The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Penguin Classics)

by Brontë, Anne

  ‘Henceforth, I shall envy no one,’ returned I.

  ‘Indeed! Are you so happy then?’ said she thoughtfully; and something very like a cloud of disappointment shadowed her face. ‘And does he love you – I mean, does he idolize you as much as you do him?’ she added, fixing her eyes upon me with ill-disguised anxiety for the reply.

  ‘I don’t want to be idolized,’ I answered, ‘but I am well assured that he loves me more than anybody else in the world – as I do him.’

  ‘Exactly,’ said she with a nod. ‘I wish –’ she paused.

  ‘What do you wish?’ asked I, annoyed at the vindictive expression of her countenance.

  ‘I wish,’ returned she, with a short laugh, ‘that all the attractive points and desirable qualifications of the two gentlemen were united in one – that Lord Lowborough had Huntingdon’s handsome face and good temper, and all his wit, and mirth and charm, or else that Huntingdon had Lowborough’s pedigree, and title, and delightful old family seat, and I had him; and you might have the other and welcome.’

  ‘Thank you, dear Annabella, I am better satisfied with things as they are, for my own part; and for you, I wish you were as well content with your intended, as I am with mine,’ said I; and it was true enough; for, though vexed at first at her unamiable spirit, her frankness touched me, and the contrast between our situations was such, that I could well afford to pity her and wish her well.

  Mr Huntingdon’s acquaintances appear to be no better pleased with our approaching union than mine. This morning’s post brought him letters from several of his friends, during the perusal of which, at the breakfast-table, he excited the attention of the company, by the singular variety of his grimaces. But he crushed them all into his pocket, with a private laugh, and said nothing till the meal was concluded. Then, while the company were hanging over the fire or loitering through the room, previous to settling to their various morning’s avocations, he came and leant over the back of my chair, with his face in contact with my curls, and commencing with a quiet little kiss, poured forth the following complaints into my ear –

  ‘Helen, you witch, do you know that you’ve entailed upon me the curses of all my friends? I wrote to them the other day, to tell them of my happy prospects, and now, instead of a bundle of congratulations, I’ve got a pocketful of bitter execrations and reproaches. There’s not one kind wish for me, or one good word for you among them all. They say there’ll be no more fun now, no more merry days and glorious nights – and all my fault – I am the first to break up the jovial band, and others, in pure despair, will follow my example. I was the very life and prop of the community, they do me the honour to say, and I have shamefully betrayed my trust –’

  ‘You may join them again, if you like,’ said I, somewhat piqued at the sorrowful tone of his discourse. ‘I should be sorry to stand between any man – or body of men – and so much happiness; and perhaps I can manage to do without you, as well as your poor deserted friends.’

  ‘Bless you! no,’ murmured he. ‘It’s “all for love or the world well lost,”2 with me. Let them go to – where they belong, to speak politely. But if you saw how they abuse me, Helen, you would love me all the more, for having ventured so much for your sake.’

  He pulled out his crumpled letters. I thought he was going to show them to me, and told him I did not wish to see them.

  ‘I’m not going to show them to you, love,’ said he. ‘They’re hardly fit for a lady’s eyes – the most part of them. But look here. This is Grimsby’s scrawl – only three lines, the sulky dog! He doesn’t say much, to be sure, but his very silence implies more than all the others’ words, and the less he says, the more he thinks – G– d–n him! – I beg your pardon, dearest – and this is Hargrave’s missive. He is particularly grieved at me, because, forsooth, he had fallen in love with you from his sister’s reports, and meant to have married you himself, as soon as he had sown his wild oats.’

  ‘I’m vastly obliged to him,’ observed I.

  ‘And so am I,’ said he. ‘And look at this. This is Hattersley’s – every page stuffed full of railing accusations, bitter curses, and lamentable complaints, ending up with swearing that he’ll get married himself in revenge: he’ll throw himself away on the first old maid that chooses to set her cap at him, – as if I cared what he did with himself.’

  ‘Well,’ said I, ‘if you do give up your intimacy with these men, I don’t think you will have much cause to regret the loss of their society; for it’s my belief they never did you much good.’

