Armadale

by Wilkie Collins

  ‘A little dinner at Richmond,’ said Bashwood the younger. ‘Give me some tea.’

  Mr Bashwood tried to comply with the request; but the hand with which he lifted the teapot trembled so unmanageably that the tea missed the cup and streamed out on the cloth. ‘I’m very sorry; I can’t help trembling when I’m anxious,’ said the old man, as his son took the teapot out of his hand. ‘I’m afraid you bear me malice, Jemmy, for what happened when I was last in town. I own I was obstinate and unreasonable about going back to Thorpe-Ambrose. I’m more sensible now. You were quite right in taking it all on yourself, as soon as I showed you the veiled lady, when we saw her come out of the hotel; and you were quite right to send me back the same day to my business in the steward’s office at the Great House.’ He watched the effect of these concessions on his son, and ventured doubtfully on another entreaty. ‘If you won’t tell me anything else just yet,’ he said, faintly, ‘will you tell me how you found her out? Do, Jemmy, – do!’

  Bashwood the younger looked up from his plate. ‘I’ll tell you that,’ he said. ‘The reckoning up of Miss Gwilt has cost more money and taken more time than I expected; and the sooner we come to a settlement about it, the sooner we shall get to what you want to know.’

  Without a word of expostulation, the father laid his dingy old pocket- book and his purse on the table before the son. Bashwood the younger looked into the purse; observed, with a contemptuous elevation of the eyebrows, that it held no more than a sovereign and some silver; and returned it intact. The pocket-book, on being opened next, proved to contain four five-pound notes. Bashwood the younger transferred three of the notes to his own keeping; and handed the pocket-book back to his father, with a bow expressive of mock gratitude, and sarcastic respect.

  ‘A thousand thanks,’ he said. ‘Some of it is for the people at our office, and the balance is for myself. One of the few stupid things, my dear sir, that I have done in the course of my life, was to write you word when you first consulted me, that you might have my services gratis. As you see, I hasten to repair the error. An hour or two at odd times, I was ready enough to give you. But this business has taken days, and has got in the way of other jobs. I told you I couldn’t be out of pocket by you – I put it in my letter, as plain as words could say it.’

  ‘Yes, yes, Jemmy. I don’t complain, my dear, I don’t complain. Never mind the money – tell me how you found her out.’

  ‘Besides,’ pursued Bashwood the younger, proceeding impenetrably with his justification of himself, ‘I have given you the benefit of my experience – I’ve done it cheap. It would have cost double the money, if another man had taken this in hand. Another man would have kept a watch on Mr Armadale as well as Miss Gwilt. I have saved you that expense. You are certain that Mr Armadale is bent on marrying her. Very good. In that case, while we have our eye on her, we have, for all useful purposes, got our eye on him. Know where the lady is, and you know that the gentleman can’t be far off.’

  ‘Quite true, Jemmy. But how was it Miss Gwilt came to give you so much trouble?’

  ‘She’s a devilish clever woman,’ said Bashwood the younger; ‘that’s how it was. She gave us the slip at a milliner’s shop. We made it all right with the milliner, and speculated on the chance of her coming back to try on a gown she had ordered. The cleverest women lose the use of their wits in nine cases out of ten, where there’s a new dress in the case – and even Miss Gwilt was rash enough to go back. That was all we wanted. One of the women from our office helped to try on her new gown, and put her in the right position to be seen by one of our men behind the door. He instantly suspected who she was, on the strength of what he had been told of her – for she’s a famous woman in her way. Of course, we didn’t trust to that. We traced her to her new address; and we got a man from Scotland Yard, who was certain to know her, if our own man’s idea was the right one. The man from Scotland Yard turned milliner’s lad for the occasion, and took her gown home. He saw her in the passage, and identified her in an instant. You’re in luck, I can tell you. Miss Gwilt’s a public character. If we had had a less notorious woman to deal with, she might have cost us weeks of inquiry, and you might have had to pay hundreds of pounds. A day did it in Miss Gwilt’s case; and another day put the whole story of her life, in black and white, into my hands. There it is at the present moment, old gentleman, in my black bag.’

