THE CLUB-HOUSE.
We must now transport our readers back to London.
At about the same time when the events of the two preceding chapters
occurred in Castelcicala, others of a scarcely less interesting nature
took place in the great metropolis of England.
It was about three o'clock in the afternoon of one of those dark, misty,
dispiriting November days, when the sun is scarcely visible, and sinks
early to rest, that half-a-dozen fashionable gentlemen were lounging in
the bay-window of a Club-House in St. James's Street.
They were all dressed in the first style: gold chains festooned over
waistcoats of the most recent Parisian fashion; and brilliantly polished
boots, without a speck of mud upon them, showed that their owners had
not arrived at the Club on foot.
"What news in the political world, Greenwood?" asked the Marquis of
Holmesford.
"Nothing particular," answered the gentleman appealed to. "Our party is
sure to drive the Whigs out next year; and then I shall show the
independent and enlightened freemen of Rottenborough that they will
acquire some honour through the medium of their representative."
"I suppose you will do a little good for yourself—eh, Greenwood?" asked
the Honourable Augustus Smicksmack—a lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards,
and just turned nineteen: "a baronetcy—eh, Greenwood? for that's the
rumour, I believe?"
"Well, I _do_ hope that Fame for once is not far wrong, my dear fellow,"
answered Mr. Greenwood.
"And I must beg of you to support my friend the Honourable Gively
Starkeley's new Game Bill, which he intends to introduce next session,"
observed Lord Dunstable—a major in a crack regiment, and whose age was
probably one-and-thirty.
"A new Game Bill!" ejaculated Mr. Greenwood, horror depicted on his
countenance. "Surely your friend Starkeley cannot mean to relax the
penalties which now exist in respect to poaching?"
"Quite the reverse," answered Lord Dunstable. "He thinks—as I think—that
the present statute is not stringent enough; and he has drawn up a
bill—at least, Rumrigg the barrister did for him—making it
transportation for life to shoot game without a license, and
transportation for fifteen years for looking at a bird or a hare with an
unlawful purpose."
"_That Bill_ will receive my most unqualified support, Dunstable," said
Mr. Greenwood. "In fact, the laws cannot be too stringent against
poachers."
"Certainly not," observed Colonel Cholmondeley, a gentleman of about
three-and-thirty who was one of the group in the Club-House window. "For
my part, I consider a murderer or a highwayman to be an estimable
character in comparison with a poacher."
"Decidedly so," exclaimed Lord Dunstable. "A murderer kills his victim—a
highwayman robs a person; and the thing is done. The individuals
murdered or plundered alone suffer. But a poacher deprives hundreds of
noblemen and gentlemen of their legitimate sport: he preys upon the
aristocracy, as it were;—and, by God! I'll defend the privileges of the
aristocracy with my life!"
"Oh! certainly—certainly," muttered the Marquis of Holmesford, who, in
consequence of swollen gums, had been compelled to lay aside his false
teeth for a few days, and was therefore somewhat incomprehensible in his
speech. "Always defend the aristocracy! _The millions_, as they call
themselves, are ever ready to assail us: they're jealous of us, you
see—because we have carriages and horses, and they have not."
"And for many other reasons," observed Mr. Greenwood. "But I always know
how to serve the scurvy riff-raff. Why, it was but the other day that
some thirty or forty of the independent and intelligent electors of
Rottenborough assembled together at the _Blue Lion_ in their town, to
address a remonstrance to me on my parliamentary conduct, and call upon
me to resign."
"And what did you do?" asked Lord Dunstable.
"Oh! I knew my men well enough: it was not the first time they had taken
this step," continued Greenwood. "My agent down there wrote me up an
account of their intentions; and I sent him instructions how to act. The
malcontents met; there was a great deal of speechifying; and the tide
flowed strong against my interests. The chairman was about to put to the
vote a Resolution condemnatory of my conduct, when the landlord entered,
and addressed the meeting in this manner:—'Gentlemen, Mr. Greenwood,
having heard that it was your intention to assemble here this evening,
has conveyed to me his commands to serve up a little supper—poultry,
turtle, venison, and other trifles of the same kind, together with as
much port and sherry as you can drink. The supper is now ready,
gentlemen: you had better partake of it first, and continue your
deliberations afterwards.'"
"Capital—excellent!" exclaimed Lord Dunstable.