  ‘Maybe not; but we’d a merry time of it, too, though mingled with sorrow and pain, as Lowborough knows to his cost – Ha, ha!’ and while he was laughing at the recollection of Lowborough’s troubles, my uncle came and clapped him on the shoulder.

  ‘Come my lad!’ said he. ‘Are you too busy making love to my niece, to make war with the pheasants? – First of October remember! – Sun shines out – rain ceased – even Boarham’s not afraid to venture in his waterproof boots; and Wilmot and I are going to beat you all. I declare, we old ‘uns are the keenest sportsmen of the lot!’

  ‘I’ll show you what I can do today, however,’ said my companion. ‘I’ll murder your birds by wholesale, just for keeping me away from better company than either you or them.’

  And so saying he departed; and I saw no more of him till dinner. It seemed a weary time: I wonder what I shall do without him.

  It is very true that the three elder gentlemen have proved themselves much keener sportsmen than the two younger ones; for both Lord Lowborough and Arthur Huntingdon have of late almost daily neglected the shooting excursions to accompany us in our various rides and rambles. But these merry times are fast drawing to a close. In less than a fortnight the party breaks up, much to my sorrow, for every day I enjoy it more and more – now that Messrs Boarham and Wilmot have ceased to tease me, and my aunt has ceased to lecture me, and I have ceased to be jealous of Annabella – and even to dislike her – and now that Mr Huntingdon is become my Arthur, and I may enjoy his society without restraint – What shall I do without him, I repeat?

  CHAPTER 22

  TRAITS OF FRIENDSHIP

  October 5th. – My cup of sweets is not unmingled: it is dashed with a bitterness that I cannot hide from myself, disguise it as I will. I may try to persuade myself that the sweetness overpowers it; I may call it a pleasant aromatic flavour, but, say what I will, it is still there, and I cannot but taste it. I cannot shut my eyes to Arthur’s faults; and the more I love him the more they trouble me. His very heart, that I trusted so, is, I fear, less warm and generous than I thought it. At least, he gave me a specimen of his character today, that seemed to merit a harder name than thoughtlessness. He and Lord Lowborough were accompanying Annabella and me in a long, delightful ride; he was riding by my side, us usual, and Annabella and Lord Lowborough were a little before us, the latter bending towards his companion as if in tender and confidential discourse.

  ‘Those two will get the start of us, Helen, if we don’t look sharp,’ observed Huntingdon. ‘They’ll make a match of it, as sure as can be. That Lowborough’s fairly besotted. But he’ll find himself in a fix when he’s got her, I doubt.’

  ‘And she’ll find herself in a fix when she’s got him,’ said I, ‘if what I have heard of him is true.’

  ‘Not a bit of it. She knows what she’s about; but he, poor fool, deludes himself with the notion that she’ll make him a good wife, and because she has amused1 him with some rodomontade about despising rank and wealth in matters of love and marriage, he flatters himself that she’s devotedly attached to him; that she will not refuse him for his poverty, and does not court him for his rank, but loves him for himself alone.’

  ‘But is not he courting her for her fortune?’

  ‘No, not he. That was the first attraction, certainly; but now, he has quite lost sight of it: it never enters his calculations, except merely as an essential without which, for the lady’s own sake, he could not think of marry
ing her. No; he’s fairly in love. He thought he never could be again, but he’s in for it once more. He was to have been married before, some two or three years ago; but he lost his bride by losing his fortune. He got into a bad way among us in London: he had an unfortunate taste for gambling; and surely the fellow was born under an unlucky star, for he always lost thrice where he gained once. That’s a mode of self-torment I never was much addicted to; when I spend my money I like to enjoy the full value of it I see no fun in wasting it on thieves and blacklegs;2 and as for gaining money, hitherto I have always had sufficient; it’s time enough to be clutching for more, I think, when you begin to see the end of what you have. But I have sometimes frequented the gaming-houses just to watch the on goings of those mad votaries of chance – a very interesting study, I assure you, Helen, and sometimes very diverting: I’ve had many a laugh at the boobies and bedlamites.3 Lowborough was quite infatuated – not willingly, but of necessity, – he was always resolving to give it up, and always breaking his resolutions. Every venture was the “just once more:” if he gained a little, he hoped to gain a little more next time, and if he lost, it would not do to leave off at that juncture; he must go on till he had retrieved that last misfortune, at least: bad luck could not last for ever; and every lucky hit was looked upon as the dawn of better times, till experience proved the contrary. At length he grew desperate, and we were daily on the look out for a case of felo-de-se4 – no great matter, some of us whispered, as his existence had ceased to be an acquisition to our club. At last, however, he came to a check. He made a large stake which he determined should be the last, whether he lost or won. He had often so determined before, to be sure, and as often broken his determination; and so it was this time. He lost; and while his antagonist smilingly swept away the stakes, he, turning chalky white, drew back in silence and wiped his forehead. I was present at the time; and while he stood with folded arms and eyes fixed on the ground, I knew well enough what was passing in his mind.

