimps, and she was so humble, you must acknowledge that with us nobody would be so humble. Of course, I paid. She has got all her children and nothing but what she can make out of these lodgings. People are just as poor with us, and other people who happen to be a little better off pay for them. But nobody is humble to another as you are here. Of course, we like to have money as well as you do, but it doesn't make so much difference. He who wants to receive all the world over will make himself as agreeable as he can to him who can give. But Mrs. Pipkin was so humble. However, we got back all right yesterday evening, and then I found that you had been here at last. You knew that I had to go to Liverpool. I'm not going to scold. Did you get your business done at Liverpool? Yes, one generally gets something done, but never anything very satisfactorily. Of course, it's about this railway. I should have thought that that was satisfactory. Everybody talks of it as being the greatest thing ever invented. I wish I was a man that I might be concerned with a really great thing like that. I hate little peddling things. I should like to manage the greatest bank in the world or to be captain of the biggest fleet or to make the largest railway. Better even than being president of a republic, because one would have more of one's own way. What is it that you do in it, Paul? They want me now to go out to Mexico about it, said he slowly. Shall you go? Said she, throwing herself forward and asking the question with manifest anxiety. I think not. Why not? Do go. Oh, Paul, I would go with you. Why should you not go? It's just the thing for such a one as you to do. The railway will make Mexico a new country, and then you would be the man who had done it. Why should you throw away such a chance as that? It will never come again. Emperors and kings have tried their hands at Mexico and have been able to do nothing. Emperors and kings never can do anything. Think what it would be to be the regenerator of Mexico. Think what it would be to find oneself there without the means of doing anything and the feel that one had been sent there and the feel that one might be out of the way. I would make the means of doing something. Means are money. How can I make that? There is money going. There must be money where there is all this buying and selling of shares. Where does your uncle get the money with which he is living like a prince at San Francisco? Where does Fisker get the money with which he is speculating in New York? Where does Melmont get the money which makes him the richest man in the world? How can you get it as well as the others? If I were anxious to rob on my own account, perhaps I might do it. Why should it be robbery? I do not want you to live in a palace and spend millions of dollars on yourself but I want you to have ambition. Go to Mexico and chance it. Take San Francisco in your way and get across the country. I will go every yard with you. Make people there believe that you are an earnest and there will be no difficulty about the money. He felt that he was taking no steps to approach the subject which he should have to discuss before he left her or rather the statement which he had resolved that he would make. Indeed, every word which he allowed her to say respecting this Mexican project carried him farther away from it. He was giving reasons why the journey should not be made but was tacitly admitting that if it were to be made she might be one of the travelers. The very offer on her part was understanding that his former abnegation of the engagement had been withdrawn and yet he shrunk from the cruelty of telling her in a sideways fashion that he would not submit to her companionship either for the purpose of such a journey or for any other purpose. The thing must be said in a solemn manner and must be introduced on its own basis. But such preliminary conversation as this made the introduction of it infinitely more difficult. You are not in a hurry, she said. Oh, no. You're going to spend the evening with me like a good man. Then I'll ask them to let us have tea. She rang the bell and Ruby came in and the tea was ordered. That young lady tells me that you are an old friend of hers. I've known about her down in the country and was astonished to find her here yesterday. There's some lover, isn't there? Some would be husband whom she does not like and some won't be husband I fear whom she does like. That's quite, of course, if the other is true. Miss Ruby isn't the girl who have come to her time of life without a preference. The natural liking of a young woman for a man in a station above her because he is softer and cleaner and has better parts of speech just as we keep a pretty dog if we keep a dog at all is one of the evils of the inequality of mankind. The girl is content with the love without having the love justified because the object is more desirable. She can only have her love justified with an object less desirable. If all men wore coats of the same fabric and had to share the soil of the work of the world equally between them that evil would come to an end. A woman here and there might go wrong from fantasy and diseased passions but the ever existing temptation to go wrong would be at an end. If men were equal tomorrow and all wore the same coats they would wear different coats the next day. Slightly different but there would be no more purple and fine linen and no more blue wode. It isn't to be done in a day, of course nor yet in a century nor in a decade of centuries but every human being who looks into it honestly will see that his efforts should be made in that direction. I remember you never take sugar, give me that. Neither had he come here to discuss the deeply interesting questions of women's difficulties and immediate or progressive equality. But having got on to these rocks having as the reader may perceive been taken on to them willfully by the skill of the woman he did not know how to get his bark out again into clear waters. But having his own subject before him with all its dangers the Wildcat's claws and the possible fate of the gentleman in Oregon he could not talk freely on the subjects which she introduced as had been his want in former years. Thanks, he said, changing his cup how well you remember. Do you think I shall ever forget your preferences and dislikes? Do you recollect telling me about that blue scarf of mine that I should never wear blue? She stretched herself out towards him waiting for an answer so that he was obliged to speak. Of course I do. Black is your color. Or white. And perhaps yellow when you choose to be gorgeous. Crimson possibly, but not blue or green. I never thought much of it before but I have taken your word for gospel. It is very good to have an eye for such things as you have, Paul. But I fancy that that taste comes with or at any rate for bodes and a feat civilization. I am sorry that mine should be a feat, he said, smiling. You know what I mean, Paul. I speak of nations, not individuals. Civilization was becoming a feat. Or at any rate, men were in the time of the great painters. But Savonarola and Galileo were individuals. You should throw your lad in with the new people. This railway to Mexico gives you the chance. Are the Mexicans the new people? They who will rule the Mexicans are. All American women, I dare say, have bad taste in gowns and so the vain ones and rich ones send to Paris for their finery. But I think our taste in men is generally good. We like our philosophers. We like our poets. We like our genuine workmen. But we love our heroes. I would have you a hero, Paul. He got up from his chair and walked about the room in an agony of despair. To be told that he was expected to be a hero at the very moment in his life in which he felt more devoid of heroism more thoroughly given up to cowardice than he had ever been before was not to be endured. And yet, with what utmost stretch of courage even though he were willing to devote himself certainly and instantly to the worst fate that he had pictured to himself could he immediately rush away from these abstract speculations and combered as they were with personal flattery into his own most unpleasant, most tragic matter. It was the unfitness that deterred him and not the possible tragedy. Nevertheless, through it all he was sure, nearly sure that she was playing her game and playing it in direct antagonism to the game which she knew that he wanted to play. Would it not be better that he should go away and write another letter? In a letter he could at any rate say what he had to say and having said it he would then strengthen himself to adhere to it. What makes you so uneasy? Still speaking in her most winning way caressing him with the tones of her voice do you not like me to say that I would have you be a hero? Winifred, he said I came here with a purpose and I had better carry it out. What purpose? She still leaned forward but now supported her face on her two hands with her elbows resting on her knees looking at him intently but one would have said that there was only love in her eyes love which might be disappointed but still love the wildcat if there was all within still hidden from sight. Paul stood with his hands on the back of a chair propping himself up and trying to find fitting words for the occasion Stop my dear must the purpose be told tonight? Why not tonight? Paul I am not well I am weak now I am a coward You do not know the delight to me of having a few words of pleasant talk to an old friend after the desolation of the last weeks Mrs. Pipkin is not very charming even her baby cannot supply all the social wants of my life I had intended that everything should be sweet tonight Oh Paul if it was your purpose to tell me of your love to assure me that you are still my dear dear friend to speak with hope of future days or with pleasure of those that are past then carry out your purpose but if it be cruel or harsh or painful if you had come to speak daggers then drop your purpose for tonight try and think what my solitude must have been to me and let me have one hour of comfort Of course he was conquered for that night and could only have that solace which a most injurious reprieve could give him I will not harass you if you are ill he said I am ill it was because I was afraid that I should be really ill that I went to south end the weather is hot though of course the sun here is not as we have it but the air is heavy what Mrs. Pipkin calls muggy I was thinking if I were to go somewhere for a week it would do me good where had I better go Paul suggested Brighton that is full of people is it not a fashionable place not at this time of the year but it is a big place I want some little place that would be pretty you could take me down could you not not very far you know not that any place can be very far from here Paul in his John Bouldis pleasure suggested Penzance telling her untruly that it would take 24 hours not Penzance then which I know is your very ultimate toulet not Penzance no yet Orkney is there no other place except south end there is Chroma in this book perhaps ten hours is Chroma by the sea yes what we call the sea I mean really the sea Paul if you start from Chroma right away a hundred miles would perhaps take you across to Holland a ditch of that kind wouldn't do perhaps ah now I see you are laughing at me is Chroma pretty well yes I think it is I was there once but I don't remember much there is Ramsgate Mrs. Pipkin told me of Ramsgate I don't think I should like Ramsgate there is