Delphi Complete Works of Sheridan Le Fanu

by J. Sheridan le Fanu

  Cluffe, in virtue of his rank and pretensions, marched in the van, and, as Aunt Becky received him, little Puddock’s round eyes swept the room in search, perhaps, of some absent object.

  ‘The general’s not here,’ said Aunt Becky loftily and severely, interpreting Puddock’s wandering glance in that way. ‘Your visit, perhaps, is for him — you’ll find him in his study, with the orderly.’

  ‘My visit, Madam,’ said Puddock, with a slight blush, ‘was intended for you, Madam — not for the general, whom I had the honour of seeing this morning on parade.’

  ‘Oh! for me? I thank you,’ said Aunt Rebecca, with a rather dry acknowledgment. And so she turned and chatted with Cluffe, who, not being at liberty to talk upon his usual theme — his poor, unhappy friend, Puddock, and his disgraces — was eloquent upon the monkey, and sweet upon the lapdogs, and laughed till he grew purple at the humours of the parrot, and swore, as gentlemen then swore, ’twas a conjuror, a wonder, and as good as a play. While this entertaining conversation was going on, there came a horrid screech and a long succession of yelps from the courtyard.

  ‘Good gracious mercy,’ cried Aunt Rebecca, sailing rapidly to the window, ‘’tis Flora’s voice. Sweet creature, have they killed you — my angel; what is it? — where are you, sweetheart? — where can she be? Oh, dear — oh, dear!’ — and she looked this way and that in her distraction.

  But the squeak subsided, and Flora was not to be seen; and Aunt Becky’s presence of mind returned, and she said —

  ‘Captain Cluffe, ’tis a great liberty; but you’re humane — and, besides, I know that you would readily do me a kindness.’ That emphasis was shot at poor Puddock. ‘And may I pray you to try on the steps if you can see the dear animal, anywhere — you know Flora?’

  ‘Know her? — oh dear, yes,’ cried Cluffe with alacrity, who, however, did not, but relied on her answering to her name, which he bawled lustily from the doorsteps and about the courtyard, with many terms of endearment, intended for Aunt Becky’s ear, in the drawingroom.

  Little Puddock, who was hurt at that lady’s continued severity, was desirous of speaking; for he liked Aunt Becky, and his heart swelled within him at her injustice; but though he hemmed once or twice, somehow the exordium was not ready, and his feelings could not find a tongue.

  Aunt Becky looked steadfastly from the window for a while, and then sailed majestically toward the door, which the little ensign, with an humble and somewhat frightened countenance, hastened to open.

  ‘Pray, Sir, don’t let me trouble you,’ said Aunt Becky, in her high, cold way.

  ‘Madam, ’tis no trouble — it would be a happiness to me, Madam, to serve you in any way you would permit; but ’tis a trouble to me, Madam, indeed, that you leave the room, and a greater trouble,’ said little Puddock, waxing fluent as he proceeded, ‘that I have incurred your displeasure — indeed, Madam, I know not how — your goodness to me, Madam, in my sickness, I never can forget.’

  ‘You can forget, Sir — you have forgot. Though, indeed, Sir, there was little to remember, I — I’m glad you thought me kind, Sir. I — I wish you well, Sir,’ said Aunt Becky. She was looking down and a little pale, and in her accents something hurried and almost sad. ‘And as for my displeasure, Sir, who said I was displeased? And if I were, what could my displeasure be to you? No, Sir,’ she went on almost fiercely, and with a little stamp on the floor, ‘you don’t care; and why should you? — you’ve proved it — you don’t, Lieutenant Puddock, and you never did.’

  And, without waiting for an answer, Aunt Becky flashed out of the room, and up stairs to her chamber, the door of which she slammed fiercely; and Gertrude, who was writing a letter in her own chamber, heard her turn the key hastily in the lock.

  When Cluffe, who for some time continued to exercise his lungs in persuasive invitations to Flora, at last gave over the pursuit, and returned to the drawingroom, to suggest that the goddess in question had probably retreated to the kitchen, he was a good deal chagrined to find the drawingroom ‘untreasured of its mistress.’

  Puddock looked a good deal put out, and his explanation was none of the clearest; and he could not at all say that the lady was coming back.