  ‘“Is it to be the last, Lowborough?” said I, stepping up to him.

  ‘“The last but ONE,” he answered, with a grim smile; and then, rushing back to the table, he struck his hand upon it, and raising his voice high above all the confusion of jingling coins and muttered oaths and curses in the room, he swore a deep and solemn oath that, come what would, THIS trial should be the last, and imprecated unspeakable curses on his head, if ever he should shuffle a card or rattle a dice-box again. He then doubled his former stake, and challenged anyone present to play against him. Grimsby instantly presented himself. Lowborough glared fiercely at him, for Grimsby was almost as celebrated for his luck as he was for his ill-fortune. However, they fell to work. But Grimsby had much skill and little scruple, and whether he took advantage of the other’s trembling, blinded eagerness to deal unfairly by him, I cannot undertake to say; but Lowborough lost again, and fell dead sick.

  ‘“You’d better try once more,” said Grimsby, leaning across the table. And then he winked at me.

  ‘“I’ve nothing to try with,” said the poor devil, with a ghastly smile.5

  ‘“Oh, Huntingdon will lend you what you want,” said the other.

  ‘“No; you heard my oath,” answered Lowborough, turning away in quiet despair. And I took him by the arm and led him out.

  ‘“Is it to be the last, Lowborough?” I asked, when I got him into the street.

  ‘“The last,” he answered, somewhat against my expectation. And I took him home – that is, to our club6 – for he was as submissive as a child, and plied him with brandy and water till he began to look rather brighter – rather more alive, at least.

  ‘“Huntingdon, I’m ruined!” said he, taking the third glass from my hand – he had drunk the other in dead silence.

  ‘“Not you!” said I. “You’ll find a man can live without his money as merrily as a tortoise without its head, or a wasp without its body.”

  ‘“But I’m in debt,” said he – “deep in debt! And I can never, never get out of it!”

  ‘“Well, what of that? many a better man than you has lived and died in debt, and they can’t put you in prison, you know, because you’re a peer.”7 And I handed him his fourth tumbler.

  ‘“But I hate to be in debt!” he shouted. “I wasn’t born for it, and I cannot bear it!”

  ‘“What can’t be cured must be endured,”8 said I, beginning to mix the fifth.

  ‘“And then, I’ve lost my Caroline.” And he began to snivel then, for the brandy had softened his heart.

  ‘“No matter,” I answered, “there are more Carolines in the world than one.”

  ‘“There’s only one for me,” he replied, with a dolorous sigh. “And if there were fifty more, who’s to get them, I wonder, without money?”

  ‘“Oh, somebody will take you for your title; and then you’ve your family estate yet; that’s entailed, you know.”

  ‘“I wish to God I could sell it to pay my debts,” he muttered.

  ‘“And then,” said Grimsby, who had just come in, “you can try again, you know. I would have one more chance if I were you. I’d never stop here.”

  ‘“I won’t, I tell you!” shouted he. And he started up and left the room – walking rather unsteadily, for the liquor had got into his head. He was not so much used to it then, but after that, he took to it kindly to solace his cares.

  ‘He kept his oath about gambling (not a little to the surprise of us all), though Grimsby did his utmost to tempt him to break it; but now he had got hold of another habit that bothered him nearly as much, for he soon discovered that the demon of drink was as black as the demon of play, and nearly as hard to get rid of – especially as his kind friends did all they could to second the promptings of his own insatiable cravings.’