"Glowiouth—thuperfine—bwilliant!" cried Sir Cherry Bounce, who was one
of the group.
"Strike me—but it was uncommon good!" observed Major Dapper, who was
also present.
"Well—what followed?" demanded Colonel Cholmondeley.
"Yes, do tell us," said Mr. Smicksmack.
"Oh! the result was simple enough," continued Greenwood. "The free and
independent electors of Rottenborough adjourned to the supper-room,
gorged and drank till their senses were completely obfuscated, and then
passed a vote of confidence in their Member, one gentleman alone not
holding up his hand in its favour."
"What was the reason of that?" inquired the Marquis of Holmesford.
"Simply because he was dead drunk under the table," answered Greenwood.
"And then this fellow had the impudence to write a letter next day to
all the newspapers to say _that he alone had remained dissentient upon
principle_!"
"Pwepothterouth!" loudly exclaimed Sir Cherry Bounce.
"Hold your tongue, Cherry," said Major Smilax Dapper. "You're a——"
"A what, Thmilackth?" asked the youthful baronet.
"A bore—strike me!" replied the major.
There was a general laugh at the expense of Sir Cherry Bounce, who
coloured up to the very roots of his hair.
"What's become of Harborough, does any one know?" said Lord Dunstable,
when the cachinnation was concluded.
"Gone into the country with his friend Chichester, I believe," replied
Greenwood. "Harborough and I have not spoken for a long time; but I
heard of him a little while ago."
"A dreadful thing that was about his wife," observed the Honourable
Augustus Smicksmack.
"I don't think Harborough cared much about it," returned Greenwood.
"They had long led a cat-and-dog kind of a life. The moment Lady
Cecilia's suicide reached the ears of Sir Rupert, who was in France at
the time, he came over to England, and sold the few things which had
belonged to his wife—her trinkets, I mean; for the house in Tavistock
Square was a ready-furnished one."
"And _that_ he gave up, I believe?" said Dunstable.
"Or rather the landlord took it away from him," answered Greenwood.
"That intimacy with Reginald Tracy was a bad business for Lady Cecilia,"
he continued. "But I had my suspicions of _him_ before the exposure took
place. The fact is, I saw him at a masquerade ball one night, at Drury
Lane theatre."
"At a masquerade?" ejaculated Lord Dunstable.
"Yes. I was dressed as a Greek brigand, and he was attired as a monk."
"The sanctified scoundrel!" said Colonel Cholmondeley, in a tone of deep
indignation. "What dishonour he brought upon the cloth! You know my
brother the Archdeacon? Well, he's as jovial a fellow as you could wish
to meet. Keeps his three mistresses, his horses and hounds, and goes to
bed mellow every night of his life. But _he_ does things discreetly."
"In a proper manner, to be sure," muttered the Marquis of Holmesford.
"But, by the by, Greenwood, you once admired my beautiful Georgian."
"And I often think of her now, my lord," returned the Member of
Parliament.
"I'll make you a proposal, if you like," continued the Marquis, grinning
like an antiquated goat. "I have taken quite a fancy to your bay mare
_Cleopatra_."
"Yes—'tis a beautiful bit of horse-flesh," remarked Greenwood.
"Well—my Georgian for your bay mare?" said the Marquis. "Is it a
bargain?"
"A decided bargain," replied Greenwood.
"But how do you know that the lady will submit to the exchange?" asked
Smicksmack, with a smile.
"I feel convinced that she will offer no objection," answered Greenwood.
"It is true that every slave becomes free when once the foot touches the
soil of this country, as I once observed to the independent electors of
Rottenborough;—but I am sure that she will wear the gold chain that I
shall be delighted to throw around her."
"Well spoken, Greenwood!" cried the Marquis. "Send the bay to my stables
in the morning; and fetch away the Georgian when you choose."
"Greenwood's the man for business," observed Lord Dunstable. "By the by,
how did the African Railroad scheme turn out?"
"Oh! admirably," replied the capitalist. "I cleared my ten thousand by
it: so did the Marquis."
"But I lotht thwee thouthand, though—and a pwethiouth wage I wath in,"
said Sir Cherry.
"Because you kept your shares too long, my dear fellow," remarked
Greenwood coolly. "No, my good woman—I have nothing for you!"
These last words were uttered, in a loud tone, and accompanied by a
stern shake of the head, to a poor, ragged, shivering creature, who had
paused on the pavement outside to solicit alms from the aristocrats
assembled at the window.