  ‘I think, Lieutenant Puddock,’ said Cluffe, who was much displeased, and had come to regard Aunt Rebecca very much as under his especial protection, ‘it might have been better we hadn’t called here. I — you see — you’re not — you see it yourself — you’ve offended Miss Rebecca Chattesworth somehow, and I’m afraid you’ve not mended matters while I was down stairs bawling after that cursed — that — the — little dog, you know. And — and for my part, I’m devilish sorry I came, Sir.’

  This was said after a wait of nearly ten minutes, which appeared at least twice as long.

  ‘I’m sorry, Sir, I embarrassed you with the disadvantage of my company,’ answered little Puddock, with dignity.

  ‘Why, ’tisn’t that, you know,’ rejoined Cluffe, in a patronising ‘my good-fellow’ sort of way; ‘you know I always liked your company devilish well. But where’s the good of putting one’s self in the way of being thought de trop — don’t you see — by other people — and annoyed in this way — and — you — you don’t know the world, Puddock — you’d much better leave yourself in any hands, d’ye see; and so, I suppose, we may as well be off now— ’tis no use waiting longer.’

  And discontentedly and lingeringly the gallant captain, followed by Puddock, withdrew himself — pausing to caress the wolf-dog at the corner of the courtyard, and loitering as long as it was decent in the avenue.

  All this time Miss Gertrude Chattesworth, like her more mature relative, was in the quiet precincts of her chamber. She, too, had locked her door, and, with throbbing temples and pale face, was writing a letter, from which I take the liberty of printing a few scarcely coherent passages.

  ‘I saw you on Sunday — for near two hours — may Heaven forgive me, thinking of little else than you. And, oh! what would I not have given to speak, were it but ten words to you? When is my miserable probation to end? Why is this perverse mystery persisted in? I sometimes lose all hope in my destiny, and wellnigh all trust in you. I feel that I am a deceiver, and cannot bear it. I assure you, on my sacred honour, I believe there is nothing gained by all this — oh! forgive the word — deception. How or when is it to terminate? — what do you purpose? — why does the clerk’s absence from the town cause you so much uneasiness — is there any danger you have not disclosed? A friend told me that you were making preparations to leave Chapelizod and return to England. I think I was on the point of fainting when I heard it. I almost regret I did not, as the secret would thus have been discovered, and my emancipation accomplished. How have you acquired this strange influence over me, to make me so deceive those in whom I should most naturally confide? I am persuaded they believe I really recoil from you. And what is this new business of Doctor Sturk? I am distracted with uncertainties and fears. I hear so little, and imperfectly from you, I cannot tell from your dark hints whether some new danger lurks in those unlooked-for quarters. I know not what magic binds me so to you, to endure the misery of this strange deceitful mystery — but you are all mystery; and yet be not — you cannot be — my evil genius. You will not condemn me longer to a wretchedness that must destroy me. I conjure you, declare yourself. What have we to fear? I will brave all — anything rather than darkness, suspense, and the consciousness of a continual dissimulation. Declare yourself, I implore of you, and be my angel of light and deliverance.’

  There is a vast deal more, but this sample is quite enough; and when the letter was finished, she signed it —

  ‘Your most unhappy and too-faithful,

  ‘Gertrude’.

  And having sealed it, she leaned her anxious head upon her hand, and sighed heavily.

  She knew very well by what means to send it; and the letter awaited at his house him for whom it was intended on his return that evening.

  CHAPTER LXXXIII.

 
; IN WHICH THE KNIGHT OF THE SILVER SPECTACLES MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF THE SAGE ‘BLACK DILLON,’ AND CONFERS WITH HIM IN HIS RETREAT.

  At that time there had appeared in Dublin an erratic genius in the medical craft, a young surgeon, ‘Black Dillon,’ they called him, the glory and disgrace of his calling; such as are from time to time raised up to abase the pride of intellect, and terrify the dabblers in vice. A prodigious mind, illuminating darkness, and shivering obstacles at a blow, with an electric force — possessing the power of a demigod, and the lusts of a swine. Without order, without industry; defying all usages and morality; lost for weeks together in the catacombs of vice; and emerging to reassert in an hour the supremacy of his intellect; without principles or shame; laden with debt; and shattered and poisoned with his vices; a branded and admired man.