the Isle of Wight the Isle of Wight is very pretty that's the Queen's place there would not be room for her and me too or Lowestoft Lowestoft is not so far as Chroma and there is a railway all the distance and sea sea enough for anything if you can't see across it and if there are waves and wind enough to knock you down and shipwrecks every other day I don't see why a hundred miles isn't as good as a thousand a hundred miles is just as good as a thousand but Paul at Southend it isn't a hundred miles across to the other side of the river you must admit that but you will be a better guide than Mrs. Pipkin you would not have taken me to Southend when I expressed a wish for the ocean would you let it be Lowestoft is there a hotel a small little place very small uncomfortably small but almost any place would do it for me they make up I believe about a hundred beds but in the States it would be very small Paul said she delighted to have brought him back to this humor if I were to throw the cheap things at you it would serve you right this is all because I did not lose myself in awe at the side of the Southend ocean it shall be Lowestoft then she rose up and came to him and took his arm you will take me down will you not it is desolate for a woman to go into such a place all alone I will not ask you to stay and I can return by myself she had put both hands on one arm and turned herself round and looked into his face you will do that for all the acquaintance's sake for a moment or two he made no answer and his face was troubled and his brow was black he was endeavoring to think but he was only aware of his danger and could see no way through it I don't think you will let me ask in vain for such a favor as that she said no he replied I will take you down when will you go he had cockered himself up with some vain idea that the railway carriage would be a good place for the declaration of his purpose or perhaps the sands at Lowestoft when will I go when will you take me you have boards to attend and chairs to look to and Mexico to regenerate I am a poor woman with nothing on hand but Mrs. Pipkin's baby can you be ready in ten minutes because I could Paul shook his head and laughed I've named a time and that doesn't suit now sir you name another and I'll promise it shall suit Paul suggested Saturday the 29th he must attend the next board and had promised to see Melmont before the board day of course would do for Mrs. Hurdle should she meet him at the railway station of course he undertook to come and fetch her then as he took his leave she stood close against him and put her cheek up for him to kiss there are moments in which a man finds it utterly impossible that he should be prudent as to which when he thought of them afterwards he could never forgive himself for prudent let the danger have been what it may of course he took her in his arms and kissed her lips as well as her cheeks end of chapter 42 chapter 43 of the way we live now this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the way we live now by Anthony Trollop chapter 43 The City Road the statement made by Ruby as to her connection with Mrs. Pipkin was quite true Ruby's father had married a Pipkin whose brother had died leaving a widow behind him at Islington the old man at Sheep's Acre Farm had greatly resented this marriage had never spoken to his daughter-in-law or to his son after the marriage and had steeled himself against the whole Pipkin race when he undertook the charge of Ruby he had made it matter of agreement that she should have no intercourse with the Pipkins this agreement Ruby had broken corresponding on the sly with her uncle's widow at Islington when therefore she ran away from Suffolk she did the best she could with herself in going to her aunt's house Mrs. Pipkin was a poor woman and could not offer a permanent home to Ruby but she was good-natured and came to terms Ruby was to be allowed to stay at any rate for a month and work in the house for her bread but she made it a part of her bargain that she should be allowed to go out occasionally Mrs. Pipkin immediately asked after a lover I'm all right said Ruby if the lover was what he ought to be had he not better come and see her this was Mrs. Pipkin's suggestion Mrs. Pipkin thought that scandal might in this way be avoided that says it may be by and by said Ruby then she told all the story of John Crumb how she hated John Crumb how resolved she was that nothing should make her marry John Crumb and she gave her own account of that night on which John Crumb and Mr. Mix had ate their supper at the farm and of the manner in which her grandfather had treated her because she would not have John Crumb Mrs. Pipkin was a respectable woman in her way always preferring respectable lodgers if she could get them but bound to live she gave Ruby very good advice of course if she was dead said against John Crumb that was one thing but then there was nothing a young woman should look to so much as a decent house over her head and vitals what's all the love in the world Ruby if a man can't do for you Ruby declared that she knew somebody who could do for her and could do very well for her she knew what she was about and wasn't going to be put off it Mrs. Pipkin's morals were good wearing morals but she was not straight laced if Ruby chose to manage in her own way about her lover she must Mrs. Pipkin had an idea that young women in these days did have and would have and must have more liberty than was allowed when she was young the world was being changed very fast Mrs. Pipkin knew that as well as others and therefore when Ruby went to the theater once and again by herself as far as Mrs. Pipkin knew but probably in company with her lover and did not get home till past midnight Mrs. Pipkin said very little about it attributing such novel circumstances to the altered condition of her country she had not been allowed to go to the theater with a young man when she had been a girl but that had been in the earlier days of Queen Victoria fifteen years ago before the new dispensation had come Ruby had never yet told the name of her lover to Mrs. Pipkin having answered all inquiries by saying that she was right Sir Felix's name had never even been mentioned in Islington till Paul Montague had mentioned it she had been managing her own affairs after her own fashion not altogether with satisfaction but still without interruption but now she knew that interference would come Mr. Montague had found her out and had told her grandfather's landlord the squire would be after her and then John Crumb would come accompanied of course by Mr. Mixit and after that as she said to herself on retiring to the couch which she shared with two little Pipkins the fat would be in the fire who do you think was at our place yesterday said Ruby one evening to her lover they were sitting together at a music hall half music hall half theater which pleasantly combined the allurements of the gin palace the theater and the ballroom were all part of those of other places Sir Felix was smoking dressed as he himself called it incognito with a Tom and Jerry hat and a blue silk cravat and a green coat Ruby thought it was charming Felix entertained an idea that were his West End friends to see him in this attire they would not know him he was smoking and had before him a glass of hot brandy and water which was common to himself Ruby he was enjoying life poor Ruby she was half ashamed of herself half frightened and yet supported by a feeling that it was a grand thing to have got rid of restraint and to be able to be with her young man why not the Miss Longstaffs were allowed to sit and dance and walk about with their young men when they had any why was she to be given up to a great mass of stupid dust like John Crumb without seeing anything of the world but yet as she sat sipping her lovers brandy and water between eleven and twelve at the music hall in the city road she was not all together comfortable she saw things which she did not like to see and she heard things which she did not like to hear and her lover though he was beautiful oh so beautiful was not all that a lover should be she was still a little afraid of him and did not dare as yet to ask him for the promise that she would have accepted him to make to her her mind was set upon marriage but the word had hardly passed between them to have his arm round her waist was heaven to her could it be possible that he and John Crumb were of the same order of human beings but how was this to go on even Mrs. Pipkin made disagreeable allusions and she could not live always with Mrs. Pipkin coming out at nights to drink brandy and water and hear music with Sir Felix Carberry she was glad therefore to take the first opportunity of telling her lover that something was going to happen who do you suppose was at our place yesterday Sir Felix changed color thinking of Marie Melmont thinking that perhaps some emissary from Marie Melmont had been there perhaps Didon herself he was amusing himself during these last evenings of his in London but the business of his life was about to take him to New York that project was still being elaborated he had had an interview with Didon and nothing was wanting but the money Didon had heard of the funds which had been entrusted by him to Melmont and had been very urgent with him to recover them therefore though his body was not unfrequently present late in the night at the City Road music hall his mind was ever in Grovener Square who was it Ruby a friend of the Squires Sir Montague I used to see him about in Bungay and Beckles Paul Montague do you know him Felix well rather he's a member of our club and I see him constantly in the city and I know him at home is he nice well that depends on what you call nice he's a prig of a fellow he's got a lady friend where I live the devil he has of course had heard of Roger Carberry's suit to his sister and of the opposition to this suit and the part of Hedda which was supposed to have been occasioned by her preference for Paul Montague who is she Ruby well she's a Mrs. Hurdle such a stunning woman aunt says she's an American she's got lots of money is Montague going to marry her oh dear yes it's all arranged Mr. Montague comes quite regular to see her not so regular as he ought though when gentlemen are fixed as there to be married they never are regular afterwards I wonder whether it'll be the same with you wasn't John Crumb regular Ruby bothered John Crumb that wasn't none of my doings oh he'd been regular enough if I'd let him he'd been like clockwork only the slowest clock out but Mr. Montague has been and told the squire as he saw me he told me so himself the squire's coming about John Crumb I know that what am I to tell him Felix tell him to mind his own business he can't do anything to you no he can't do nothing I ain't done nothing wrong and he can't send for the police to have me took back to sheep's acre but he can talk and he can look I ain't one of those Felix's don't mind about their characters so don't you think it shall I tell him as I'm with you gracious goodness no what you say that for I didn't know I must say something tell him you're nothing to him but aunt will be letting on about my being out late at night I know she will and who am I with he'll be asking that your aunt does not know no I've told nobody yet but it won't do to go on like that you know will it you don't want it to go on always like that do you it's very jolly I think it ain't jolly for me of course Felix I like to be with you that's jolly but