  Bashwood the father made straight for the bag with eager eyes, and outstretched hand. Bashwood the son took a little key out of his waistcoat pocket – winked – shook his head – and put the key back again.

  ‘I hav’n’t done breakfast yet,’ he said. ‘Gently does it, my dear sir – gently does it.’

  ‘I can’t wait!’ cried the old man, struggling vainly to preserve his self-control. ‘It’s past nine! It’s a fortnight to-day, since she went to London with Mr Armadale! She may be married to him in a fortnight! She may be married to him this morning! I can’t wait! I can’t wait!’

  ‘There’s no knowing what you can do till you try,’ rejoined Bashwood the younger. ‘Try; and you’ll find you can wait. What has become of your curiosity?’ he went on, feeding the fire ingeniously with a stick at a time. ‘Why don’t you ask me what I mean by calling Miss Gwilt a public character? Why don’t you wonder how I came to lay my hand on the story of her life, in black and white? If you’ll sit down again, I’ll tell you. If you won’t, I shall confine myself to my breakfast.’

  Mr Bashwood sighed heavily, and went back to his chair.

  ‘I wish you were not so fond of your joke, Jemmy,’ he said; ‘I wish, my dear, you were not quite so fond of your joke.’

  ‘Joke?’ repeated his son. ‘It would be serious enough in some people’s eyes, I can tell you. Miss Gwilt has been tried for her life; and the papers in that black bag are the lawyer’s instructions for the Defence. Do you call that a joke?’

  The father started to his feet, and looked straight across the table at the son with a smile of exultation that was terrible to see.

  ‘She’s been tried for her life!’ he burst out, with a deep gasp of satisfaction. ‘She’s been tried for her life!’ He broke into a low prolonged laugh, and snapped his fingers exultingly. ‘Aha-ha-ha! Something to frighten Mr Armadale in that!’

  Scoundrel as he was, the son was daunted by the explosion of pent-up passion which burst on him in those words.

  ‘Don’t excite yourself,’ he said, with a sullen suppression of the mocking manner in which he had spoken thus far.

  Mr Bashwood sat down again, and passed his handkerchief over his forehead. ‘No,’ he said, nodding and smiling at his son. ‘No, no – no excitement, as you say – I can wait now, Jemmy; I can wait now.’

  He waited with immovable patience. At intervals, he nodded, and smiled, and whispered to himself, ‘Something to frighten Mr Armadale in that!’ But he made no further attempt, by word, look, or action to hurry his son.

  Bashwood the younger finished his breakfast slowly, out of pure bravado; lit a cigar, with the utmost deliberation; looked at his father, and, seeing him still as immovably patient as ever, opened the black bag at last, and spread the papers on the table.

  ‘How will you have it?’ he asked. ‘Long or short? I have got her whole life here. The counsel who defended her at the trial was instructed to hammer hard at the sympathies of the jury: he went head over ears into the miseries of her past career, and shocked everybody in court in the most workmanlike manner. Shall I take the same line? Do you want to know all about her, from the time when she was in short frocks and frilled trousers? or do you prefer getting on at once to her first appearance as a prisoner in the dock?’

  ‘I want to know all about her,’ said his father eagerly. ‘The worst, and the best – the worst, particularly. Don’t spare my feelings, Jemmy – whatever you do, don’t spare my feelings! Can’t I look at the papers myself?’

  ‘No, you can’t. They would be all Greek and Hebrew to you. Thank your stars that you have got a sharp son, who
can take the pith out of these papers, and give it a smack of the right flavour in serving it up. There are not ten men in England who could tell you this woman’s story as I can tell it. It’s a gift, old gentleman, of the sort that is given to very few people – and it lodges here.’

  He tapped his forehead smartly, and turned to the first page of the manuscript before him, with an unconcealed triumph at the prospect of exhibiting his own cleverness, which was the first expression of a genuine feeling of any sort that had escaped him yet.

