Vanity Fair (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

by William Makepeace Thackeray

  The scar cut by the diamond on his white, bald, shining forehead, made a burning red mark; his red whiskers were dyed of a purple hue, which made his pale face look still paler. He wore his collar and orders, his blue ribbon and garter. He was a greater prince than any there, though there was a reigning duke and a royal highness, with their princesses, and near his lordship was seated the beautiful Countess of Belladonna, née de Glandier, whose husband (the Count Paolo della Belladonna) so well known for his brilliant entomological collections, had been long absent on a mission to the Emperor of Morocco.

  When Becky beheld that familiar and illustrious face, how vulgar all of a sudden did Major Loder appear to her, and how that odious Captain Rook did smell of tobacco! In one instant she resumed her fine-ladyship, and tried to look and feel as if she was in May Fair once more. ‘That woman looks stupid and ill-humoured,‘ she thought; ‘I am sure she can‘t amuse him. No, he must be bored by her—he never was by me.‘ A hundred such touching hopes, fears, and memories palpitated in her little heart, as she looked with her brightest eyes (the rouge which she wore up to her eyelids made them twinkle) towards the great nobleman. Of a Star and Garter night Lord Steyne used also to put on his grandest manner, and to look and speak like a great prince, as he was. Becky admired him, smiling sumptuously, easy, lofty, and stately. Ah, bon Dieu, what a pleasant companion he was, what a brilliant wit, what a rich fund of talk, what a grand manner!—and she had exchanged this for Major Loder, reeking of cigars and brandy-and-water, and Captain Rook with his horse-jockey jokes and prize-ring slang, and their like. ‘I wonder whether he will know me,‘ she thought. Lord Steyne was talking and laughing with a great and illustrious lady at his side, when he looked up and saw Becky.

  She was all over in a flutter as their eyes met, and she put on the very best smile she could muster, and dropped him a little, timid, imploring curtsy. He stared aghast at her for a minute, as Macbeth might on beholding Banquo‘s sudden appearance at his ball-supper;uv and remained looking at her with open mouth, when that horrid Major Loder pulled her away.

  ‘Come away into the supper-room, Mrs. R.,‘ was that gentleman‘s remark; ‘seeing those nobs grubbing away has made me peckish too. Let‘s go and try the old governor‘s champagne.‘ Becky thought the major had had a great deal too much already

  The day after she went to walk on the Pincian Hill—the Hyde Park of the Roman idlers—possibly in hopes to have another sight of Lord Steyne. But she met another acquaintance there: it was Mr. Fiche, his lordship‘s confidential man, who came up nodding to her rather familiarly and putting a finger to his hat. ‘I knew that madame was here,‘ he said; ‘I followed her from her hotel. I have some advice to give madame.‘

  ‘From the Marquis of Steyne?‘ Becky asked, resuming as much of her dignity as she could muster, and not a little agitated by hope and expectation.

  ‘No,‘ said the valet; ‘it is from me. Rome is very unwholesome.‘

  ‘Not at this season, Monsieur Fiche—not till after Easter.‘

  ‘I tell madame it is unwholesome now. There is always malaria for some people. That cursed marsh wind kills many at all seasons. Look, Madame Crawley, you were always bon enfant,uw and I have an interest in you, parole d‘honneur.ux Be warned. Go away from Rome, I tell you—or you will be ill and die.‘

  Becky laughed, though in rage and fury. ‘What! assassinate poor little me?‘ she said. ‘How romantic! Does my lord carry bravos for couriers, and stilettos in the fourgons?uy Bali! I will stay, if but to plague him. I have those who will defend me whilst I am here.‘

  It was Monsieur Fiche‘s turn to laugh now. ‘Defend you,‘ he said, ‘and who? The major, the captain, any one of those gambling men whom madame sees, would take her life for a hundred louis. We know things about Major Loder (he is no more a major than I am my lord the marquis) which would send him to the galleys or worse. We know everything, and have friends everywhere. We know whom you saw at Paris, and what relations you found there. Yes, madame may stare, but we do. And how was it that no minister on the Continent would receive madame? She has offended somebody: who never forgives—whose rage redoubled when he saw you. He was like a madman last night when he came home. Madame de Belladonna made him a scene about you, and fired off in one of her furies.‘

  ‘Oh, it was Madame de Belladonna, was it?‘ Becky said, relieved a little, for the information she had just got had scared her.