I have to mind them brats all the day and to be doing the bedrooms and that's not the worst of it what is the worst of it I'm pretty nigh ashamed of myself yes I am and now Ruby burst out into tears because I wouldn't have John Crumb I didn't mean to be a bad girl nor yet I won't but what'll I do if everybody turns against me aunt won't go on forever in this way she said last night that bother what she says Felix was not at all anxious to hear what Aunt Pipkin might have to say upon such an occasion she's right too of course she knows there's somebody she ain't such a fool as to think that I'm out at these hours to sing psalms with a lot of young women she says that whoever it is ought to speak out his mind there that's what she says and she's right a girl has to remind herself though she's ever so fond of a young man Sir Felix sucked his cigar and then took a long drink of brandy and water having emptied the beaker before him he rapped for the waiter and called for another he intended to avoid the necessity of making any direct reply to Ruby's importunities he was going to New York very shortly and looked at his journey thither as a horizon in his future beyond which it was unnecessary to any farther distance he had not troubled himself to think how it might be with Ruby when he was gone he had not even considered whether he would or would not tell her that he was going before he started it was not his fault that she had come up to London she was an awfully jolly girl and he liked the feeling of the intrigue better perhaps than the girl herself but he assured himself that he wasn't going to give himself any damn trouble the idea of John Crumb coming up to London in his wrath had never occurred to him or he would probably have hurried on his journey to New York instead of delaying it as he was doing now let's go in and have a dance he said Ruby was very fond of dancing perhaps liked it better than anything in the world it was heaven to her to be spinning round the big room with her lover's arm tight round her waist with one hand in his and her other hanging over his back she loved the music she loved the motion her ear was good and her strength was great and she never lacked breath she could spin along and dance a whole room down and feel at the time that the world could have nothing to give better worth having than that and such moments were too precious to be lost she went and danced resolving as she did so that she would have some answer to her question before she left her lover on that night and now I must go you'll see me as far as the angel won't you of course she was ready to see her as far as the angel what am I to say to the squire say nothing and what am I to say to my aunt say to her just say what you have said all along I've said nothing all along just to oblige you Felix I must say something a girl has got herself to mind what have you got to say to me Felix he was silent for about a minute meditating his answer if you bother me I shall cut it you know cut it yes cut it can't you wait till I am ready to say something waiting will be the ruin of me if I wait much longer where am I to go if Mrs. Pipkin won't have me no more I'll find a place for you you find a place no that won't do I told you all that before I'd sooner go into servicer go back to John Crumb John Crumb has more respect for me nor you he'd make me his wife tomorrow and only be too happy I didn't tell you to come away from him said Sir Felix yes you did you told me as I was to come up to London when I saw you at Sheeps and Beaches didn't you and you told me you loved me didn't you so I will what do you want I can give you a couple of sovereigns if that's what it is no it isn't and I won't have your money I'd sooner work my fingers off I want you to say whether you mean to marry me there as to the additional lie which Sir Felix might now have told that would have been nothing to him he was going to New York and would be out of the way of any trouble and he thought that lies of that kind for anything young women he thought didn't believe them would like to be able to believe afterwards that they had been deceived it wasn't the lie that stuck in his throat but the fact that he was a baronette it was in his estimation confounded impudence on the part of Ruby Ruggles to ask to be his wife he did not care for the lie but he did not like to seem to lower himself by telling such a lie as that at her dictation Mary Ruby no I don't ever mean to marry it's the greatest bore out I know a trick worth two of that she stopped in the street and looked at him this was a state of things of which she had never dreamed she could imagine that a man should wish to put it off but that he should have the face to declare to his young woman that he never meant to marry at all was a thing that she could not understand what business had such a man to go after any young woman what do you mean that I'm to do sir Felix she said just go easy and not make yourself a bother not make myself a bother oh but I will I will I'm to be carrying on with you and nothing to come of it but for you to tell me that you don't mean to marry never at all never don't you see lots of old bachelors about Ruby of course I does there's a squire but he don't come asking girls that's more than you know Ruby if he did he'd marry her out of hand because he's a gentleman that's what he is every inch of him he never said a word to a girl not to do her any harm I'm sure and Ruby began to cry you mustn't come no further now and I'll never see you again never I think you're the falsest young man the bassist and the lowest minded that I ever heard tell of I know there are them as don't keep their words things turn up and they can't or they get to like others better or there ain't nothing to live on but for a young man to come after a young woman and then say right out as he never means to marry at all is the lowest spirited fellow that ever was I never read of such a one in none of the books no I won't you go your way and I'll go mine in her passion she was as good as her word and escaped from him running all the way to her aunt's door there wasn't her mind a feeling of anger against the man which she did not herself understand in that he would incur no risk on her behalf he would not even make a lover's easy promise in order that the present hour might be made pleasant Ruby let herself into her aunt's house and cried herself to sleep with a child on each side of her on the next day Roger called she had begged Mrs. Pipkin to attend the door and had asked her to declare should any gentleman ask for Ruby ruggles that Ruby ruggles was out Mrs. Pipkin had not refused to do so but having heard sufficient of Roger Carberry to imagine the cause which might possibly bring him to the house and having made up her mind that Ruby's present condition of independence was equally unfavorable to the lodging house and to Ruby herself she determined that the squire if he did come should see the young lady when therefore Ruby was called into the little back parlor and found Roger Carberry there she thought that she had been caught in a trap she had been very cross all the morning though in her rage she had been able on the previous evening to dismiss her titled lover and to imply that she never meant to see him again now when the remembrance of the lost came upon her amidst her daily work when she could no longer console herself in her drudgery by thinking of the beautiful things that were in store for her flattering herself that though at this moment she was little better than a maid of all work in a lodging house the time was soon coming in which she would bloom forth as a baronet's bride now in her solitude she almost regretted the precipitancy of her own conduct could it be that she would never see him again that she would dance no more in that gilded bright saloon and might it not be possible that she had pressed him too hard a baronet of course would not like to be brought to book as she could bring to book such a one as John Crumb but yet that he should have said never that he would never marry looking at it in any light she was very unhappy and this coming of the squire did not serve to cure her misery Roger was very kind to her taking her by the hand and bidding her sit down and telling her how glad he was to find that she was comfortably settled with her aunt we were all alarmed of course when you went away without telling anybody where you were going grandfather had been that cruel to me that I couldn't tell him he wanted you to keep your word to an old friend of yours to pull me all about by the hairs of my head wasn't the way to make a girl keep her word was it Mr. Carberry that's what he did then and Sally Hockett who is there heard it I've been good to grandfather whatever I may have been to John Crumb and he shouldn't have treated me like that no girl would like to be pulled about the room by the hairs of her head and she with her things all off just getting into bed the squire had no answer to make to this that old ruggles should be a violent root under the influence of gin and water did not surprise him and the girl when driven away from her home by such usage had not done a miss in coming to her aunt but Roger had already heard a few words from Mrs. Pipkin as to Ruby's late hours so that there was a lover and knew very well who that lover was he also was quite familiar with John Crumb's state of mind John Crumb was a gallant loving fellow who might be induced to forgive everything if Ruby would only go back to him but would certainly persevere after some slow fashion of his own and see the matter out as he would say himself if she did not go back as you found yourself obliged to run away said Roger I'm glad that you should be here but you don't mean to stay here always I don't know said Ruby you must think of your future life you don't want to be always your aunts made oh dear no it would be very odd if you did when you may be the wife of such a man as Mr. Crumb oh Mr. Crumb everybody is going on about Mr. Crumb I don't like Mr. Crumb and I never will like him now look here Ruby I have come to speak to you very seriously and I expect you to hear me nobody can make you marry Mr. Crumb unless you please nobody can't of course sir but I fear you have given him up for somebody else who certainly won't marry you and who can only mean to ruin you nobody won't ruin me said Ruby a girl has to look to herself and I mean to look to myself I'm glad to hear you say so being out at night with such a one as Sir Felix Carberry is not looking to yourself that means going to the devil head foremost I ain't a going to the devil said Ruby sobbing and blushing but you will if you put yourself into the hands of that young man he's as bad as bad can be he's my own cousin and yet I'm obliged to tell you so he has no more idea of marrying you than I have but were he to marry you to support you he has ruined himself and would ruin any young woman who trusted him I'm almost old enough to be your father and in all my experience I never came across so vile a young man as he is he would ruin you and cast you from him without a pang of remorse he has no heart in his bosom none Ruby had now given way all together and was sobbing with her apron to her eyes in one corner of the room that's what Sir Felix Carberry is standing up so that he might speak with the more energy and talk her down more thoroughly and if I understand it rightly he continued it is for a vile thing such as he that you have left a man who is as much above him