  In the presence of this outcast genius and prodigy of vice, stood Mr. Dangerfield. There were two other gentlemen in the same small room, one of whom was doggedly smoking, with his hat on, over the fire; the other snoring in a crazy armchair, on the back of which hung his wig. The window was small and dirty; the air muddy with tobacco-smoke, and inflamed with whiskey. Singing and the clang of glasses was resounding from the next room, together with peals of coarse laughter, and from that on the other side, the high tones and hard swearing, and the emphatic slapping of a heavy hand upon the table, indicating a rising quarrel, were heard. From one door through another, across the narrow floor on which Mr. Dangerfield stood, every now and then lounged some neglected, dirty, dissipated looking inmate of these unwholesome precincts. In fact, Surgeon Dillon’s present residence was in that diversorium pecatorum, the Four Courts Marshalsea in Molesworth-court. As these gentlemen shuffled or swaggered through, they generally nodded, winked, grunted, or otherwise saluted the medical gentleman, and stared at his visitor. For as the writer of the Harleian tract — I forget its name — pleasantly observes:— ‘In gaol they are no proud men, but will be quickly acquainted without ceremony.’

  Mr. Dangerfield stood erect; all his appointments were natty, and his dress, though quiet, rich in material, and there was that air of reserve, and decision, and command about him, which suggests money, an article held much in esteem in that retreat. He had a way of seeing every thing in a moment without either staring or stealing glances, and nobody suspected him of making a scrutiny. In the young surgeon he saw an object in strong contrast with himself. He was lean and ungainly, shy and savage, dressed in a long greasy silk morning gown, blotched with wine and punch over the breast. He wore his own black hair gathered into a knot behind, and in a neglected dusty state, as if it had not been disturbed since he rolled out of his bed. This being placed his large, red, unclean hands, with fingers spread, like a gentleman playing the harpsichord, upon the table, as he stood at the side opposite to Mr. Dangerfield, and he looked with a haggard, surly stare on his visitor, through his great dark, deep-set prominent eyes, streaming fire, the one feature that transfixed the attention of all who saw him. He had a great brutal mouth, and his nose was pimply and inflamed, for Bacchus has his fires as well as Cupid, only he applies them differently. How polished showed Mr. Dangerfield’s chin opposed to the three days’ beard of Black Dillon! how delicate his features compared with the lurid proboscis, and huge, sensual, sarcastic mouth of the gentleman in the dirty morning-gown and shapeless slippers, who confronted him with his glare, an image of degradation and power!

  ‘Tuppince, Docthor Dillon,’ said a short, fat, dirty nymph, without stays or hoop, setting down a ‘naggin o’ whiskey’ between the medical man and his visitor.

  The doctor, to do him justice, for a second or two looked confoundedly put out, and his eyes blazed fiercer as his face flushed.

  ‘Three halfpence outside, and twopence here, Sir,’ said he with an awkward grin, throwing the money on the table; ‘that’s the way our shepherd deglubat oves, Sir; she’s brought it too soon, but no matter.’

  It was not one o’clock, in fact.

  ‘They will make mistakes, Sir; but you will not suffer their blunders long, I warrant,’ said Dangerfield, lightly. ‘Pray, Sir, can we have a room for a moment to ourselves?’

  ‘We can, Sir, ’tis a liberal house; we can have any thing; liberty itself, Sir — for an adequate sum,’ replied Mr. Dillon.

  Whatever the sum was, the room was had, and the surgeon, who had palpably left his ‘naggin’ uneasily in company with the gentleman in the hat, and him without a wig, eyed Dangerfield curiously, thinking that possibly his grand-aunt Molly had left him the fifty guineas she was rumoured to have sewed up in her stays.

  ‘There’s a great deal of diversion, Sir, in five hundred guineas, said Mr. Dangerfield, and the spectacles dashed pleasantly upon the doctor.

  ‘Ye may say that,’ answered the grinning surgeon, with a quiet oath of expectation.

  ‘’Tis a handsome fee, Sir, and you may have it.’

  ‘Five hundred guineas!’

  ‘Ah, you’ve heard, Sir, perhaps, of the attempted murder in the park, on Doctor Sturk, of the Artillery; for which Mr. Nutter now lies in prison?’ said Mr. Dangerfield.

  ‘That I have, Sir.’

  ‘Well, you shall have the money, Sir, if you perform a simple operation.’

  ‘’Tis not to hang him you want me?’ said the doctor, with a gloomy sneer.