  ‘Then, they were demons themselves,’9 cried I, unable to contain my indignation. ‘And you, Mr Huntingdon, it seems, were the first to tempt him.’

  ‘Well, what could we do?’ replied he, deprecatingly – ‘We meant it in kindness – we couldn’t bear to see the poor fellow so miserable: – and besides, he was such a damper upon us, sitting there, silent and glum, when he was under the threefold influence of the loss of his sweetheart, the loss of his fortune, and the reaction of the last night’s debauch; whereas, when he had something in him, if he was not merry himself, he was an unfailing source of merriment to us. Even Grimsby could chuckle over his odd sayings: they delighted him far more than my merry jests or Hattersley’s riotous mirth. But one evening, when we were sitting over our wine, after one of our club dinners, and had all been hearty together, – Lowborough giving us mad toasts, and hearing our wild songs and bearing a hand in the applause, if he did not help us to sing them himself, – he suddenly relapsed into silence, sinking his head on his hand, and never lifting his glass to his lips; – but this was nothing new; so we let him alone, and went on with our jollification, till, suddenly raising his head, he interrupted us in the middle of a roar of laughter, by exclaiming, –

  ‘“Gentlemen, where is all this to end? – Will you just tell me that now? – Where is it all to end?”

  ‘“In hell fire,” growled Grimsby.

  ‘“You’ve hit it – I thought so!” cried he. “Well then, I’ll tell you what” – he rose.

  ‘“A speech, a speech!” shouted we. “Hear, hear! Lowborough’s going to give us a speech!”

  ‘He waited calmly till the thunders of applause and jingling of glasses had ceased, and then proceeded, –

  ‘“It’s only this, gentlemen, – that I think we’d better go no farther. We’d better stop while we can.”

  ‘“Just so!” cried Hattersley –

  ”Stop poor sinner, stop and think10

  Before you farther go,

  No longer sport upon the brink

  Of everlasting woe.”

  ‘“Exactly!” replied his lordship, with the utmost gravity. “And if you choose to visit the bottomless pit, I won’t go with you – we must part company, for I swear I�
�ll not move another step towards it! – What’s this?” he said, taking up his glass of wine.

  ‘“Taste it,” suggested I.

  ‘“This is hell broth!” he exclaimed. “I renounce it for ever!” And he threw it out into the middle of the table.

  ‘“Fill again!” said I, handing him the bottle – “and let us drink to your renunciation.”

  ‘“It’s rank poison,” said he, grasping the bottle by the neck, “and I forswear it! I’ve given up gambling, and I’ll give up this too.” He was on the point of deliberately pouring the whole contents of the bottle on to the table, but Hargrave wrested it from him. “On you be the curse, then!” said he. And backing from the room, he shouted, “Farewell, ye tempters!” and vanished amid shouts of laughter and applause.

  ‘We expected him back among us the next day; but to our surprise, the place remained vacant: we saw nothing of him for a whole week; and we really began to think he was going to keep his word. At last, one evening, when we were most of us assembled together again, he entered, silent and grim as a ghost, and would have quietly slipped into his usual seat at my elbow, but we all rose to welcome him, and several voices were raised to ask what he would have, and several hands were busy with bottle and glass to serve him; but I knew a smoking tumbler of brandy and water would comfort him best, and had nearly prepared it, when he peevishly pushed it away, saying,

  ‘“Do let me alone, Huntingdon! Do be quiet, all of you! I’m not come to join you: I’m only come to be with you awhile, because I can’t bear my own thoughts.” And he folded his arms and leant back in his chair; so we let him be. But I left the glass by him; and after a while, Grimsby directed my attention towards it, by a significant wink; and, on turning my head, I saw it was drained to the bottom. He made me a sign to replenish, and quietly pushed up the bottle. I willingly complied; but Lowborough detected the pantomime, and, nettled at the intelligent grins that were passing between us, snatched the glass from my hand, dashed the contents of it in Grimsby’s face, threw the empty tumbler at me,’ and then bolted from the room.’