in character as the sun is above the earth you think little of John Crumb because he does not wear a fine coat I don't care about any man's coat said Ruby but John has never a word to say was it ever so words to say what do words matter he loves you he loves you after that fashion that he wants to make you happy and respectable not to make you a byword and a disgrace Ruby struggled hard to make some opposition to the suggestion but found yourself to be incapable of speech at the moment he thinks more of you than of himself and would give you all that he has what would that other man give you if you were once married to John Crumb would anyone then pull you by the hairs of your head would there be any want then or any disgrace there ain't no disgrace Mr. Carberry no disgrace in going about it midnight with such a one as Felix Carberry you are not a fool and you know that it is disgraceful if you are not unfit to be an honest man's wife go back and beg that man's pardon John Crumb's pardon no oh Ruby if you knew how highly I respect that man and how lowly I think of the other how I look on the one as a noble fellow in regard to the other as dust beneath my feet you would perhaps change your mind a little her mind was being changed his words did have their effect though the poor girl struggled against a conviction that was born in upon her she had never expected to hear anyone call John Crumb noble but she had never respected anyone more highly than Squire Carberry and he said that John Crumb was noble amidst all her misery and trouble she still told herself that it was but a dusty mealy and also a dumb nobility I'll tell you what will take place continued Roger Mr. Crumb won't put up with this you know he can't do nothing to me sir that's true enough unless it be to take you in his arms and press you to his heart he wants to do nothing to you do you think he'd injure you if he could you don't know what a man's love really means Ruby but he could do something to somebody else how do you think it would be with Felix Carberry if they too were in a room together and nobody else by John's mortials strong Mr. Carberry if two men have equal pluck strength isn't much needed one is a brave man and the other a coward which do you think is which he's your own cousin why you should say everything again him you know I'm telling you the truth you know it as well as I do myself and you're throwing yourself away and throwing the man who loves you over for such a fellow as that go back to him Ruby and beg his pardon I never will never I've spoken to Mrs. Pipkin and while you're here she will see that you don't keep such hours any longer you tell me that you're not disgraced and yet you are out at midnight with a young blaggard like that I've said what I've got to say and I'm going away but I'll let your grandfather know grandfather don't want me no more and I'll come again if you want money to go home I will let you have it take my advice at least in this do not cease to Felix Carberry any more then he took his leave if he had failed to impress her with admiration for John Crumb he had certainly been efficacious in lessening that which she had entertained for Sir Felix End of Chapter 43 Chapter 44 of The Way We Live Now this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollop Chapter 44 The Coming Election The very greatness of Mr. Melmont's popularity the extent of the admiration which was accorded by the public at large to his commercial enterprise and financial scarcity created a peculiar bitterness and the opposition that was organized against him at Westminster as the high mountains are intersected by deep valleys as puritanism in one age begets infidelity in the next as in many countries the thickness of the winter's ice be in proportion to the number of the summer mosquitoes so was the keenness of the hostility displayed on this occasion in proportion to the warmth of the support which was manifested as the great man was praised so also was he abused as he was a demigod to some so was he a fiend to others and indeed there was hardly any other way in which it was possible to carry on the contest against him from the moment in which Mr. Melmont had declared his purpose of standing for Westminster in the conservative interest an attempt was made to drive him down the throats of the electors by clamorous assertions of his unprecedented commercial greatness it seemed that there was but one virtue in the world commercial enterprise and that Melmont was its profit it seemed too that the orators and writers of the day intended all Westminster to believe that Melmont treated his great affairs very different from that which animates the bosoms of merchants in general he had risen above feeling of personal profit his wealth was so immense that there was no longer place for anxiety on that score he already possessed so it was said enough to found a dozen families and he had but one daughter but by carrying on the enormous affairs which he held in his hands he would be able to open up new worlds to afford relief to the oppressed nationalities of the overpopulated old countries he had seen how small was the good done by the Peabodies and the Beards and resolving to lend no ear to charities and religions was intent on projects for enabling young nations to earn plentiful bread by the moderate sweat of their brows he was the head in front of the railway which was to regenerate Mexico it was presumed that the contemplated line from ocean to ocean across British America would become a fact in his hands it was he who was to enter into terms with the Emperor of China for farming the tea fields of that vast country he was already in treaty with Russia for a railway from Moscow to Kiva he had a fleet or soon would have a fleet of emigrant ships ready to carry every discontented Irishman out of Ireland to whatever quarter of the globe the Malaysian might choose for the exercise of his political principles it was known that he had already floated a company for laying down a submarine wire from Penzance to Point de Gaulle round the Cape of Good Hope so that in the event of general wars England need be dependent on no other country for its communications with India and then there was the philanthropic scheme for buying the liberty of the Arabian fellas from the key dive of Egypt for 30 million sterling the compensation to consist of the concession of a territory about four times as big as Great Britain in the lately annexed country on the Great African Lakes it may have been the case that some of these things were as yet only matters of conversation speculations as to which Mr. Melmont's mind and imagination had been at work rather than his pocket or even his credit but they were all sufficiently matured to find their way into the public press and to be used as strong arguments why Melmont should become Member of Parliament for Westminster all this praise was of course Gaulle to those who found themselves called upon by the demands of their political position to oppose Mr. Melmont you can run down a demigod only by making him out to be a demidevil these very persons, the leading liberals of the leading borough in England as they called themselves would perhaps have cared little about Melmont's antecedents had it not become their duty to fight him as a conservative had the great man found at the last moment that his own British politics had been liberal in their nature these very enemies would have been on his committee it was their business to secure the seat and as Melmont supporters began the battle with an attempt at what the liberals called Bounce to carry the borough with a rush by an overwhelming assertion of their candidates' virtues the other party was driven to make some inquiries to that candidate's antecedents they quickly warmed to the work and were not less loud in exposing the Satan of speculation than had been the conservatives in declaring the commercial jove emissaries were sent to Paris and Frankfurt and the wires were used to Vienna and New York it was not difficult to collect stories true or false and some quiet men who merely looked on at the game expressed an opinion that Melmont might have wisely abstained from the glories of parliament nevertheless there was at first some difficulty in finding a proper liberal candidate to run against him the nobleman who had been elevated out of his seat by the death of his father had been a great wig magnet whose family was possessed of immense wealth and of popularity equal to its possessions one of that family might have contested the borough at a much less expense than any other person and to them the expense would have mattered but little but there was no such member of it forthcoming Lord this and Lord that and the honorable this and the honorable that sons of other cognate lords already had seats which they were unwilling to vacate in the present state of affairs there was but one other session for the existing parliament and the odds were held to be very greatly in Melmont's favor an outsider was tried but the outsiders were either afraid of Melmont's purse or his influence Lord Buntingford was asked and he and his family were good old wigs but he was nephew to Lord Alfred Grendal first cousin to Miles Grendal and abstained on behalf of his relatives an overture was made to Sir Damask monogram who certainly could afford the contest but Sir Damask did not see his way Melmont was a working bee while he was a drone and he did not wish to have the difference pointed out by Mr. Melmont supporters moreover he preferred his yacht and his foreign hand at last a candidate was selected whose nomination and whose consent to occupy the position created very little surprise in the London world the press had of course taken up the matter very strongly the morning breakfast table supported Mr. Melmont with all its weight there were people who said that this support was given by Mr. Brown under the influence of Lady Carberry and that Lady Carberry in this way endeavored to reconcile the great man to a marriage between his daughter and Sir Felix but it is more probable that Mr. Brown saw or thought that he saw which way the wind sat and that he supported the commercial hero because he felt that the hero was a country at large in praising a book or putting foremost the merits of some official or military claimant or writing up a charity in some small matter of merely personal interest the editor of the morning breakfast table might perhaps allow himself to listen to a lady whom he loved but he knew his work too well to jeopardize his paper by such influences in any matter which might probably become interesting to the world of his readers there was a strong belief in Melmont the clubs thought that he would be returned for Westminster the dukes and duchesses faded him the city, even the city was showing a wavering disposition to come round bishops baked for his name on the list of promoters of their pet schemes royalty without stint was to dine at his table Melmont himself was to sit at the right hand of the brother of the son and of the uncle of the moon he was to be arranged opposite so that everyone might seem to have the place of most honor how could a conscientious editor of a morning breakfast table seeing how things were going do other than support Mr. Melmont in fair justice it may be well doubted whether Lady Carberry had exercised any influence in the matter but the evening pulpit took the other side now this was the more remarkable the more sure to attract attention in as much as