  ‘No—she does not matter—she is always jealous. I tell you it was monseigneur. You did wrong to show yourself to him. And if you stay here you will repent it. Mark my words. Go. Here is my lord‘s carriage‘—and seizing Becky‘s arm, he rushed down an alley of the garden as Lord Steyne‘s barouche, blazing with heraldic devices, came whirling along the avenue, borne by the almost priceless horses, and bearing Madame de Belladonna lolling on the cushions, dark, sulky, and blooming, a King Charlesuz in her lap, a white parasol swaying over her head, and old Steyne stretched at her side with a livid face and ghastly eyes. Hate, or anger, or desire, caused them to brighten now and then still; but ordinarily, they gave no light, and seemed tired of looking out on a world of which almost all the pleasure and all the best beauty had palled upon the worn-out wicked old man.

  ‘Monseigneur has never recovered the shock of that night, never,‘ Monsieur Fiche whispered to Mrs. Crawley as the carriage flashed by, and she peeped out at it from behind the shrubs that hid her. ‘That was a consolation at any rate,‘ Becky thought.

  Whether my lord really had murderous intentions towards Mrs. Becky, as Monsieur Fiche said—(since monseigneur‘s death he has returned to his native country, where he lives much respected, and has purchased from his prince the title of Baron Ficci),—and the factotum objected to have to do with assassination; or whether he simply had a commission to frighten Mrs. Crawley out of a city where his lordship proposed to pass the winter, and the sight of her would be eminently disagreeable to the great nobleman, is a point which has never been ascertained: but the threat had its effect upon the little woman, and she sought no more to intrude herself upon the presence of her old patron.

  Everybody knows the melancholy end of that nobleman, which befell at Naples two months after the French Revolution of 1830: when the Most Honourable George Gustavus, Marquis of Steyne, Earl of Gaunt and of Gaunt Castle, in the Peerage of Ireland, Viscount Hellborough, Baron Pitchley and Grillsby, a Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, of the Golden Fleece of Spain, of the Russian Order of St. Nicholas of the First Class, of the Turkish Order of the Crescent, First Lord of the Powder Closet and Groom of the Back Stairs, Colonel of the Gaunt or Regent‘s Own Regiment of Militia, a Trustee of the British Museum, an Elder Brother of the Trinity House, a Governor of the White Friars, and D.C.L.,—died, after a series of fits, brought on, as the papers said, by the shock occasioned to his lordship‘s sensibilities by the downfall of the ancient French monarchy.

  An eloquent catalogue appeared in a weekly print, describing his virtues, his magnificence, his talents, and his good actions. His sensibility, his attachment to the illustrious House of Bourbon, with which he claimed an alliance, were such that he could not survive the misfortunes of his august kinsmen. His body was buried at Naples, and his heart—that heart which always beat with every generous and noble emotion—was brought back to Castle Gaunt in a silver urn. ‘In him,‘ Mr. Wagg said, ‘the poor and the Fine Arts have lost a beneficent patron, society one of its most brilliant ornaments, and England one of her loftiest patriots and statesmen,‘ &c., &c.

  His will was a good deal disputed, and an attempt was made to force from Madame de Belladonna the celebrated jewel called the ‘Jew‘s-eye‘ diamond, which his lordship always wore on his forefinger, and which it was said that she removed from it after his lamented demise. But his confidential friend and attendant, Monsieur Fiche, proved that the ring had been presented to the said Madame de Belladonna two days before the marquis‘s death; as were the bank-notes, jewels, Neapolitan and French bonds, &c., found in
his lordship‘s secretaire, and claimed by his heirs, from that injured woman.