The miserable woman cast one glance of ineffable anguish on Mr.
Greenwood, and then hurried away, overwhelmed by the savage
determination of his refusal.
"That poor wretch has been good-looking in her time," said Mr.
Smicksmack. "Although it is nearly dark, I caught sight of her
countenance by the light of the lamp."
"And so did I," whispered Lord Dunstable to Colonel Cholmondeley, whom
he drew aside. "Do you know who that was?" he asked in a low and
somewhat hoarse tone.
"No: how the devil should I?" said the Captain, also sinking his
voice—but simply because Dunstable did so.
"If that poor mendicant were not Lydia Hutchinson," returned the young
nobleman, "I never was more mistaken in my life. But, my God! how
altered!"
And for a few moments his countenance became inexpressibly sad.
"What nonsense to give way to feelings of that kind!" whispered
Cholmondeley.
"But she was once so beautiful!" said Dunstable. "Do you remember the
first time we ever met her—in Hyde Park——"
"I was thinking a deuced deal too much about Adeline Enfield, at that
time, to bother myself about Lydia What-'s-her-name," interrupted the
colonel, impatiently. "Come—it's of no use yielding to maudlin feelings
of that kind, Dunstable. We are all going to dine together presently:
and if you wear that kill-joy countenance, I shall wish you at the
devil."
[Illustration]
Then the Captain drew the young nobleman back to the group in the
window; and in a few minutes the sprightly nature of the conversation
banished from Dunstable's mind the unpleasant reminiscences which had
been temporarily excited by the sudden appearance of one whom he knew so
well!
In the meantime that miserable female pursued her way down St. James's
Street.
The weather was cold—dreadfully cold: the streets were damp—and she had
neither shoes nor stockings!
An old cotton gown, a wretched rag of a shawl, and a broken straw
bonnet, constituted her sole attire.
Not an article of clothing had she more than those enumerated.
She had parted with her under garments to obtain the means of
subsistence; not even a petticoat had she beneath that thin cotton gown!
When she stopped for a moment to implore alms at the Club-window, it was
the first time she had ever begged. She had not recognised _him_ who had
recognised her: but the stern countenance of Greenwood, as he refused
her a single penny from his immense wealth, had struck her with despair.
If the rich would not assist her, how could she hope for succour from
the poor?
She hurried down the street, weak and weary as she was;—but she hurried,
with a sort of shuffling pace, because she was cold, and her feet were
so benumbed that she could not feel that she had any!
She passed many a brilliantly lighted shop,—many a superb Club,—many a
magnificent hotel, from the underground windows of which emanated the
savoury steam of delicious viands:—she beheld cheerful fires, roaring up
the chimneys of the kitchens whence those odours came;—but she was
starving, shivering, dying, all the same!
A carriage, with arms emblazoned on the panels, and with horses whose
beauty and appointments attracted the gaze of the passengers, was
standing opposite to a splendid shawl-warehouse.
Just as the poor mendicant was passing, a tall footman, carrying a
gold-headed cane in his hand, pushed her rudely back, exclaiming, "Don't
you see that you're in the way?"
The shivering woman cast a timid look around, and beheld an elderly
gentleman handing a lady, much younger than himself, to the carriage
above mentioned.
The blaze of light from the shop window illuminated that portion of the
street; and as the elegantly-dressed lady turned her countenance towards
her companion, to answer some observation which he made to her, the
mendicant caught a full view of her beautiful features.
A scream escaped from the beggar's lips: then, in the next moment, she
rushed towards the door of the carriage, which the gentleman and lady
were just entering.
"Miss Enfield—Adeline!" she exclaimed.
"What do you want, my good woman?" cried the voice of the nobleman—for
such indeed he was.
"Miss Enfield—I—I am starving!" answered the beggar, clinging to the
door.
"Do you know her, my dear?" asked the nobleman.
"I—I think she was once a teacher at the school, where——" faltered the
beautiful lady, evidently by no means pleased at the recognition.
"Oh! a teacher!" cried the nobleman. "Ah! it is easy to see what she has
come to:"—and he drew up the carriage window violently.
That was a signal for the coachman to whip his horses: the fiery animals
sprang forward—the carriage moved off with a species of jerk—the poor
starving, shivering creature was thrown upon the kerb-stone—and there
she lay insensible.