  ‘Miss Gwilt’s story begins,’ said Bashwood the younger, ‘in the marketplace at Thorpe-Ambrose. One day, something like a quarter of a century ago, a travelling quack-doctor,2 who dealt in perfumery as well as medicines, came to the town, with his cart, and exhibited, as a living example of the excellence of his washes and hair-oils and so on, a pretty little girl, with a beautiful complexion and wonderful hair. His name was Oldershaw. He had a wife, who helped him in the perfumery part of his business, and who carried it on by herself after his death. She has risen in the world of late years; and she is identical with that sly old lady who employed me professionally a short time since. As for the pretty little girl, you know who she was as well as I do. While the quack was haranguing the mob, and showing them the child’s hair, a young lady, driving through the market-place, stopped her carriage to hear what it was all about; saw the little girl; and took a violent fancy to her on the spot. The young lady was the daughter of Mr Blanchard, of Thorpe-Ambrose. She went home, and interested her father in the fate of the innocent little victim of the quack-doctor. The same evening, the Oldershaws were sent for to the great house, and were questioned. They declared themselves to be her uncle and aunt – a lie, of course! – and they were quite willing to let her attend the village school, while they stayed at Thorpe-Ambrose, when the proposal was made to them. The new arrangement was carried out the next day. And the day after that, the Oldershaws had disappeared, and had left the little girl on the squire’s hands! She evidently hadn’t answered as they expected in the capacity of an advertisement – and that was the way they took of providing for her for life. There is the first act of the play for you! Clear enough, so far, isn’t it?’

  ‘Clear enough, Jemmy, to clever people. But I’m old and slow. I don’t understand one thing. Whose child was she?’

  ‘A very sensible question. Sorry to inform you that nobody can answer it – Miss Gwilt herself included. These Instructions that I’m referring to are founded, of course, on her own statements, sifted by her attorney. All she could remember, on being questioned, was, that she was beaten and half starved, somewhere in the country, by a woman who took in children at nurse. The woman had a card with her, stating that her name was Lydia Gwilt, and got a yearly allowance for taking care of her (paid through a lawyer), till she was eight years old.3 At that time, the allowance stopped; the lawyer had no explanation to offer; nobody came to look after her; nobody wrote. The Oldershaws saw her, and thought she might answer to exhibit; and the woman parted with her for a trifle to the Oldershaws; and the Oldershaws parted with her for good and all to the Blanchards. That’s the story of her birth, parentage, and education! She may be the daughter of a Duke, or the daughter of a costermonger. The circumstances may be highly romantic, or utterly commonplace. Fancy anything you like – there’s nothing to stop you. When you’ve had your fancy out, say the word, and I’ll turn over the leaves and go on.’

  ‘Please to go on, Jemmy – please to go on.’

  ‘The next glimpse of Miss Gwilt,’ resumed Bashwood the younger, turning over the papers, ‘is a glimpse at a family mystery. The deserted child was in luck’s way at last. She had taken the fancy of an amiable young lady with a rich father, and she was petted and made much of at the great house, in the character of Miss Blanchard’s last new plaything. Not long afterwards Mr Blanchard and his daughter went abroad, and took the girl with them in the capacity of Miss Blanchard’s little maid. When they came back, the daughter had married, and become a widow, in the interval; and the pretty little maid, instead of returning with them to Thorpe-Ambrose, turns up suddenly, all alone, as a pupil at a school in France. There she was, at a first-rate establishment, with her maintenance and education secured until she married and settled in life, on this understanding, – that she never returned to England. Those were all the particulars she could be prevailed on to give the lawyer who drew up these instructions. She declined to say what had happened abroad; she declined even, after all the years that had passed, to mention her mistress’s married name. It’s quite clear, of course, that she was in possession of some family secret; and that the Blanchards paid for the schooling on the Continent to keep her out of the way. And it’s equally plain that she would never have kept her secret as she did, if she had not seen her way to trading on it for her own advantage at some future time. A clever woman, as I’ve told you already! A devilish clever woman, who hasn’t been knocked about in the world, and seen the ups and downs of life abroad and at home for nothing.’

  ‘Yes, yes, Jemmy; quite true. How long did she stop, please, at the school in France?’

  Bashwood the younger referred to the papers.