the evening pulpit had never supported the liberal interest as was said in the first chapter of this work the motto of that newspaper implied that it was to be conducted on principles of absolute independence had the evening pulpit like some of its contemporaries lived by declaring from day to day that all liberal elements were godlike and all their opposites satanic as a matter of course the same line of argument would have prevailed as opposed to the Westminster election but as it had not been so the vigor of the evening pulpit on this occasion was the more alarming and the more noticeable so that the short articles which appeared almost daily in reference to Mr. Melmont were read by everybody now they who are concerned in the manufacture of newspapers are well aware that censure is infinitely more attractive than eulogy but they are quite as well aware that it's more dangerous no proprietor or editor was ever brought before the courts at the cost of ever so many hundred pounds which if things go badly may rise to thousands because he had attributed all but divinity to some very poor specimen of mortality no man was ever called upon for damages because he had attributed grand motives it might be well for politics and literature and art and for truth in general if it was possible to do so a new law of libel must be enacted before such salutary proceedings can take place censure on the other hand is open to very grave perils let the editor have been ever so conscientious ever so beneficent even ever so true let it be ever so clear that what he has written has been written on behalf of virtue and that he has misstated no fact exaggerated no fault never for a moment been allured that matters and he may still be in danger of ruin a very long purse or else a very high courage is needed for the exposure of such conduct as the evening pulpit attributed to Mr. Melmont the paper took up this line suddenly after the second article Mr. Elf sent back to Mr. Miles Grendel who in the matter was acting as Mr. Melmont's secretary the ticket of invitation for the dinner with a note from Mr. Elf stating that circumstances connected with the forthcoming election for Westminster could not permit him to have the great honor of dining at Mr. Melmont's table in the presence of the emperor of China Miles Grendel showed the note to the dinner committee and without consultation with Mr. Melmont it was decided that the ticket should be sent to the editor of a thoroughgoing conservative journal this conduct on the part of the evening pulpit astonished the world considerably but the world was more astonished when it was declared that Mr. Ferdinand Elf himself was going to stand for Westminster on the liberal interest various suggestions were made some said that as Mr. Elf had a large share in the newspaper and as its success was now an established fact he himself intended to retire from the laborious position which he filled and was therefore free to go into parliament others were of opinion that this was the beginning of a new era in literature of a new order of things and that from this time forward editors would frequently be found in parliament if editors were employed of sufficient influence in the world to find constituencies Mr. Brown whispered confidentially to Lady Carberry that the man was a fool for his pains and that he was carried away by pride very clever and dashing said Mr. Brown but he never had ballast Lady Carberry shook her head she did not want to give up Mr. Elf if she could help it he had never said a civil word of her in his paper but still she had an idea that it was well to be on good terms with so great a power she entertained a mysterious awe for Mr. Elf much in excess of any similar feeling excited by Mr. Brown in regard to whom her awe had been much diminished since he had made her an offer of marriage sympathies as to the election of course were with Mr. Melmont she believed in him thoroughly she still thought that his nod might be the means of making Felix or if not his nod then his money without the nod I suppose he is very rich speaking to Mr. Brown respecting Mr. Elf I daresay he has put by something but this election will cost him ten thousand pounds and if he goes on as he is doing now to allow another ten thousand pounds for action for libel they've already declared that they will indict the paper do you believe about the Austrian insurance company this was a matter as to which Mr. Melmont was supposed to have retired from Paris not with clean hands I don't believe the evening pulpit can prove it and I'm sure that they can't attempt to prove it without an expense of three or four thousand pounds that's a game in which nobody wins the lawyers I wonder at Elf I should have thought that he would have known how to get all said that he wanted to have said without running with his head into the lion's mouth he has been so clever up to this God knows he has been bitter enough but he has always sailed within the wind Mr. Elf had a powerful committee by this time an animus in regard to the election had been created strong enough to bring out the men on both sides and to produce heat when otherwise there might only have been a warmth or possibly fragility the Whig marquises and the Whig barons came forward and with them the liberal professional men and the tradesmen who had found that party to answer best and the democratical mechanics if Melmont's money did not at last utterly demoralize the lower class of voters there would still be a good fight and there was a strong hope that under the ballot Melmont's money might be taken without a corresponding effect upon the voting it was found upon trial that Mr. Elf was a good speaker and though he still conducted the evening pulpit he made time for addressing meetings of the constituency almost daily and in his speeches he never spared Melmont no one, he said had a greater reverence for mercantile grandeur than himself but let them take care that the grandeur was grand great would be the disgrace to such a burrow as that of Westminster if it should find that it had been taken in by a false spirit of speculation and that it had surrendered itself to gambling when it had thought to do honour to honest commerce this, connected as of course it was with the articles in the paper was regarded as very open speaking and it had its effect some men began to say that Melmont had not been known long enough to deserve confidence in his riches and the Lord Mayor was already beginning to think that it might be wise to escape the dinner by some excuse Melmont's committee was also very grand if Elf was supported by Marquises and Barons, he was supported by Dukes and Earls but his speaking in public did not of itself inspire much confidence he had very little to say when he attempted to explain the political principles on which he intended to act after a little he defined himself to remarks and the personal attacks made on him by the other side and even in doing that was reiterative rather than diffusive let them prove it he defied them to prove it Englishmen were too great too generous too honest, too noble the men of Westminster especially were a great deal too high minded to pay any attention to such charges as these till they were proved let them prove it such accusations as these were mere lies till they were proved he did not say much himself in public as to actions for libel but assurances were made on his behalf to the electors especially by Lord Alfred Grendal and his son that as soon as the election was over all speakers and writers would be indicted for libel who should be declared by proper legal advice to have made themselves libel to such action listening pulpit and Mr. Alph would of course be the first victims the dinner was fixed for Monday July the 8th the election for the burl was to be held on Tuesday the 9th it was generally thought that the proximity of the two days had been arranged with the view of enhancing Melmont's expected triumph but such in truth was not the case it had been an accident and an accident that was distressing to some of the Melmontites there was much to be done about the dinner which could not be omitted and much also as to the election which was imperative the two Grendals father and son found themselves to be so driven that the world seemed for them to be turned topsy-turvy the elder had in old days been accustomed to electioneering in the interest of his own family and had declared himself willing to make himself useful on behalf of Mr. Melmont but he found Westminster to be almost too much for him he was called here and sent there till he was very near rebellion if this goes on much longer I shall cut it he said to his son think of me Governor, said the son I have to be in the city four or five times a week you've a regular salary come Governor you've done pretty well for that what's my salary to the shares you've had the thing is, well at last how last there are a good many who say that Melmont will burst up I don't believe it said Lord Alfred they don't know what they're talking about there are too many in the same boat to let him burst up it would be the bursting up of half London but I shall tell him after this that he must make it easier he wants to know who's to have every ticket for the dinner and there's nobody to tell him except me and I've got to arrange all the places that fellow from the Herald's office I don't know about people's rank which ought to come first a director of the bank or a fellow who writes books Miles suggested that the fellow from the Herald's office would know all about that and that his father need not trouble himself with petty details and you shall come to us for three days after it's over said Lady Monogram to Miss Longstaff a proposition to which Miss Longstaff acceded certainly indeed but not by any means as though a favor had been conferred upon her now the reason why Lady Monogram had changed her mind is to inviting her old friend and thus through open her hospitality for three whole days to the poor young lady who had disgraced herself by staying with the Melmots was as follows Miss Longstaff had the disposal of two evening tickets for Madame Melmots grand reception and so greatly had the Melmots risen in general appreciation that Lady Monogram had found that she was bound on behalf of her own position in society to be present on that occasion it would not do that her name should not be in the printed list of the guests therefore she had made a serviceable bargain with her old friend Miss Longstaff she was to have her two tickets for the reception and Miss Longstaff was to be received for three days as a guest by Lady Monogram it had also been conceded that at any rate on one of these nights Lady Monogram should take Miss Longstaff out with her and that she should herself receive company on another there was perhaps something slightly painful at the commencement of the negotiation but such feelings soon fade away and Lady Monogram was quite a woman of the world End of Chapter 44 Chapter 45 of The Way We Live Now This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollop Chapter 45 Mr. Melmont is pressed for time about this time a fortnight or nearly so before the election Mr. Longstaff came up to town and saw Mr. Melmont very frequently he could not go into his own house as he had let that for a month to the great financier nor had he any establishment in town but he slept at a hotel and lived at the Carlton he was quite delighted to find that his new friend was an honest conservative and he