_Displays Miss Sowersoft's character in a degree of perfection
unparalleled on any previous exhibition.--Fanny's obstinacy incites Mrs.
Clink to turn her adrift upon the world._
Having entered the room, Miss Sowersoft first peeped out to see that
no listeners were in the neighbourhood, and then cautiously closed the
door,--all the blood in her veins mustering up in red rebellion against
poor Fanny, as she stared at that young woman through two dilated eyes,
with something of the expression of a hand-grenade with a newly-lit
fusee.
“Take a chair, Mrs. Clink,” said Miss Sowersoft, in a tone which denoted
more than her ordinary attention to etiquette, as she still kept her
eyes on Fanny, in order to make her feel her own insignificance the more
keenly by the contrast; “do be seated;” and she drew up another
chair for herself, while Fanny was left standing, as best became a
servant--and a culprit. “Now, I am quite ready to begin.”
“Have it out of her at once--I would not stand on ceremony with anybody
like her!”
“What is it, Fanny,” asked Mrs. Clink, “that the doctor has been talking
to you about?”
“I cannot answer that,” replied Fanny. “I have promised to tell nobody,
and I must keep my word.”
“There!--that's sufficient!” cried Miss Sowersoft, “that is plenty!
You see what it is. She has _promised_, and will not explain it. I
knew before, as well as if I had heard, how it would all be. She has
compromised' herself, just as such a young face-proud hussy was sure to
do. It is a wonder to me, Mrs. Clink, how you have contrived to keep her
respectable so long.”
“I did not intend to talk to _you_, Miss Sowersoft,” replied, Fanny;
“but I will tell you that I have always been too respectable for what
you seem to think.”
“Answer me, Fanny,” interposed Mrs. Clink. “I am sure you will answer
me.”
“I cannot, ma'am,” said Fanny.
“You positively will not, do you mean to say?”
“Indeed I cannot, because I have promised that I would not; but it is
nothing of the least harm.”
“Oh, no!” exclaimed Miss Sowersoft, “not the least harm!--to be sure
not!--oh, no! She is very innocent, no doubt.”
“If I discharge you from service unless you do tell me, what then?”
asked her mistress.
“I cannot help it if you do,” said Fanny, as she burst into tears at
the bare mention of quitting that place which had been as a home to her
nearly all her life.
“Then I positively insist either that you do tell me all about it, or
stay with me no longer than until you can suit yourself elsewhere. I do
not wish to part with you,--far from it. You have been with me almost
all your life, and I should not like to see the day when you turned your
back upon my door for the last time; but I cannot have this silence and
secrecy about such an affair as the present. I have known enough, and
more than enough, of the ruin and misery that may ensue, to allow of it
in any young woman under my care. I cannot have it, Fanny, and will not
have it; so you must make your choice.”
Fanny cried bitterly, and with some difficulty made herself understood
amidst so many sobs and sighs, as she protested that she dared not
tell more than she had told; that, on her solemn word, it was not about
anything that could in the least injure her.
“Well, I must say I give her credit for what she says,'' remarked Mrs.
Clink, in an under tone, to Miss Sowersoft.
“Give her a birch rod!” exclaimed the latter lady. “I wonder how you can
allow yourself to be so easily imposed upon! It is all her artfulness,
and nothing else. She is as cunning as Satan, and as deep as the day is
long, she is! Ask her what made the doctor say he would do something for
her,--let her unriddle that, if she can.”
Mrs. Clink accordingly continued the examination much in the manner
already described, and with about the same success. Fanny resisted all
inquiry as strenuously as at first, until at length Mrs. Clink gave her
a formal warning to seek out for another situation, and to leave her
present place as soon as she had found one. Fanny replied, that she
would go begging rather than betray the trust reposed in her, as she
believed that Providence would never let her starve for having done what
was right.
“What a wicked wretch she is!” Miss Sowersoft exclaimed, when she had
heard poor Fanny's expression of trust in a more just power than that
which now condemned her; “I am sure her horrible wickedness turns me
white to hear it.”
This female tribunal having dissolved itself, Fanny was dismissed up
stairs again, and the other two ladies remained below to discuss in
private the question of Colin's removal home, until such time as his
recovery might admit of his return to the labours of the farm.
It will be quite sufficient to state, as the result of their
deliberations, that within eight-and-forty hours afterwards our hero,
being somewhat recovered, was laid on a bed placed in a cart, and
carried home; that Fanny attended him there during some brief space of
time afterwards, until she procured another situation, and left Mrs.
Clink's service at once and for ever; and that these changes, together
with some others of very superior importance, which I shall proceed
immediately to relate, brought about such a “new combination of parties”
amongst the personages, great and small, who have figured in our pages,
as cannot fail, when explained, to throw great light upon the yet dark
and abstruse points of this veritable history.