  ‘She stopped at the French school,’ he replied, ‘till she was seventeen. At that time, something happened at the school which I find mildly described in these papers as “something unpleasant”. The plain fact was, that the music-master attached to the establishment fell in love with Miss Gwilt. He was a respectable middle-aged man, with a wife and family – and finding the circumstances entirely hopeless, he took a pistol, and rashly assuming that he had brains in his head, tried to blow them out. The doctors saved his life, but not his reason – he ended, where he had better have begun, in an asylum. Miss Gwilt’s beauty having been at the bottom of the scandal, it was of course impossible – though she was proved to have been otherwise quite blameless in the matter – for her to remain at the school after what had happened. Her “friends” (the Blanchards) were communicated with. And her friends transferred her to another school; at Brussels, this time. – What are you sighing about? what’s wrong now?’

  ‘I can’t help feeling a little for the poor music-master, Jemmy. Go on.’

  ‘According to her own account of it, dad, Miss Gwilt seems to have felt for him too. She took a serious turn; and was “converted” (as they call it) by the lady who had charge of her in the interval before she went to Brussels. The priest at the Belgian school appears to have been a man of some discretion, and to have seen that the girl’s sensibilities were getting into a dangerously excited state. Before he could quiet her down, he fell ill, and was succeeded by another priest, who was a fanatic. You will understand the sort of interest he took in the girl, and the way in which he worked on her feelings, when I tell you that she announced it as her decision, after having been nearly two years at the school, to end her days in a convent! You may well stare! Miss Gwilt, in the character of a Nun,4 is the sort of female phenomenon you don’t often set eyes on. Women are queer creatures.’5

  ‘Did she go into the convent?’ asked Mr Bashwood. ‘Did they let her go in, so friendless and so young, with nobody to advise her for the best?’

  ‘The Blanchards were consulted, as a matter of form,’ pursued Bash-wood the younger. ‘ They had no objection to her shutting herself up in a convent, as you may well imagine. The pleasantest letter they ever had from her, I’ll answer for it, was the letter in which she solemnly took leave of them in this world for ever. The people at the convent were as careful as usual not to commit themselves. Their rules wouldn’t allow her to take the veil till she had tried the life for a year first, and then, if she had any doubt, for another year after that. She tried the life for the first year, accordingly – and doubted. She tried it for the second year – and was wise enough, by that time, to give it up without further hesitation. Her position was rather an awkward one when she found herself at liberty again. The sisters at the convent had lost their interest in her; the mistress at the schoo
l declined to take her back as teacher, on the ground that she was too nice-looking for the place; the priest considered her to be possessed by the devil. There was nothing for it but to write to the Blanchards again, and ask them to start her in life as a teacher of music on her own account. She wrote to her former mistress accordingly. Her former mistress had evidently doubted the genuineness of the girl’s resolution to be a nun, and had seized the opportunity offered by the farewell letter of three years since to cut off all further communication between her ex-waiting maid and herself. Miss Gwilt’s letter was returned by the post-office. She caused inquiries to be made; and found that Mr Blanchard was dead, and that his daughter had left the great house for some place of retirement unknown. The next thing she did, upon this, was to write to the heir in possession of the estate. The letter was answered by his solicitors; who were instructed to put the law in force at the first attempt she made to extort money from any member of the family at Thorpe-Ambrose. The last chance was to get at the address of her mistress’s place of retirement. The family bankers, to whom she wrote, wrote back to say that they were instructed not to give the lady’s address to any one applying for it, without being previously empowered to do so by the lady herself. That last letter settled the question – Miss Gwilt could do nothing more. With money at her command, she might have gone to England, and made the Blanchards think twice before they carried things with too high a hand. Not having a halfpenny at command, she was helpless. Without money and without friends, you may wonder how she supported herself while the correspondence was going on. She supported herself by playing the pianoforte at a low concert-room in Brussels. The men laid siege to her, of course, in all directions – but they found her insensible as adamant. One of these rejected gentlemen was a Russian; and he was the means of making her acquainted with a countrywoman of his – whose name is unpronounceable by English lips. Let us give her her title, and call her the Baroness. The two women liked each other at their first introduction; and a new scene opened in Miss Gwilt’s life. She became reader and companion to the Baroness. Everything was right, everything was smooth on the surface. Everything was rotten and everything was wrong, under it.’