  CHAPTER LXV

  Full of Business and Pleasure

  The day after the meeting at the play-table, Jos had himself arrayed with unusual care and splendour, and without thinking it necessary to say a word to any member of his family regarding the occurrences of the previous night, or asking for their company in his walk, he sallied forth at an early hour, and was presently seen making inquiries at the door of the ‘Elephant‘ Hotel. In consequence of the fêtes the house was full of company, the tables in the street were already surrounded by persons smoking and drinking the national small beer, the public rooms were in a cloud of smoke, and Mr. Jos having, in his pompous way, and with his clumsy German, made inquiries for the person of whom he was in search, was directed to the very top of the house, above the first-floor rooms where some travelling pedlars had lived, and were exhibiting their jewellery and brocades; above the second-floor apartments occupied by the état-majorva of the gambling firm; above the third-floor rooms, tenanted by the band of renowned Bohemian vaulters and tumblers; and so on to the little cabins of the roof, where, among students, bagmen, small tradesmen, and country-folks, come in for the festival, Becky had found a little nest;—as dirty a little refuge as ever beauty lay hid in.

  Becky liked the life. She was at home with everybody in the place, pedlars, punters, tumblers, students and all. She was of a wild, roving nature, inherited from father and mother, who were both Bohemians, by taste and circumstance: if a lord was not by, she would talk to his courier with the greatest pleasure; the din, the stir, the drink, the smoke, the tattle of the Hebrew pedlars, the solemn, braggart ways of the poor tumblers, the sournoisvb talk of the gambling-table officials, the songs and swagger of the students, and the general buzz and hum of the place had pleased and tickled the little woman, even when her luck was down, and she had not wherewithal to pay her bill. How pleasant was all the bustle to her now that her purse was full of the money which little Georgy had won for her the night before!

  As Jos came creaking and puffing up the final stairs, and was speechless when he got to the landing, and began to wipe his face and then to look for No. 92, the room where he was directed to seek for the person he wanted, the door of the opposite chamber, No. 90, was open, and a student, in jack-boots and a dirty Schlafrock,vc was lying on the bed smoking a long pipe; whilst another student in long yellow hair and a braided coat, exceeding smart and dirty too, was actually on his knees at No. 92, bawling through the keyhole supplications to the person within.

  ‘Go away,‘ said a well-known voice, which made Jos thrill; ‘I expect somebody; I expect my grandpapa. He mustn‘t see you there‘

  ‘Angel Engländerin!‘vd bellowed the kneeling student with the whitybrown ringlets and the large finger-ring, ‘do take compassion upon us. Make an appointment. Dine with me and Fritz at the inn in the park. We will have roast pheasants and porter, plum-pudding and French wine. We shall die if you don‘t.‘

  ‘That we will,‘ said the young nobleman on the bed; and this colloquy Jos overheard, though he did not comprehend it, for the reason that he had never studied the language in which it was carried on.

  ‘Newmero kattervang dooze, si vous plait,‘ve Jos said in his grandest manner, when he was able to speak.

  ‘Quater fang tooce!‘vf said the student, starting up, and he bounced into his own room, where he locked the door, and where Jos heard him laughing with his comrade on the bed.

  The gentleman from Bengal was standing disconcerted by this incident, when the door of the 92 opened of itself, and Becky‘s little head peeped out, full of archness and mischief. She lighted on Jos. ‘It‘s you,‘ she said, coming out. ‘How I have been waiting for you! Stop! not yet—in one minute you shall come in.‘ In that instant she put a rouge-pot, a brandy-bottle, and a plate of broken meat into the bed, gave one smooth to her hair, and finally let in her visitor.

  She had, by way of morning robe, a pink domino,vg a trifle faded and soiled, and marked here and there with pomatum; but her arms shone out from the loose sleeves of the dress, very white and fair, and it was tied round her little waist, so as not ill to set off the trim little figure of the wearer. She led Jos by the hand into her garret. ‘Come in,‘ she said. ‘Come and talk to me. Sit yonder on the chair;‘ and she gave the civilian‘s hand a little squeeze, and laughingly placed him upon it. As for herself, she placed herself on the bed—not on the bottle and plate, you may be sure—on which Jos might have reposed, had he chosen that seat; and so there she sat, and talked with her old admirer.

  ‘How little years have changed you,‘ she said, with a look of tender interest. ‘I should have known you anywhere. What a comfort it is amongst strangers to see once more the frank honest face of an old friend!‘

  The frank honest face, to tell the truth, at this moment bore any expression but one of openness and honesty: it was, on the contrary, much perturbed and puzzled in look. Jos was surveying the queer little apartment in which he found his old flame. One of her gowns hung over the bed, another depending from a hook of the door: her bonnet obscured half the looking-glass, on which, too, lay the prettiest little pair of bronze boots; a French novel was on the table by the bedside, with a candle, not of wax. Becky thought of popping that into the bed too, but she only put in the little paper nightcap, with which she had put the candle out on going to sleep.

