Soon as ever my sight was fully restored, and I had Dr. Frank's
permission, I took to my drawing again, and worked at it till my eyes
ached. This was the symptom upon which I had promised immediately to
leave off. Then out I would rush, towards dusk, and away into the great
square, full of the pure air of heaven, round by the church at the top,
and six times round it till my breath was short. The senior sophist
reminds me that round a square is impossible. After squaring the
circle, extract the square root, dear Idols, by the binomial theorem.
You do learn so much at college: but I write simple and often foolish
English. Never mind; I would rather write bad English, than the best
French ever written. One is the tongue of power and multitude: the
other the language of nicety and demarcation. Which of the two is the
more expansive, even a woman may guess.
High time it was for me to recruit my exchequer. Dr. Franks had charged
me far less than I even dared to hope. How I trembled when I opened the
envelope! What quick terror is half so bad as the slow fear of gathering
debt? I was accustomed to medical charges of the time when I was an
heiress: but his appeared to me now to be even below reason. The sum
could hardly have paid him for his numerous walks to and fro. Then a
wretched idea shot through me: had he charged me so little, because he
knew I was poor? I took Mrs. Shelfer into my confidence; she was likely
to know what the London scale should be. The little thing soon
reassured me: it was quite enough, she declared; if she were in my
place, she would demand a discount for ready money!
"Oh you dreadfully mean little woman! I should lose my sight, and
deserve it, if I did."
However, in spite of all this, money was scarce and scarcer every day,
and none of my grand revenues would fall due for ever so long. So
another visit must be paid to Mr. Oxgall. Isola insisted on coming with
me; to my surprise I found that, with all her soft simplicity she had
much more idea of making a market than I had. The reason probably was
that she had much less pride. No pocket would hold mine, when a
tradesman attempted any familiarity. And whoso stands on a pedestal to
sell, is like to find the buyer's arm too short.
Whether it were that, or the golden charm of her manner, or of something
else, let Mr. Oxgall say; certain it is that the man of crackly canvas
(for whom, by-the-bye, I have a sincere respect, because he cheated me
so little and so neatly)--this man, I say, regarded her with a
wide-mouthed, brooch-eyed, admiration, which he hardly ever expended on
anything out of oils. For the king of painters himself she was a vision
sweeter than dreams of heaven. Such a tint in her lustrous eyes, such
tone in her dainty cheeks, such perfection of line in her features, and
every curve of her exquisite shape. And bounding and sparkling through
all, from the rippled wealth of her hair to the light-curved arch of her
foot, the full play of her innocent, joyous, loving life.
No wonder the picture-dealer shaded his eyes and gazed, and rubbed them
and gazed again. I have frequently seen respectable elderly gentlemen,
whose rakishness has never been more than found vent in the cock of a
hat, magisterial men I mean, who would no more think of insulting a girl
in London or anywhere else, than of giving their daughters as prizes for
competitive skill in poaching, such good men and true, also
simple-hearted clergymen (for some there still are from the country)
these and the like, I Clara Vaughan have seen, when they met my Isola,
stop short, wink frequently, and without much presence of mind, until
she was gone by; then shumble hotly across the street, with hands in
their tail-coat pockets (for these gentlemen always expect most to be
robbed when there is least chance of it) pretend to look at a shop, then
march at top speed, fumbling all the while for their spectacles, until
they got well a-head of us. Then I have seen them cross again, some
thirty yards in front, with spectacles nicely adjusted, and become again
wholly absorbed by the beauty of metropolitan goods. But when the light
foot sounded, from a fair gazing distance, these same gentlemen have (by
some strange coincidence) alway turned full upon us, in an absent and
yet nervous manner, and focussed their green or pale blue eyes upon the
rich violet orbs of Isola. I have even known them to look at me (when
they could see her no more), to find some sympathy for their vague
emotions. Idols knew it: of course she did. And she rather gloried in
it. She had much respect for a fine old gentleman; and I know not how
it was, but nobody ever thought of insulting her when she could be
clearly seen.
