There is no security in this world. A dissolution of Parliament took
place, and on the following election the Honourable Captain Delmar's
constituents, not being exactly pleased at the total indifference which
he had shown to their interests, took upon themselves to elect another
member in his stead, who, as Captain Delmar had previously done,
promised everything, and in all probability would follow the honourable
captain's example by performing nothing. The loss of his election was
followed up by the loss of his ship, his majesty's government not
considering it necessary that Captain Delmar (now that he had leisure to
attend to his professional duties) should retain his command. The
frigate, therefore, was paid off, and recommissioned by another captain
who had friends in Parliament.
As Ben Keene belonged to the marine corps, he could not, of course,
remain as valet to Captain Delmar, but was ordered, with the rest of the
detachment, to the barracks at Chatham; my mother, although she was
determined that she would not live at barracks, was not sorry to leave
the Hall, where she could not fail to perceive that she was, from her
imprudent conduct, no longer treated with the respect or cordiality to
which she had been previously accustomed. She was most anxious to quit
a place in which her disgrace was so well known; and Captain Delmar
having given her his advice, which coincided with her own ideas, and
also a very munificent present to enable her to set up housekeeping,
took his departure from the Hall. My mother returned to her room as the
wheels of his carriage rattled over the gravel of the drive, and many
were the bitter tears which she shed over her unconscious boy.
The following day the Honourable Miss Delmar sent for her; as usual,
commenced with a tedious lecture, which, as before, was wound up at
parting with a handsome present. The day after my mother packed up her
trunks, and with me in her arms set off to Chatham, where we arrived
safely, and immediately went into furnished lodgings. My mother was a
clever, active woman, and the presents which she had at different times
received amounted to a considerable sum of money, over which her husband
had never ventured to assert any claim.
Indeed, I must do Ben Keene the justice to say that he had the virtue of
humility. He felt that his wife was in every way his superior and that
it was only under peculiar circumstances that he could have aspired to
her. He was, therefore, submissive to her in everything, consenting to
every proposal that was made by her, and guided by her opinion. When,
therefore, on her arrival at Chatham, she pointed out how impossible it
would be for one brought up as she had been to associate with the women
in the barracks, and that she considered it advisable that she should
set up some business by which she might gain a respectable livelihood,
Ben, although he felt that this would be a virtual separation _a mensa
et thoro_, named no objections. Having thus obtained the consent of her
husband, who considered her so much his superior as to be infallible, my
mother, after much cogitation, resolved that she would embark her
capital in a circulating library and stationer's shop; for she argued
that selling paper, pens, and sealing-wax was a commerce which would
secure to her customers of the better class. Accordingly, she hired a
house close to the barracks, with a very good-sized shop below, painting
and papering it very smartly; there was much taste in all her
arrangements, and although the expenses of the outlay and the first
year's rent had swallowed up a considerable portion of the money she had
laid by, it soon proved that she had calculated well, and her shop
became a sort of lounge for the officers, who amused themselves with her
smartness and vivacity, the more so as she had a talent for repartee,
which men like to find in a very pretty woman.
In a short time my mother became quite the rage, and it was a mystery
how so pretty and elegant a person could have become the wife of a
private marine. It was however, ascribed to her having been captivated
with the very handsome person and figure of her husband, and having
yielded to her feelings in a moment of infatuation. The ladies
patronised her circulating library; the officers and gentlemen purchased
her stationery. My mother then added gloves, perfumery, canes, and
lastly cigars, to her previous assortment and before she had been a year
in business, found that she was making money very fast, and increasing
her customers every day. My mother had a great deal of tact; with the
other sex she was full of merriment and fond of joking, consequently a
great favourite; towards her own sex her conduct was quite the reverse;
she assumed a respectful, prudish air, blended with a familiarity which
was never offensive; she was, therefore, equally popular with her own
sex, and prospered in every sense of the word. Had her husband been the
least inclined to have asserted his rights, the position which she had
gained was sufficient to her reducing him to a state of subjection. She
had raised herself, unaided, far above him; he saw her continually
chatting and laughing with his own officers, to whom he was compelled to
make a respectful salute whenever they passed by him; he could not
venture to address her, or even to come into the shop, when his officers
were there, or it would have been considered disrespectful towards them;
and as he could not sleep out of barracks, all his intercourse with her
was to occasionally slink down by the area, to find something better to
eat than he could have in his own mess, or obtain from her an occasional
shilling to spend in beer. Ben, the marine, found at last that somehow
or another, his wife had slipped out of his hands; that he was nothing
more than a pensioner on her bounty a slave to her wishes, and a fetcher
and carrier at her command, and he resigned himself quietly to his fate,
as better men have done before.