himself proposed the honest conservative at the club there was some idea of electing Mr. Melmont out of hand but it was decided that the club could not go beyond its rule and could only admit Mr. Melmont out of his regular turn as soon as he should occupy a seat in the House of Commons Mr. Melmont who was becoming somewhat arrogant was heard to declare that if the club did not take him when he was willing to be taken it might do without him if not elected at once he should withdraw his name so great was his prestige at this moment with his own party Mr. Longstaff among the number who pressed the thing on the committee Mr. Melmont was not like other men it was a great thing to have Mr. Melmont in the party Mr. Melmont's financial capabilities would in themselves be a tower of strength rules were not made to control the club in a matter of such importance as this a noble lord one among seven who had been named as a fit leader of the upper house in the next session was asked to take the matter up and men thought that the thing might have been done had he complied but he was old fashioned perhaps pigheaded and the club for the time lost the honor of entertaining Mr. Melmont it may be remembered that Mr. Longstaff had been anxious to become one of the directors of the Mexican Railway and that he was rather snubbed than encouraged when he expressed his wish to Mr. Melmont like other great men Mr. Melmont liked to choose his own time for bestowing favors since that request was made the proper time had come and he had now intimated to Mr. Longstaff that in a somewhat altered condition of things there would be a place for him at the board and that he and his brother directors would be delighted to avail themselves of his assistance the alliance between Mr. Melmont and Mr. Longstaff had become very close the Melmonts had visited the Longstaffs at Cavisham Georgiana Longstaff was staying with Madame Melmont in London the Melmonts were living in Mr. Longstaff's townhouse having taken it for a month at a very high rent Mr. Longstaff now had a seat at Mr. Melmont's board and Mr. Melmont had bought Mr. Longstaff's estate at Pickering on terms very favorable to the Longstaffs it had been suggested to Mr. Longstaff by Mr. Melmont that he had better qualify for his seat at the board by taking shares in the company to the amount of perhaps two or three thousand pounds and Mr. Longstaff had of course consented there would be no need of any transaction in absolute cash the shares could of course be paid for out of Mr. Longstaff's half of the purchase money for Pickering Park and could remain for the present to this also Mr. Longstaff had consented not quite understanding why the script should not be made over to him at once it was a part of the charm of all dealings with this great man that no ready money seemed ever to be necessary for anything great purchases were made and great transactions apparently completed without the signing even of a check Mr. Longstaff found himself to be afraid even to give a hint Mr. Melmont about ready money in speaking of all such matters Melmont seemed to imply that everything necessary had been done when he had said that it was done Pickering had been purchased and the title deeds made over to Mr. Melmont but the eighty thousand pounds had not been paid had not been absolutely paid though of course Mr. Melmont's note assenting to the terms was security sufficient for any reasonable man the property had been mortgaged though not heavily and Mr. Melmont had no doubt satisfied the mortgagee but there was still a sum of fifty thousand pounds to come of which Dolly was to have one half and the other was to be employed in paying off Mr. Longstaff's debts to tradesmen and debts to the bank it would have been very pleasant to have had this at once but Mr. Longstaff felt the absurdity of pressing such a man as Mr. Melmont was partly conscious of the gradual consummation of a new era in money matters if your banker is pressing you refer him to me Mr. Melmont had said as for many years past we have exchanged paper instead of actual money for our commodities so now it seems that under the new Melmont regime an exchange of words was to suffice but Dolly wanted his money Dolly idle as he was foolish as he was dissipated as he was and generally indifferent to his debts like to have what belonged to him it had all been arranged five thousand pounds would pay off all his tradesmen's debts and leave him comfortably possessed of money in hand while the other twenty thousand pounds would make his own property free there was a charm in this which awakened even Dolly and for the time almost reconciled him to his father's society and patience was coming over him he had actually gone down to caress him to arrange the terms with his father and had in fact made his own terms his father had been unable to move him and had consequently suffered much in spirit Dolly had been almost triumphant thinking that the money would come on the next day or at any rate during the next week now he came to his father early in the morning at about two o'clock to inquire what was being done he had not as yet been made blessed with a single ten pound note in his hand as the result of the sale are you going to see Melmont sir? he asked somewhat abruptly yes I'm to be with him tomorrow and he is to introduce me to the board you're going in for that are you sir? do they pay anything? I believe not Nitterdale and Young Carberry belong to it it's a sort of bear garden affair a bear garden affair a dolphin's house so I mean the club we had them all there for dinner one day and a jolly dinner we gave them Miles Grendahl and old Alfred belong to it I don't think they'd go in for it if there was no money going I'd make them fork out something if I took the trouble of going all that way I think that perhaps a dolphin should hardly understand these things no I don't I don't understand much about business I know what I want to understand is when Melmont is going to pay up this money I suppose he'll arrange it with the banks said the father I beg that he won't arrange my money with the banks sir you'd better tell him not a check upon his bank which I can pay into mine is about the best thing going you'll be in the city tomorrow and you'd better tell him if you don't like you know I'll get Squircombe to do it he's a lawyer whom Dolly had employed of late years much to the annoyance of his parent Mr. Squircombe's name was odious to Mr. Longstaff I beg you'll do nothing of the kind it will be very foolish if you do perhaps ruin us then he'd better pay up like anybody else said Dolly as he left the room the father knew the son and was quite sure that Squircombe would have his finger in the pie unless the money were paid quickly when Dolly had taken an idea into his head no power on earth no power at least of which the father could avail himself would turn him on that same day Melmont received two visits in the city from two of his fellow directors at the time he was very busy though his electioneering speeches were neither long nor pithy still he had to think of them beforehand members of his committee were always trying to see him orders the dinner and the preparation of the house could not be given by Lord Alfred without some reference to him and then those gigantic commercial affairs which were enumerated in the last chapter could not be adjusted without much labor on his part his hands were not empty but still he saw each of these young men for a few minutes my dear young friend what can I do for you he said to Sir Felix not sitting down so that Sir Felix also should remain standing about that money Mr. Melmont what money my dear fellow you see that a good many money matters passed through my hands the thousand pounds I gave you for shares if you don't mind and as the shares seem to be a bother I'll take the money back it was only the other day you had two hundred pounds said Melmont showing that he could apply his memory to small transactions when he pleased exactly and you might as well let me have the eight hundred pounds I've ordered the shares gave the order to my broker the other day then I'd better take the shares said Sir Felix feeling that it might very probably be that day fortnight before he could start for New York could I get them Mr. Melmont my dear fellow I really think you hardly calculate the value of my time when you come to me about such an affair as this I'd like to have the money or the shares said Sir Felix who was not specially averse to quarreling with Mr. Melmont now that he had resolved upon taking that gentleman's daughter to New York in direct opposition to his written promise their quarrel would be so thoroughly internecine when the departure should be discovered that any present anger could hardly increase its bitterness what Felix thought of now was simply his money and the best means of getting it out of Melmont's hands it's been thrift said Melmont apparently relenting and I'm afraid a gambler I suppose I must give you two hundred pounds more on account Sir Felix could not resist the touch of ready money and consented to take the sum offered as he pocketed the check he asked for the name of the brokers who were employed to buy the shares but here Melmont demurred no my friend said Melmont you are only entitled to shares six hundred pounds now I will see that the thing is put right so Sir Felix departed with two hundred pounds only Marie had said that she could get two hundred pounds perhaps if he bestirred himself and wrote to some of Miles his big relations he could obtain payment of a part of that gentleman's debt to him Sir Felix going down the stairs in Abchurch Lane met Paul Montague coming up Carberry on the spur of the moment thought that he would take a rise as he called it out of Montague what's this I hear about a lady at Islington he asked who has told you anything about a lady at Islington a little bird there are always little birds about telling of ladies I'm told that I'm to congratulate you on your coming marriage then you've been told an infernal falsehood said Montague passing on he paused a moment and added I don't know who can have told you but if you hear it again I'll trouble you to contradict it as he was waiting in Melmont's outer room while the Duke's nephew went in to see whether it was the great man's pleasure to see him he remembered whence Carberry must have heard tidings of Mrs. Hurdle of course the rumor had come through Ruby Ruggles Miles Grendel brought out word that the great man would see Mr. Montague but he added a caution he's awfully full of work just now you won't forget that will you Montague assured the Duke's nephew that he would be concise and was shown in I should not have troubled you said Paul only that I understood that I was to see you before the board met exactly of course it was quite necessary only you see I'm a little busy this damn dinner were over I shouldn't mind it's a deal easier to make a treaty with an emperor than to give him a dinner I can tell you that well let me see oh I was proposing that you should go out to Pekin to Mexico yes yes to Mexico of so many things running in my head well if you'll say when you're ready to start we'll draw up something of instructions you'd know better however than we can tell you what to do you'll see Fisker of course you and Fisker will manage it the chief thing will be a check for the expenses a we must get that passed at the next board Mr. Melmont had been so quick that Montague had been unable to interrupt him there need be