MRS. MEREDITH’S FRIEND.—EXCHANGE OF SERVICES, AND COMPACT.
There could be no doubt in the minds of both mother and daughter that
there was something much resembling a moral certainty concerning the
fate of the retired colonel. That he must marry was evident—he was to
all intents and purposes resolved to do so. He talked of a home and
domestic comfort, and all that kind of thing; therefore it would be
easy to entangle him in the meshes of love; the snares of passion might
be successfully set, and they would be sure to be productive of some
sport, and even a stray colonel might be caught, one who, having had
enough of the wars of man, might now be considered to become a fair
object of attack in those of Venus.
However, there appeared much in the colonel’s circumstances and
disposition that laid him open to the attacks of designing matrons and
maidens. He seemed to appreciate female company—was particularly well
pleased with female attentions; perhaps his health required their aid
more than that of any other; and he had evidently been in love, and
lost the object of his earliest affections.
One great thing in Margaret Meredith’s favour was, the colonel had
taken it into his head that she much resembled this lady, whoever she
was; and this fact, no doubt, had opened his heart towards her; and he
felt a kindly, and perhaps a warmer feeling, towards her. This, they
calculated, would greatly assist them in their efforts to circumvent
the colonel, and cause him to capitulate upon matrimonial conditions.
“There never was so good a chance,” said Mrs. Meredith, in the course
of a day or two after the above scene; “there never was such a chance
as the one you now have.”
“What, with the colonel, ma’?”
“Yes, my love, you may depend upon it, that is a very safe speculation.
Why, he must be immensely rich. I am sure that some of the jewels I
have seen on his fingers must be worth thousands of pounds. He is a
very rich man, there can be no doubt.”
“Yes, ma’, he is very rich.”
“And you will have many fine things that you have never dreamed of.
Why, you will have a carriage; I should think he would never refuse you
that trifle.”
“He has not one now.”
“Yes, that is true; he would never use it himself; and that accounts
for it. But when he has a wife it is quite another matter; and one
which you can easily manage when you are a wife; you can do more then
than you can now. Besides, you’ll see how the money is spent; and it
must all go through your hands, you know; that can’t be helped.”
“No, I dare say not; but, ma’ don’t you think, when he dies, there will
be a loss of the pension? and that would be a serious loss.”
“It would; but then you will have a pension as an officer’s widow,
besides all his vast property, without any trouble whatever—with nobody
to contradict you; that is, if he were to die; but I think he will
not do that; he does not, at times, appear so old as one would think;
and yet, he is very pale; but that, I suppose, is caused by his long
residence abroad in hot climates, and being exposed to the weather of
all kinds, attended by wounds and sickness.”
“No doubt he has suffered much; but he has obtained a handsome fortune,
which pays for a great deal, you know,” said Margaret.
“Undoubtedly, my dear; by-the-bye, have you heard how that affair of
Miss Smith was ended, and why they came in here in such a manner?”
“Oh, it was a very shocking affair; there were some marks in her arm,
which I cannot understand; it does seem very extraordinary to me, but
she says she was awoke in the night by some monster sucking her blood.”
“Dear me! who ever heard of such nonsense?”
“I cannot but think there must have been something in it; and, yet,
what could have been the reason for them all to utter a falsehood, I
don’t know. There was, you know, the father, then the watchmen, all of
whom said they saw it; at all events, they appeared to have some idea
that it must have been done by some one in our house; the dressing gown
and that appeared to bewilder them.”
“Did they say they thought so still?”
“No; they did not do that, we spoke so positive; and I saw when I went
in to see her, she was much terrified at what had occurred, and could
not get up; she had a physician to attend her, who will not hear of
anything that she says.”
“Well, I think he is right.”
“But the whole family appear to side with her, and insist that it was
no robber who made the attempt; for nothing was gone, nothing was
attempted in the shape of robbery; nothing was touched nor moved;
therefore, there could be no common motive, they said. Well, at all
events, they have made somebody very disagreeable in the family, and
they had better have been quiet, but they are a disagreeable set, and I
shall not go in again.”
“You are quite right, my dear; they would be glad to push that minx of
theirs in here, and get an acquaintance with the colonel. No, it will
be safest to keep them apart; we will have as few female visitors, my
dear, as possible; not that I think you run any chance of rivalry, but,
you know, men are such uncertain things.”
“To be sure they are, ma’,” replied Margaret.
“Well, then, if we have no female acquaintances, you see we cannot
possibly run any risk, and the matter will not be so protracted,
because everything depends upon things being smooth and uninterrupted;
he will be the more ready to propose and push the matter to a point.”