In a moment she was surrounded by a crowd, that formed a circle about
her, and stood gazing on the prostrate, motionless form as if the
spectacle were very interesting, but by no means calculated to awaken
compassionate sympathy.
Then a huge policeman elbowed his way through the crowd, crying "Move on
here!" in a very savage tone, and crushing divers bonnets, besides
upsetting sundry small boys in his endeavours to force a passage.
But at the same moment that he reached the spot where the poor creature
was lying, a lady, about six-and-twenty years of age, and well though by
no means showily dressed, pressed through the crowd, and immediately
bestowed her attention on the mendicant female.
The lady raised the unfortunate being's head; and then, by the light of
the lamp, it was discovered that she had received a wound on the temple,
from which the blood was flowing freely.
"She must be conveyed to the hospital, if she's got any broken bones,"
said the policeman; "and to the workus if she hasn't."
"She shall go to neither," observed the lady firmly: "I will take care
of her until she is recovered."
"What—do you know her, mum?" demanded the policeman.
"No—I never saw her before in my life, to my knowledge," answered the
lady. "But I cannot help feeling for a fellow-creature—especially one of
my own sex—in such a position."
A murmur of approbation arose amongst the crowd.
"Will you help me to convey the poor creature to the neighbouring
surgeon's?" continued the lady, addressing herself to the officer.
"See—she opens her eyes—she moves—but, my God! how wan, how thin, how
cold she is!"
The wretched woman was removed to the adjacent establishment of a
medical practitioner; and in a short time the benevolent lady had the
satisfaction of ascertaining that the wound on the poor creature's
forehead was the only injury which she had sustained by the fall.
"She is more in need of sustenance, madam, than medicine," said the
surgeon, when he had bandaged the wound. "I will give her a glass of
wine and a morsel of light food."
This humane proposal was immediately carried into effect;—the starving
creature would have eaten ravenously; but the surgeon prudently checked
her;—and in a short time she was considerably revived.
She appeared to be about seven or eight and twenty years of age; and
possessed the remains of great personal attractions. But her dark eyes
were sunken, and their lustre was dimmed with privation: her cheeks were
hollow; and her form was little more than mere skin and bone.
The lady did not ask her if she had any friends, or any home. Such a
question would have been a superfluous mockery of one whose appearance
was sufficient to convey the sad tale of utter destitution and
hopelessness.
"You shall come with me, my poor creature," whispered the lady, in a
kind tone. "I know not who nor what you are; but I am touched to the
very heart by your sorrowful condition."
"Ah! madam, if you knew all—" began the woman, bursting into tears; "if
you knew——"
"I wish to know nothing now," interrupted the lady. "It is sufficient
for me that you are in distress."
The surgeon's boy was despatched for a hackney-coach, into which the
invalid was conveyed. The lady then entered it, and directed the driver
to take them to her residence, which was in Cannon Street, City.
"I have known sorrow myself," said the lady, as they proceeded thither;
"and, although, thank God! I have never experienced the stings of
poverty, I have nevertheless been forced to endure afflictions almost as
poignant."
"Ah! madam," returned the poor woman, "such a heart as yours never ought
to be tutored in the ways of unhappiness. But, as you observe, there are
other afflictions which may compare with the stings of want!"
And the unhappy creature wept bitterly.
The lady endeavoured to console her to the best of her ability; and even
in the short conversation which passed between them during the ride from
the West End to the City, the invalid gave proofs of a superior
understanding and cultivated mind.
At length they reached Cannon Street, and stopped at a house, the lower
portion of which was a stationer's shop. The lady occupied apartments on
the first floor.
"Oh! Mrs. Chichester, how long you have been absent!" exclaimed the
mistress of the house, who opened the door. "I really began to be
alarmed—"
"Thanks for your kind consideration," interrupted Viola, with a
smile—for the benevolent lady was none other than the neglected and
persecuted wife of Mr. Chichester. "I have brought home a poor creature,
whom I found insensible—dying—in the streets; and I request you to
provide a room for her."
"Ah! my dear lady, what an excellent disposition you possess!" exclaimed
the mistress of the house.
Then she bustled about to help the invalid up stairs; and the poor
creature speedily experienced a feeling akin to happiness, when cheered
by a comfortable fire and a good meal.
Mrs. Chichester also supplied her with warm clothes; and a night's rest
made her an altered being.
On the following day she was enabled to narrate her history, which she
did in the ensuing manner.