Lord Fawn at His Office
The news was soon all about London,--as Lizzie had intended. She had
made a sudden resolve that Lord Fawn should not escape her, and she
had gone to work after the fashion we have seen. Frank Greystock had
told John Eustace, and John Eustace had told Mr. Camperdown before
Lord Fawn himself, in the slow prosecution of his purpose, had
consulted the lawyer about the necklace. "God bless my soul;--Lord
Fawn!" the old lawyer had said when the news was communicated to him.
"Well,--yes;--he wants money. I don't envy him; that's all. We shall
get the diamonds now, John. Lord Fawn isn't the man to let his wife
keep what doesn't belong to her." Then, after a day or two, Lord Fawn
had himself gone to Mr. Camperdown's chambers. "I believe I am to
congratulate you, my lord," said the lawyer. "I'm told you are going
to marry--; well, I mustn't really say another of my clients, but the
widow of one of them. Lady Eustace is a very beautiful woman, and she
has a very pretty income too. She has the whole of the Scotch
property for her life."
"It's only for her life, I suppose?" said Lord Fawn.
"Oh, no, no;--of course not. There's been some mistake on her
part;--at least, so I've been told. Women never understand. It's
all as clear as daylight. Had there been a second son, the second
son would have had it. As it is, it goes with the rest of the
property--just as it ought to do, you know. Four thousand a year
isn't so bad, you know, considering that she isn't more than a girl
yet, and that she hadn't sixpence of her own. When the admiral died,
there wasn't sixpence, Lord Fawn."
"So I have heard."
"Not sixpence. It's all Eustace money. She had six or eight thousand
pounds, or something like that, besides. She's as lovely a young
widow as I ever saw,--and very clever."
"Yes;--she is clever."
"By-the-bye, Lord Fawn, as you have done me the honour of
calling,--there's a stupid mistake about some family diamonds."
"It is in respect to them that I've come," said Lord Fawn. Then Mr.
Camperdown, in his easy, off-hand way, imputing no blame to the lady
in the hearing of her future husband, and declaring his opinion that
she was doubtless unaware of its value, explained the matter of the
necklace. Lord Fawn listened, but said very little. He especially did
not say that Lady Eustace had had the stones valued. "They're real, I
suppose?" he asked. Mr. Camperdown assured him that no diamonds more
real had ever come from Golconda, or passed through Mr. Garnett's
hands. "They are as well known as any family diamonds in England,"
said Mr. Camperdown. "She has got into bad hands,"--continued Mr.
Camperdown. "Mowbray and Mopus;--horrible people; sharks, that make
one blush for one's profession; and I was really afraid there would
have been trouble. But, of course, it'll be all right now;--and if
she'll only come to me, tell her I'll do everything I can to make
things straight and comfortable for her. If she likes to have another
lawyer, of course, that's all right. Only make her understand who
Mowbray and Mopus are. It's quite out of the question, Lord Fawn,
that your wife should have anything to do with Mowbray and Mopus."
Every word that Mr. Camperdown said was gospel to Lord Fawn.
And yet, as the reader will understand, Mr. Camperdown had by no
means expressed his real opinion in this interview. He had spoken of
the widow in friendly terms,--declaring that she was simply mistaken
in her ideas as to the duration of her interest in the Scotch
property, and mistaken again about the diamonds;--whereas in truth he
regarded her as a dishonest, lying, evil-minded harpy. Had Lord Fawn
consulted him simply as a client, and not have come to him an engaged
lover, he would have expressed his opinion quite frankly; but it is
not the business of a lawyer to tell his client evil things of the
lady whom that client is engaged to marry. In regard to the property
he spoke the truth, and he spoke what he believed to be the truth
when he said that the whole thing would no doubt now be easily
arranged. When Lord Fawn took his leave, Mr. Camperdown again
declared to himself that as regarded money the match was very well
for his lordship; but that, as regarded the woman, Lizzie was dear
at the price. "Perhaps he doesn't mind it," said Mr. Camperdown to
himself, "but I wouldn't marry such a woman myself, though she owned
all Scotland."
There had been much in the interview to make Lord Fawn unhappy.
In the first place, that golden hope as to the perpetuity of the
property was at an end. He had never believed that it was so; but a
man may hope without believing. And he was quite sure that Lizzie was
bound to give up the diamonds,--and would ultimately be made to give
them up. Of any property in them, as possibly accruing to himself,
he had not thought much;--but he could not abstain from thinking of
the woman's grasp upon them. Mr. Camperdown's plain statement, which
was gospel to him, was directly at variance with Lizzie's story. Sir
Florian certainly would not have given such diamonds in such a way.
Sir Florian would not have ordered a separate iron safe for them,
with a view that they might be secure in his wife's bed-room. And
then she had had them valued, and manifestly was always thinking of
her treasure. It was very well for a poor, careful peer to be always
thinking of his money, but Lord Fawn was well aware that a young
woman such as Lady Eustace should have her thoughts elsewhere. As he
sat signing letters at the India Board, relieving himself when he was
left alone between each batch by standing up with his back to the
fire-place, his mind was full of all this. He could not unravel truth
quickly, but he could grasp it when it came to him. She was certainly
greedy, false, and dishonest. And,--worse than all this,--she had
dared to tell him to his face that he was a poor creature because he
would not support her in her greed, and falsehoods, and dishonesty!