“Do you think him a likely man, ma’, to marry?”
“Certain of it, my dear, quite certain of it. I know a marrying man as
soon as I see him; the colonel is decidedly a marrying man, he talks
of home, domestic comfort, and all that kind of thing; and when men do
that, you may be sure, if you are cautious, to catch such an one.”
“Well, I will try.”
“Do, my dear; it will be worth your while, it will make all our
fortunes. I wonder what his money is invested in.”
“I should like to know that,” said Margaret.
“And so should I. Do you know, I have been thinking of that myself
more than once. It will be necessary to find it out, and yet it is so
delicate a matter, that I think you had better make no attempt to work
it out of him. Let the affair take its own course at present.”
“But I can hear all.”
“Then you will act wisely, my dear, very wisely, prudently; but do no
more—hear and see all, and say nothing—of course, I mean upon that
subject alone. Now, if we proceed cautiously, we shall be sure to gain
our object; I will take some method of obtaining the information I want
at some future time, because it will be well to have him caught before
we begin to pull tight the line; or, at least, before we begin to make
any inquiries respecting his means he must give us some cause to do so.”
“I dare say we shall know something by accident some of these days;
perhaps, at the hotel where he comes from, something may be learned by
inquiry.”
“Possibly there may, my dear; but I do not like to go there. At all
events, they can know but little, for he has not been long in England,
and would hold but little communication with such people. We must
have some better plan than that to go upon, else we shall never be
successful, except at the cost of some cross in our hopes we would
rather have avoided.”
“Well, ma’, you shall do as you like in this affair. I am sure you will
do what is right and best for the occasion; besides, one plan is better
than two.”
“You are right, my dear. I am, however, resolved to have a visitor.”
“A visitor, ma’?”
“Yes, my dear; only Mr. Twissel, the attorney.”
“Oh, I know who you mean now; but why do you have him? He is a very
funny sort of an acquaintance, especially if he is to meet the colonel.”
“I wish him to meet him, my dear, for that reason. He will be able to
get out of him, by some means, what he has got his money locked up in.
A hint will serve him, and he can make inquiries, and learn it all,
and then he will, if we are successful, have a good thing of marriage
settlements, and so forth. Besides, I will make an agreement with him
that he shall have a sum of money for his trouble.”
“That will be a very good plan, certainly.”
“Exactly, and you needn’t be seen in it at all; so I think we shall
be all very fairly put in the way of doing well. I shall go out this
morning, and call upon Mr. Twissel, and have some conversation with
him. He used to have some business of your father’s to do, and has had
much of his money, as well as a good word now and then.”
“Dear me, who is that? There is a double knock at the door, ma’. How
vexing it will be to have any one come here. I shall hate the sight of
any one coming in now.”
“Can’t you see from the window who it is, my dear?”
“No, ma’.”
“Then we must wait until the servant comes in.”
The words had hardly been uttered, before the servant entered, and said
that Mr. Twissel wanted to speak to Mrs. Meredith, if she was at home.
“God bless me!—send him in,” said Mrs. Meredith, after the first
surprise was over; and then, turning to her daughter, she said, “Talk
of what’s-his-name, and you are sure to see some of his friends. If I
had wanted him to come, he would not have been here.”
“Very likely, ma’; and yet you do, and he is here.”
At this moment Mr. Twissel made his appearance, and entered the
parlour. Having saluted the ladies, he proceeded to lay his hat and
cane on the table, saying,—
“Mrs. Meredith, I dare say you are surprised to see me, after so long
an absence.”
“My surprise is not greater than my pleasure, Mr. Twissel. I am very
glad to see an old friend of my husband’s. Pray sit down, sir.”
“Thank you, I will. I am glad to see you look so well. I need not ask
how you are, and your amiable daughter too; she appears charming.”
“Yes, Mr. Twissel, we are in tolerable good health; not often better.”
“Do not let me disturb you, Miss Margaret,” said Mr. Twissel, as she
rose to leave the room.
“Oh, no, sir, not at all. I have something to attend to, if you will
excuse me.”
“Certainly, certainly. I hope I shall not be any cause of putting you
to any constraint and inconvenience; at the same time, I shall not
detain Mrs. Meredith long.”
“Oh, we don’t intend to lose you suddenly,” said Mrs. Meredith.
“Anything I can oblige you in I shall be very happy to do so, if you
point out the how.”
“Then I will proceed to do so at once,” said Mr. Twissel; “I will do so
at once. You see, when your late husband died, or before, he gave me
several debts to collect.”