no trouble about that Mr. Melmont as I have made up my mind that it would not be fit that I should go oh indeed there had been a shade of doubt on Montague's mind till the tone in which Melmont had spoken of the embassy graded on his ears the reference to the expenses disgusted him all together no even did I see my way to do any in America my duties here would not be compatible with the undertaking I don't see that at all what duties have you got here what good are you doing the company if you do stay I hope you'll be unanimous that's all but perhaps you intend to go out if that's it I'll look to your money I think I told you that before that Mr. Melmont is what I should prefer very well very well I'll arrange it sorry to lose you that's all Miles isn't Mr. Goldschiner waiting to see me you're a little too quick Mr. Melmont said Paul a man with my business on his hands is bound to be quick sir but I must be precise I cannot tell you as a fact that I shall withdraw from the board till I receive the advice of a friend with whom I am consulting I hardly yet know what my duty may be I'll tell you sir what cannot be your duty it cannot be your duty to make known out of that board room any of the affairs of the company which you have learned in that board room it cannot be your duty to divulge the circumstances of the company or any differences which may exist between directors of the company to any gentleman who is a stranger to the company it cannot be your duty thank you Mr. Melmont on matters such as that I think that I can see my own way I have been in fault in coming to the board without understanding what I should have to perform very much in fault I should say replied Melmont whose arrogance in the midst of his inflated glory was overcoming him but in reference to what I may or may not say to any friend or how far I should be restricted by the scruples of a gentleman I do not want advice from you very well very well I can't ask you to stay because a partner from the house of Todd Reagan Goldschiner is waiting to see me rather more important than this of yours Montague had said what he had to say and departed on the following day three quarters of an hour before the meeting of the board of directors old Mr. Longstaff called an ab church lane he was received very civilly by Miles Grendel and asked to sit down Mr. Melmont quite expected him and would walk with him over to the offices of the railway and introduce him to the board Mr. Longstaff with some shyness intimated his desire to have a few moments conversation with the chairman before the board met fearing his son especially fearing squircombe he had made up his mind to suggest that the little matter about Pickering Park should be settled Miles assured him that the opportunity should be given him but that at the present moment the chief secretary of the Russian legation was with Mr. Melmont the secretary was very tedious with his business or else other big men must have come in for Mr. Longstaff was not relieved till he was summoned to walk off to the board five minutes after the hour at which the board should have met he thought that he could explain his views in the street but on the stairs they were joined by Mr. Cohenloop and in three minutes they were in the board room Mr. Longstaff was then presented and took the chair opposite to Miles Grendel Montague was not there but had sent a letter to the secretary explaining that for reasons with which the chairman was acquainted he should absent himself from the present meeting all right said Melmont I know all about it go on I'm not sure but that Mr. Montague's retirement from among us may be an advantage he could not be made to understand that unanimity in such an enterprise as this is essential I am confident that the new director had the pleasure of introducing to you today will not sin in the same direction then Mr. Melmont bowed and smiled very sweetly on Mr. Longstaff Mr. Longstaff was astonished to find how soon the business was done and how very little he had been called on to do Miles Grendel had read something out of a book which he had been unable to follow then the chairman had read some figures Mr. Cohenloop had declared that their clarity was unprecedented and the board was over when Mr. Longstaff explained to Miles Grendel that he still wished to speak to Mr. Melmont Miles explained to him that the chairman had been obliged to run off to a meeting of gentlemen connected with the interior of Africa which was now being held at the Cannon Street Hotel End of Chapter 45 Chapter 46 of the way we live now this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the way we live now by Anthony Trollop Chapter 46 Roger Carberry and his two friends Roger Carberry having found Ruby Ruggles and having ascertained that she was at any rate living in a respectable house with her aunt returned to Carberry he had given the girl his advice and had done so in a manner that was not altogether ineffectual he had frightened her and had also frightened Mrs. Pipkin he had taught Mrs. Pipkin to believe that the new dispensation was not yet so completely established as to clear her from all responsibility as to her niece's conduct having done so much and feeling that there was no more to be done he returned home it was out of the question that he should take Ruby with him in the first place she would not have gone and then had she gone he would not have known where to bestow her for it was now understood throughout Bongay and the news had spread to Beckles that old farmer Ruggles had sworn that his granddaughter should never again be received at Sheapsacre Farm the squire on his return home heard all the news from his own housekeeper John Crumb had been at the farm and there had been a fierce quarrel between him and the old man the old man had called Ruby by every name that is most as tasteful to a woman and John had stormed and had sworn that he would have punched the old man's head but for his age he wouldn't believe any harm of Ruby or if he did he was ready to forgive that harm but as for the baronite the baronite had better looked to himself old Ruggles had declared that Ruby should never have a shilling of his money hereupon Crumb had anathematized old Ruggles and his money too telling him that he was an old honks and that he had driven the girl away by his cruelty Roger at once sent over to Bongay for the dealer and meal who was with him early on the following morning did you find her squire? oh yes Mr. Crumb I found her she's living with her aunt Mrs. Pipkin at Islington hey now look at that you knew she had an aunt of that name up in London yes I knew it squire I heard tell of Mrs. Pipkin but I never seen her I wonder it did not occur to you that Ruby would go there John Crumb scratched his head as though acknowledging the shortcoming of his own intellect of course if she was to go to London it was the proper thing for her to do I knew she'd do the things was right I said that all along darned if I didn't you asked Mixit Squire him as his baker down Bardsey Lane I always guide her that she'd do the thing as was right but how about she and the Baronite Roger did not wish to speak of the Baronette just at present I suppose the old man down here did ill use her oh dreadful there ain't no manner of doubt of that dragged her about awful as he ought to be took up only for the rumpus light do you think she's cede the Baronite since she's been in London Mr. Carberry I think she's a good girl if you mean that I'm sure she be I don't want none to tell me that Squire though Squire is better to mean or a ten pun note to hear you say so I always had a leaning to you Squire but I'll mourn a lean to you now I've said all through she was good and if air a man in bongae said she weren't there and ready I hope nobody has said so you can't stop them women Squire there ain't no dropping into them but Lord Lovey she shall come and be Mrs. of my house tomorrow and what'll it matter her then what they say but Squire did you hear if the Baronite had been a hanging about that place about Islington you mean he goes a hanging about he do he don't come out straight for it he's a good girl as he loves her for all the parish there ain't one in bongae nor yet in mettingham nor yet in all the Ilkitzels and all the Elmums as don't know as I am said on Ruby Ruggles Huggory Muggery is piezing to me Squire we all know that when you've made up your mind you have made up your mind I hope it's made up ever so as to Ruby what sort of a one is her aunt now Squire she keeps lodgings out of a woman I should say she won't let the Baronite come there certainly not said Roger who felt that he was hardly dealing sincerely with this most sincere of meal men hitherto he had shuffled off every question that had been asked him about Felix though he knew that Ruby had spent many hours with her fashionable lover Mrs. Pipkin won't let him come there if I was to give her a guillonne now or a blue cloak them lodging house women is mostly hard put to it or a chest of drawers like for her best bedroom wouldn't that make her more my side Squire I think she'll try to do her duty without that they do like things to like of that anyways I'll go up Squire or to Saxon a market and see how things is lying I wouldn't go just yet Mr. Crumb if I were you she hasn't forgotten the scene at the farm yet I said nothing she's wasn't as kind as kind but her own perversity runs in her own head if you had been unkind she could have forgiven that but as you were good natured and she was cross she can't forgive that John Crumb again scratched his head and felt that the depths of a woman's character required more gauging than he had yet given to it and to tell you the truth my friend I think that a little hardship up at Mrs. Pipkins will do her good don't you have a belly full of iddles asked John Crumb with intense anxiety I don't quite mean that I dare say she has enough to eat but of course she has to work for it with her aunt she has three or four children to look after that might come in handy by and by moiten at Squire said John Crumb grinning as you say she'll be learning something that may be useful to her in another sphere of course she'll be able to do and I should not be surprised if she were to think after a bit that your house in Bungay was more comfortable than Mrs. Pipkins kitchen in London my little back parlor a Squire and I've got a four poster most as big as any in Bungay I am sure you have everything comfortable for her and she knows it herself let her think about all that and do you go and tell her again what she is now but the baronite Mrs. Pipkin will allow nothing of that girls is so cute Ruby is awful cute makes me feel as though I had 200 weight of meal on my stomach lying awake in nights and thinking is how he is maybe pulling of her about if I thought that she'd let him I'd swing for it Mr. Carberry they'd have to make an intermediate way they would then Roger assured him again and again that he believed Ruby to be a good girl and promised that further steps should be taken to induce Mrs. Pipkin to keep a close watch upon her knees John Crumb made no promise that he would abstain from his journey to London after Sax Mundum Fair but left the Squire with a conviction that his purpose of doing so was shaken he was still however resolved to send Mrs. Pipkin the price of a new blue cloak for the purpose of getting mixed it to write the letter and enclose the money order John Crumb had no delicacy as to declaring his own deficiency in literary requirements he was