  ‘Hang him! — ha, ha — no, Sir, Doctor Sturk still lives, but insensible. He must be brought to consciousness, and speech. Now, the trepan is the only way to effect it; and I’ll be frank with you: Doctor Pell has been with him half a dozen times, and he says the operation would be instantaneously fatal. I don’t believe him. So also says Sir Hugh Skelton, to whom I wrote in London — I don’t believe him, either. At all events, the man is dying, and can’t last very many days longer, so there’s nothing risked. His wife wishes the operation; here’s her note; and I’ll give you five hundred guineas and — what are you here for?’

  ‘Only eighteen, unless some more has come in this morning,’ answered the doctor.

  ‘And your liberty, Sir, that on the spot, if you undertake the operation, and the fee so soon as you have done it.’

  The doctor’s face blazed with a grin of exultation; he squared his shoulders and shook himself a little; and after a little silence, he demanded —

  ‘Can you describe the case, Sir, as you stated it to Sir Hugh Skelton?’

  ‘Surely, Sir, but I rely for it and the terms, upon the description of a village doctor, named Toole; an ignoramus, I fear.’

  And with this preface he concisely repeated the technical description which he had compiled from various club conversations of Dr. Toole’s, to which no person imagined he had been listening so closely.

  ‘If that’s the case, Sir, ‘twill kill him.’

  ‘Kill or cure, Sir, ’tis the only chance,’ rejoined Dangerfield.

  ‘What sort is the wife, Sir?’ asked Black Dillon, with a very odd look, while his eye still rested on the short note that poor Mrs. Sturk had penned.

  ‘A nervous little woman of some two or three and forty,’ answered the spectacles.

  The queer look subsided. He put the note in his pocket, and looked puzzled, and then he asked— ‘

  ‘Is he any way related to you, Sir?’

  ‘None in life, Sir. But that does not affect, I take it, the medical question.’

  ‘No, it does not affect the medical question — nothing can,’ observed the surgeon, in a sulky, sardonic way.

  ‘Of course not,’ answered the oracle of the silver spectacles, and both remained silent for a while.

  ‘You want to have him speak? Well, suppose there’s a hundred chances to one the trepan kills him on the spot — what then?’ demanded the surgeon, uncomfortably.

  Dangerfield pondered, also uncomfortably for a minute, but answered nothing; on the contrary, he demanded —

  ‘And what then, Sir?’

  ‘But here, in this case,’ said Black Dillon, ‘there’s no chance at all, do you see, there’s no c
hance, good, bad, or indifferent; none at all.’

  ‘But I believe there is,’ replied Dangerfield, decisively.

  ‘You believe, but I know.’

  ‘See, Sir,’ said Dangerfield, darkening, and speaking with a strange snarl; ‘I know what I’m about. I’ve a desire, Sir, that he should speak, if ‘twere only two minutes of conscious articulate life, and then death— ’tis not a pin’s point to me how soon. Left to himself he must die; therefore, to shrink from the operation on which depends the discovery both of his actual murderer and of his money, Sir, otherwise lost to his family, is — is a damned affectation! I think it — so do you, Sir; and I offer five hundred guineas as your fee, and Mrs. Sturk’s letter to bear you harmless.’

  Then there was a pause. Dangerfield knew the man’s character as well as his skill. There were things said about him darker than we have hinted at.

  The surgeon looked very queer and gloomy down upon the table, and scratched his head, and he mumbled gruffly —

  ‘You see — you know— ’tis a large fee, to be sure; but then— ‘

  ‘Come, Sir,’ said Dangerfield, looking as though he’d pull him by the ear; ‘it is a large fee, and you’ll get no more — you should not stick at trifles, when there’s — a — a — justice and humanity — and, to be brief, Sir — yes or no?’

  ‘Yes,’ answered the doctor; ‘but how’s the fee secured?’

  ‘Hey! I’d forgot. Right, Sir — you shall be satisfied.’

  And he took a pen, and wrote on the back of a letter —

  ‘SIR — Considering the hopeless condition in which Dr. Sturk now lies, and the vast importance of restoring him, Dr. Sturk, of the R.I.A., to the power of speech, even for a few minutes, I beg to second Mrs. Sturk’s request to you; and when you shall have performed the critical operation she desires, I hereby promise, whether it succeed or fail, to give you a fee of five hundred guineas.