A "pretty girl" you would never call her--though Mr. Shelfer did--the
term would be quite unworthy; even a "beautiful girl," sweetly beautiful
though she was, would hardly be your expression, at least for a while.
But a "lovely girl," and the loveliest one ever seen, that is what she
would be called at once, if you could take your eyes off, to analyse
your ideas.
Isola knew it of course, as I said before, she knew all her wondrous
gifts; but as for being conceited, a trull with a splay foot and a crop
of short-horn carrots has often thrice her conceit. A certain pretty
graceful pride she had, which threw a rosy playful halo round her, but
never made other women look plain in her eyes. She will not value her
beauty much, until she falls in love; and blessed is he who shall be the
object, if she is allowed to abide with him.
Meanwhile Mr. Oxgall wished for nothing but to hear and see her talk;
and this she did to some purpose. I like a man who at the age of sixty
is still impressible to the gay vein of youth. I know at once by his
eyes whether his admiration is abstract and admissible. If it be, I
reciprocate it. What clearer proof can we find, that his heart has not
withered with his body; that he is not a man of mammon, tinsel, or
phylactery,--in a word, no mummy?
Shall I ever finish this bargain? I have never been so reflective
before; and all the time no less a sum than five pounds hangs upon it.
Five guineas (which sounds better) was the amount at which dear Idols
let off Mr. Oxgall. I believe she might have got ten, but she had an
excellent conscience. It worked like a patent chronometer, with
compensation balance. Mine was still more sensitive. I could hardly
think my landscape, perspective mare's nest and all, worth that amount
of money, and I wished to throw off a guinea, but Idols would not hear
of it.
"Miss Valence, I am your factor for this beautiful landscape, which has
cost you so much labour. Either accept my terms, inadequate as they
are, or take the agency from me, and recommence with Mr. Oxgall 'de
novo,' as we say at College."
Betwixt her beauty and my stately integrity, poor Mr. Oxgall knew not
where he stood. I heard him mutter that he would rather go through
fifty auctions, even if it was George Robins. But if she had come to
sell him a picture the very next day, he would have gone through it all
again with the same infatuation. So I took the money; and now my evil
demon, who had chafed beneath all this trampling, had his turn again. We
had foolishly brought the great dog Giudice, for our delight and the
expansion of his mind. In Mr. Oxgall's shop he behaved to admiration.
With the air of a connoisseur he walked from picture to picture, closed
one eye, and faintly wagged his tail. Then he found a Scotch terrier
scarcely worth a sniff, and a mastiff whom he saluted with a
contemptuous growl. The only work of high art he could discover was an
interior, with a flitch of bacon in the foreground uncommonly well
drawn. Before this he sat down, and receiving no invitation, bedewed the
boards with a stalactite from either side of his mouth. The dog was so
well behaved, he never took anything without leave and saying t a long
grace.
Unluckily Mr. Oxgall, mainly I believe to prolong his interview with
Idols, insisted upon taking us to the shop of a carver and gilder close
by; where my first drawing (which had been sold) was to be seen in its
frame. He declared that we could not tell what a painting was like,
until we had seen it framed. Observing several large mirrors in this
shop, I begged that Giudice might be left outside. And so he was, but
he did not stay there. Scarcely had we begun to discuss the effect of
the frame on my drawing, when Giudice pushed his way in, and looked
about with a truly judicial air. The shop was long, and the owner was
with us at the further end. I saw what would follow, and dashed off to
stop him, but it was too late. Giudice had seen the very finest dog he
ever beheld in his life--a dog really worth fighting. Up went his crest
and his tail, one savage growl, and he sprang at him. Crash,--and the
largest mirror there was a wreck, and Giudice the rock beneath it. For
a time he lay quite stunned; then to my great delight he staggered to
me, not Isola, laid his cut paws in my hands and his bleeding nose in my
lap, and explained it all to me with much entreaty for sympathy. This I
gave him readily, even to tears and kisses. Isola wanted to scold and
even to beat him, but I would not hear of it. He had seen another great
dog between himself and us, how could he help attacking him? I ordered
a sponge and some water at once, and bathed his fore paws, which were
terribly cut; then remembering the Inspector, I sent Idols for some
arnica. But the blood was not stanched by it as I expected; perhaps the
drug was not pure, or the hair obstructed its action. So I held his
paws in the basin, and he whinged, and licked me, and made my face all
bloody.