“So I understood,” said Mrs. Meredith.
“Exactly; I see you understand me. Now, those debts I was to collect
myself for my own benefit, he having, when he died, owed me a
considerable sum of money. He assigned them to me, and I accepted them
as payment of his debt due to me.”
“I understood such to be the case, and at that point the matter was
considered as settled; was it not, Mr. Twissel?” said Mrs. Meredith.
“It was so, and is so now, as far as I know now; but I want some few
papers which it is possible may be somewhere in your possession, to
enable me to secure the payment of them; and without those papers I
shall not be able to enforce attention. Now, I want to know if you
will oblige me with them if you have them by you?”
“I will certainly look and make any search I can for them, and if I
find them you shall have them, certainly. But, now I have disposed of
that, will you do me a favour?”
“Certainly, with pleasure.”
“Well, then, Mr. Twissel, you see, there is a certain rich lodger of
mine who pays certain attentions to my daughter Margaret,” said Mrs.
Meredith.
“I see,” said Mr. Twissel.
“Well, then, he had made no positive offer yet; but we have certain
expectations, you see, and in case those expectations become realised,
I want to be in such a situation as to know at once what I shall do in
such a case—what ought to be done.”
“Very good, my dear madam; very good.”
“Now, we only know from report, and from appearances, that he is rich;
we feel quite convinced of that—he could not well be otherwise,” said
Mrs. Meredith; “but we are anxious to know in what kind of stock or
property he is likely to have invested it.”
“Yes, I see. Well, then, all you have to do is to learn what you can
from himself or his friends, and then make inquiries respecting the
truth of what you hear. I should be very happy in assisting to make
such inquiries, or in any way you may point out.”
“I am very much obliged to you; but, Mr. Twissel, it is a very delicate
subject for females to touch upon, and, moreover, it is worse,
considering how my daughter is likely to be in connection with him.”
“It is a delicate matter, certainly.”
“Well, now, what I wanted was this; if you would on some occasion—I
would let you know beforehand,—call in and take some tea, or whatever
meal happened to be at hand, and get into conversation with the
colonel, and get this matter from him——”
“Oh, he is a colonel in the army, then?”
“Yes; but returned, in bad health, from the Indies. He has come only
recently.”
“Aye, aye, I see; you have a nabob, I see. That will be a very
handsome settlement for your daughter, my dear madam; a very handsome
settlement.”
“Yes, it will.”
“Well, it is handsome; but there are drawbacks, you see.”
“Oh, age, and ill health.”
“Exactly; they are drawbacks, you see, that are not always to a young
female’s taste.”
“No, no; but, then, my daughter is a reasonable young woman, Mr.
Twissel, and would not object to a good fortune because there was a
kind, though, perhaps, elderly, gentleman for a husband. Oh, dear,
no, sir, I have no apprehensions of that character; she will be good
and obedient, especially when she knows that it is all for her good;
besides that, you see, the colonel, though an invalid, is not so very
old, and is a most pleasant, and, I might say, fascinating gentleman
to converse with; so that she can have no personal objection; and,
besides, from what I can observe, I have reason to believe that the
colonel is by no means disagreeable to her.”
“Then I am sure it is a very handsome prospect for her, and one that
might have been long in happening to one who had a better fortune to
aid her.”
“Yes, indeed, it might.”
“Well, then, if I can aid you, command my services.”
“In this respect you may do me much good, but I do not, as it will be
some little loss of time to you, desire you should do so for nothing.
If we succeed, and all is comfortable, you shall have a hundred pounds
soon after the marriage—say three months.”
“Very well. I am quite willing to accept the terms, and should I be
wanted at any time, perhaps you will let me know as long before as
possible.”
“I will do so.”
“And then, when I next come, perhaps you’ll be able to hand me the
papers, and be ready to sign some agreement which I will get ready for
the purpose.”
“Very well, I will do it.”
“I am much obliged to you,” said Mr. Twissel; “however, I suppose, when
I am introduced to the colonel, I am only to come in as an old friend
of the family?”
“Exactly so; that will be by far the best character to assume, because
you may be anything; besides which, when matters come to a point proper
for interference, you can do so the more easily, and with more effect,
and he also will be less inclined to quarrel; and at the same time he
can have less objection to do so, which, you see, is a little better.”
“I see,” said the attorney, rising; “and now, as we have settled this
business so far, I will bid you good afternoon, as I have some business
elsewhere this evening, which I must get finished.”
After exchanging greetings, the attorney quitted the house of Mrs.
Meredith without further remark.