able to make out a bill for meal or collards but did little beyond that in the way of writing letters this happened on a Saturday morning and on that afternoon Roger Carberry wrote over to Lowstoft to a meeting there on church matters at which his friend the bishop presided after the meeting was over he dined at the inn with half a dozen clergymen and two or three neighboring gentlemen and then walked down by himself onto the long strand which has made Lowstoft what it is it was now just the end of June and the weather was delightful but people were not as yet flocking to the seashore every shopkeeper in every little town through the country now follows the fashion set by parliament and abstains from his annual holiday in September the place therefore was by no means full here and there a few of the townspeople who at a bathing place are generally indifferent to the sea were strolling about and another few indifferent to fashion had come out from the lodging houses and from the hotel which had been described as being small and insignificant and making up only a hundred beds Roger Carberry whose house was not many miles distant from Lowstoft and he walked down to the seashore and always came to Lloyder there for a while when any cause brought him into the town now he was walking close down upon the marge of the tide so that the last little roll of the rising water should touch his feet with his hands joined behind his back and his face turned down towards the shore when he came upon a couple who were standing with their backs to the land looking forth together upon the waves he was close to them and saw them and before they had seen him then he perceived that the man was his friend Paul Montague leaning on Paul's arm a lady stood dressed very simply in black with a dark straw hat on her head very simple in her attire but yet a woman whom it would be impossible to pass without notice the lady of course was Mrs. Hurdle Paul Montague had been a fool to suggest Lowstoft the folly had been natural it was not the first place he had named but when fault had been found with others he had fallen back upon the sea sands which were best known to himself Lowstoft was just the spot which Mrs. Hurdle required when she had been shown her room and taken down out of the hotel onto the strand she had declared herself to be charmed she acknowledged with many smiles that of course she had had no right to expect that Mrs. Pipkin should understand what sort of place she needed but Paul would understand and had understood I think the hotel charming, she said I don't know what you mean by your fun about the American hotels but I think this quite gorgeous and the people so civil hotel people always are civil before the crowds come of course it was impossible that Paul should be trimmed to London by the mail train which started about an hour after his arrival he would have reached London at four or five in the morning and had been very uncomfortable the following day was Sunday and of course he promised to stay till Monday of course he had said nothing in the train of those stern things which he had resolved to say of course he was not saying them when Roger Carberry came upon him but was indulging in some poetical nonsense some probably very trite raptures as to the expanse of the ocean and the endless ripples which connected shore Mrs. Hurdle too as she leaned with friendly weight upon his arm indulged also in moonshine and romance though at the back of the heart of each of them there was a devouring care still they enjoyed the hour we know that the man who was to be hung likes to have his breakfast well cooked and so did Paul like the companionship of Mrs. Hurdle because her attire though simple was becoming because the color glowed in her dark face because of the brightness of her eyes and the happy sharpness of her words and the dangerous smile which played upon her lips he liked the warmth of her close vicinity and the softness of her arm and the perfume from her hair though he would have given all that he possessed that she had been removed from him by some impassable gulf as he had to be hanged and this woman's continued presence would be as bad as death to him he liked to have his meal well dressed he certainly had been foolish to bring her to Lohstoft and the close neighborhood of Carberry Manor and now he felt his folly as soon as he saw Roger Carberry he blushed up to his forehead and then leaving Mrs. Hurdle's arm he came forward and shook hands with his friend it is Mrs. Hurdle, he said I must introduce you and the introduction was made Roger took off his hat and bowed but he did so with the coldest ceremony Mrs. Hurdle, who was quick enough at gathering the minds of people from their looks was just as cold in her acknowledgement of the courtesy in former days she had heard much of Roger Carberry and surmised that he was no friend to her I did not know that you were thinking of coming to Lohstoft, said Roger in a voice that was needlessly severe but his mind at the present moment was severe and he could not hide his mind I was not thinking of it Mrs. Hurdle wished to get to the sea and as she knew no one else here in England I brought her Mr. Montague and I have traveled so many miles together before now she said that a few additional will not make much difference Do you stay long? asked Roger in the same voice I go back probably on Monday, said Montague As I shall be here a whole week and shall not speak a word to anyone after he has left me he has consented to bestow his company on me for two days Will you join us at dinner, Mr. Carberry, this evening? Thank you, madam, I have dined Then, Mr. Montague, I will leave you with your friend My toilette, though it will be very slight will take longer than yours We dine, you know, in twenty minutes I wish you could get your friend to join us So saying, Mrs. Hurdle tripped back across the sand towards the hotel Is this wise, demanded Roger in a voice that was almost sepulchral as soon as the lady was out of hearing You may well ask that, Carberry Nobody knows the folly of it so thoroughly as I do Then why do you do it? Do you mean to marry her? No, certainly not Is it honest, then, or like a gentleman You should be with her in this way Does she think that you intend to marry her? I have told her that I would not I have told her... Then he stopped He was going on to declare that he had told her that he loved another woman but he felt that he could hardly touch that matter in speaking to Roger Carberry What does she mean, then? Has she no regard for her own character? I would explain it to you all, Carberry, if I could But you would never have the patience to hear me I am not naturally impatient But this would drive you mad I wrote to her, assuring her that it must be all over Then she came here and sent for me Was I not bound to go to her? Yes, to go to her and repeat what you had said in your letter I did do so I went with that very purpose and did repeat it Then you should have left her Ah, but you do not understand She begged that I would not desert her in her loneliness We have been so much together that I could not desert her I certainly do not understand that, Paul You have allowed yourself to be entrapped into a promise of marriage And then, for reasons which we will not go into now but which we both thought to be adequate you resolved to break your promise thinking that you would be justified in doing so But nothing can justify you in living with the lady afterwards on such terms as to induce her to suppose that your old promise holds good She does not think so She cannot think so Then, what must she be to be here with you and what must you be to be here in public with such a one as she is? I don't know why I should trouble you or myself about it People live now in a way that I don't comprehend If this be your way of living, I have no right to complain For God's sake, Carberry, do not speak in that way It sounds as though you meant to throw me over I should have said that you had thrown me over You come down here to this hotel where we are both known with this lady whom you are not going to marry and I meet you just by chance Had I known it, of course, I could have turned the other way but coming on you by accident as I did how am I not to speak to you and if I speak, what am I to say? Of course I think that the lady will succeed in marrying you Never and that such a marriage will be your destruction doubtless she is good looking Yes, and clever and you must remember that the manners of her country are not as the manners of this country Then, if I marry at all, said Roger with all his prejudice expressed strongly in his voice I trust I may not marry a lady of her country She does not think that she is to marry you and yet she comes down here and stays with you Paul, I don't believe it I believe you but I don't believe her She is here with you in order that she may marry you She is cunning and strong You are foolish and weak Believing as I do that marriage with her would be destruction I should tell her my mind and leave her Paul at the moment thought of the gentleman in Oregon and of certain difficulties in leaving That's what I should do You must go in now, I suppose, and eat your dinner I may come to the hall as I go back home Certainly you may come if you please, said Roger Then he bethought himself that his welcome had not been cordial I mean that I shall be delighted to see you, he added marching away along the strand Paul did go into the hotel and did eat his dinner In the meantime, Roger Carberry marched far away along the strand In all that he had said to Montague he had spoken the truth or that which appeared to him to be the truth He had not been influenced for a moment by any reference to his own affairs And yet he feared, he almost knew that this man who had promised to marry a strange American woman and who was at this very moment living in close intercourse with the woman after he had told her that he would not keep his promise was the chief barrier between himself and the girl that he loved As he had listened to John Crumb while John spoke of Ruby Ruggles he had told himself that he and John Crumb were alike With an honest, true, heartfelt desire they both panted for the companionship of a fellow creature whom each had chosen and each was to be thwarted by the make-believe regard of unworthy youth and fatuous good looks Crumb by dogged perseverance and indifference to many things would probably be successful at last But what chance was there of success for him? Ruby, as soon as want or hardship told upon her would return to the strong arm that could be trusted to provide her with plenty and comparative ease but had a carvery if once her heart had passed from her own dominion into the possession of another would never change her love It was possible, no doubt, nay how probable that her heart was still vacillating Roger thought that he knew that at any rate she had not as yet declared her love if she were now to know, if she could now learn of what nature was the love of this other man if she could be instructed that he was living alone with a lady whom not long since he had promised to marry if she could be made to understand this whole story of Mrs. Hurdle would not that open her eyes would she not then see where she could trust her happiness and where by so trusting it she would certainly be shipwrecked? Never, said Roger to himself hitting at the stones on the beach with his stick Then he got his horse and rode back to carvery manner End of chapter 46