Meanwhile the poor carver and gilder thought much more of his
looking-glass than of noble flesh and blood. The picture-dealer as well
was in a great predicament.
"Mr. Oxgall," I cried, still sponging the wounded dog's nose, "let us
hear no more about it. Tell me the full value of the mirror, and I will
pay for it. What are glass and quicksilver, or even gold, compared to a
noble dog like this? Not worth a wag of your tail, are they, my duck of
diamonds? Give me another kiss, you delicious pet of a dog."
The delicious dog was entirely of my opinion. His beautiful eyes were
unhurt. His nose tasted wholesomely salt. But Isola was not half so
romantic. Little she cared about money for herself; yet she had no idea
of seeing a friend disburse. Empowered by nature to wind all men round
her finger, she now called art to her aid, and Mr. Oxgall, who was
half-way round already, had no chance of escape.
She settled it thus: the carver and gilder, in consideration of his
dealings with Mr. Oxgall and his own "careless exposure" of the mirror,
should accept cost price for the article. That amount should be paid in
equal shares by all three of us: by Mr. Oxgall because he would drag us
thither, by herself as the mistress of the dog, and by me as the cause
of the expedition. She had attended a course of lectures upon
jurisprudence, and her decision was better than that of a judge, because
she had seen the whole of it, and because the dog was hers--at least her
brother's, which was all the same. As for the owner of the mirror, he
must think himself wonderfully lucky in having met with such honest
people, and in having sold his glass, and hadn't he got all the pieces,
and she must have the largest one for Judy to dress his hair by. And so
indeed she did.
After our dear Portia had finished, and the whole thing was settled, it
struck me that no lectures upon jurisprudence could turn wrong into
right. Mr. Oxgall was quite blameless, so was I, so was Idols, except
in bringing unlucky Giudice with her, which, from the outset, I had
discouraged. She, as the temporary owner of the dog, should have borne
all the loss; and so she would have done gladly, only she did not see it
in that light. As it was, she tried afterwards to force upon me her
last three guineas (that being the sum which I had paid, as my third of
the whole), but of course I would not accept them. She had no money
with her, so I paid her contribution, but allowed her to repay me. Mr.
Oxgall's third I made good to him (without consulting her) when he paid
me for my next drawing. So I had earned five guineas, and lost six. Is
it always to be so when I labour to make a little money?
At my earnest entreaty--Idols could refuse me nothing, when I was in
earnest--darling Giudice was brought home in a cab to my lodgings. I
knew that he would not be cared for at the stables where he was boarded;
and his wounds were very serious. As for home, Professor Ross, who
detested dogs in general, would not admit him into the house. He even
thought it a great stretch of grace to allow old Cora to watch the dog
back to the stables, after he had been patrolling all the afternoon with
his mistress. How I hate such low ingratitude! An animal is to serve
us, body and soul, to crouch and fawn for our notice--not that Giudice
ever fawned to him, but growled awfully--and we are to think it well off
with a curse or a kick, which we durst not give it but for its loyalty
to us.
What pleasure I had in nursing that poor Giudice, and how grateful he
was! When we got home, I washed his wounds again, with warm water this
time, as the bleeding was stanched; and then I "exhibited" (as the
doctors absurdly say) a little friar's balsam. "Oh, it does smart so!"
Giudice exclaimed with his eyes, "but I know it's for the best, and you
won't see me give one wince." Neither did I. Then a nice soft bandage
over his lovely paws, and a plaister across his nose, and he lies
snugly, at the proper distance from the fire, as proud as possible of
being nursed, and with an interesting air of pallid refinement on his
features. He will hardly notice Idols, but exclaims, at length, with the
petulance of an invalid, "Isola, can't you let me alone? Clara
understands a dog, and I like her much the best." So he followed me all
round the room with his eyes, and begged me to come and talk to him,
which I would not do, because he needed quiet and composure.