  ‘I should have known you anywhere,‘ she continued; ‘a woman never forgets some things. And you were the first man I ever—I ever saw.‘

  ‘Was I, really?‘ said Jos. ‘God bless my soul, you—you don‘t say so.‘

  ‘When I came with your sister from Chiswick, I was scarcely more than a child,‘ Becky said. ‘How is that dear love? Oh, her husband was a sad wicked man, and of course it was of me that the poor dear was jealous. As if I cared about him, heigho! when there was somebody—but no—don‘t let us talk of old times;‘ and she passed her handkerchief with the tattered lace across her eyelids.

  ‘Is not this a strange place,‘ she continued, ‘for a woman, who has lived in a very different world too, to be found in? I have had so many griefs and wrongs, Joseph Sedley, I have been made to suffer so cruelly, that I am almost made mad sometimes. I can‘t stay still in any place, but wander about always restless and unhappy. All my friends have been false to me—all. There is no such thing as an honest man in the world. I was the truest wife that ever lived, though I married my husband out of pique, because somebody else—but never mind that. I was true, and he trampled upon me, and deserted me. I was the fondest mother. I had but one child, one darling, one hope, one joy, which I held to my heart with a mother‘s affection, which was my life, my prayer, my—my blessing; and they—they tore it from me—tore it from me;‘ and she put her hand to her heart with a passionate gesture of despair, burying her face for a moment on the bed.

  The brandy-bottle inside clinked up against the plate which held the cold sausage. Both were moved, no doubt, by the exhibition of so much grief. Max and Fritz were at the door listening with wonder to Mrs. Becky‘s sobs and cries. Jos, too, was a good deal frightened and affected at seeing his old flame in this condition. And she began forthwith to tell her story—a tale so neat, simple, and artless, that it was quite evident, from hearing her, that if ever there was a white-robed angel escaped from heaven to be subject to the infernal machinations and villainy of fiends here below, that spotless being—that miserable, unsullied martyr—was present on the bed before Jos—on the bed, sitting on the brandy-bottle.

  They had a very long, amicable, and confidential talk there; in the course of which, Jos Sedley was somehow made aware (but in a manner that did not in the least scare or offend him) that Becky‘s heart had first learned to beat at his enchanting presence: that George Osborne had certainly paid an unjustifiable court to her, which might account for Amelia‘s jealousy, and their little rupture; but that Becky never gave the least encouragement to the unfortunate officer, and that s
he had never ceased to think about Jos from the very first day she had seen him, though, of course, her duties as a married woman were paramount—duties which she had always preserved, and would, to her dying day, or until the proverbially bad climate in which Colonel Crawley was living, should release her from a yoke which his cruelty had rendered odious to her.

  Jos went away, convinced that she was the most virtuous, as she was one of the most fascinating of women, and revolving in his mind all sorts of benevolent schemes for her welfare. Her persecutions ought to be ended: She ought to return to the society of which she was an ornament. He would see what ought to be done. She must quit that place and take a quiet lodging. Amelia must come and see her, and befriend her. He would go and settle about it, and consult with the major. She wept tears of heartfelt gratitude as she parted from him, and pressed his hand as the gallant stout gentleman stooped down to kiss hers.

  So Becky bowed Jos out of her little garret with as much grace as if it was a palace of which she did the honours; and that heavy gentleman having disappeared down the stairs, Hans and Fritz came out of their hole, pipe in mouth, and she amused herself by mimicking Jos to them as she munched her cold bread and sausage and took draughts of her favourite brandy-and-water.

  Jos walked over to Dobbin‘s lodgings with great solemnity, and there imparted to him the affecting history with which he had just been made acquainted, without, however, mentioning the play business of the night before. And the two gentlemen were laying their heads together, and consulting as to the best means of being useful to Mrs. Becky, while she was finishing her interrupted déjeuner à la fourchette. vh