Nevertheless, he was engaged to marry her! Then he thought of one
Violet Effingham whom he had loved, and then came over him some
suspicion of a fear that he himself was hard and selfish. And yet
what was such a one as he to do? It was of course necessary for the
maintenance of the very constitution of his country that there should
be future Lord Fawns. There could be no future Lord Fawns unless he
married;--and how could he marry without money? "A peasant can marry
whom he pleases," said Lord Fawn, pressing his hand to his brow, and
dropping one flap of his coat, as he thought of his own high and
perilous destiny, standing with his back to the fire-place, while a
huge pile of letters lay there before him waiting to be signed.
It was a Saturday evening, and as there was no House there was
nothing to hurry him away from the office. He was the occupier for
the time of a large, well-furnished official room, looking out into
St. James's Park, and as he glanced round it he told himself that his
own happiness must be there, and not in the domesticity of a quiet
home. The House of Lords, out of which nobody could turn him, and
official life,--as long as he could hold to it,--must be all in all
to him. He had engaged himself to this woman, and he must--marry
her. He did not think that he could now see any way of avoiding that
event. Her income would supply the needs of her home, and then there
might probably be a continuation of Lord Fawns. The world might have
done better for him,--had he been able to find favour in Violet
Effingham's sight. He was a man capable of love,--and very capable
of constancy to a woman true to him. Then he wiped away a tear as he
sat down to sign the huge batch of letters. As he read some special
letter in which instructions were conveyed as to the insufficiency
of the Sawab's claims, he thought of Frank Greystock's attack upon
him, and of Frank Greystock's cousin. There had been a time in
which he had feared that the two cousins would become man and wife.
At this moment he uttered a malediction against the member for
Bobsborough, which might perhaps have been spared had the member
been now willing to take the lady off his hands. Then the door was
opened, and the messenger told him that Mrs. Hittaway was in the
waiting-room. Mrs. Hittaway was, of course, at once made welcome to
the Under-Secretary's own apartment.
Mrs. Hittaway was a strong-minded woman,--the strongest-minded
probably of the Fawn family,--but she had now come upon a task
which taxed all her strength to the utmost. She had told her mother
that she would tell "Frederic" what she thought about his proposed
bride, and she had now come to carry out her threat. She had asked
her brother to come and dine with her, but he had declined. His
engagements hardly admitted of his dining with his relatives. She had
called upon him at the rooms he occupied in Victoria Street,--but
of course she had not found him. She could not very well go to his
club;--so now she had hunted him down at his office. From the very
commencement of the interview Mrs. Hittaway was strong-minded. She
began the subject of the marriage, and did so without a word of
congratulation. "Dear Frederic," she said, "you know that we have all
got to look up to you."
"Well, Clara,--what does that mean?"
"It means this,--that you must bear with me, if I am more anxious as
to your future career than another sister might be."
"Now I know you are going to say something unpleasant."
"Yes, I am, Frederic. I have heard so many bad things about Lady
Eustace!"
The Under-Secretary sat silent for awhile in his great arm-chair.
"What sort of evil things do you mean, Clara?" he asked at last.
"Evil things are said of a great many people,--as you know. I am sure
you would not wish to repeat slanders."
Mrs. Hittaway was not to be silenced after this fashion. "Not
slanders, certainly, Frederic. But when I hear that you intend to
raise this lady to the rank and position of your wife, then of course
the truth or falsehood of these reports becomes a matter of great
moment to us all. Don't you think you had better see Mr. Camperdown?"
"I have seen him."
"And what does he say?"
"What should he say? Lady Eustace has, I believe, made some mistake
about the condition of her property, and people who have heard it
have been good-natured enough to say that the error has been wilful.
That is what I call slander, Clara."
"And have you heard about her jewels?" Mrs. Hittaway was alluding
here to the report which had reached her as to Lizzie's debt to
Harter and Benjamin when she married Sir Florian; but Lord Fawn of
course thought of the diamond necklace.
"Yes;" said he, "I have heard all about them. Who told you?"
"I have known it ever so long. Sir Florian never got over it." Lord
Fawn was again in the dark, but he did not choose to commit himself
by asking further questions. "And then her treatment of Lady
Linlithgow, who was her only friend before she married, was something
quite unnatural. Ask the dean's people what they think of her. I
believe even they would tell you."
"Frank Greystock desired to marry her himself."
"Yes,--for her money, perhaps;--because he has not got a farthing in
the world. Dear Frederic, I only wish to put you on your guard. Of
course this is very unpleasant, and I shouldn't do it if I didn't
think it my duty. I believe she is artful and very false. She
certainly deceived Sir Florian Eustace about her debts;--and he never
held up his head after he found out what she was. If she has told you
falsehoods, of course you can break it off. Dear Frederic, I hope you
won't be angry with me."
"Is that all?" he asked.
"Yes;--that is all."
"I'll bear it in mind," he said. "Of course it isn't very pleasant."
"No;--I know it is not pleasant," said Mrs. Hittaway, rising, and
taking her departure with an offer of affectionate sisterly greeting,
which was not accepted with cordiality.
It was very unpleasant. That very morning Lord Fawn had received
letters from the Dean and the Bishop of Bobsborough congratulating
him on his intended marriage,--both those worthy dignitaries of the
Church having thought it expedient to verify Lizzie's statements.
Lord Fawn was, therefore, well aware that Lady Eustace had published
the engagement. It was known to everybody, and could not be broken
off without public scandal.