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diff --git a/old/brjcb10.txt b/old/brjcb10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e4edf4 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/brjcb10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1949 @@ +*The Project Gutenberg Etext of Brother Jacob, by George Eliot* +#5 in our series by George Eliot [Mary Anne Evans] + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +BROTHER JACOB + +by George Eliot [Mary Anne Evans] + + + + +CHAPTER I + + + +Among the many fatalities attending the bloom of young desire, that +of blindly taking to the confectionery line has not, perhaps, been +sufficiently considered. How is the son of a British yeoman, who +has been fed principally on salt pork and yeast dumplings, to know +that there is satiety for the human stomach even in a paradise of +glass jars full of sugared almonds and pink lozenges, and that the +tedium of life can reach a pitch where plum-buns at discretion cease +to offer the slightest excitement? Or how, at the tender age when a +confectioner seems to him a very prince whom all the world must +envy--who breakfasts on macaroons, dines on meringues, sups on +twelfth-cake, and fills up the intermediate hours with sugar-candy +or peppermint--how is he to foresee the day of sad wisdom, when he +will discern that the confectioner's calling is not socially +influential, or favourable to a soaring ambition? I have known a +man who turned out to have a metaphysical genius, incautiously, in +the period of youthful buoyancy, commence his career as a dancing- +master; and you may imagine the use that was made of this initial +mistake by opponents who felt themselves bound to warn the public +against his doctrine of the Inconceivable. He could not give up his +dancing-lessons, because he made his bread by them, and metaphysics +would not have found him in so much as salt to his bread. It was +really the same with Mr. David Faux and the confectionery business. +His uncle, the butler at the great house close by Brigford, had made +a pet of him in his early boyhood, and it was on a visit to this +uncle that the confectioners' shops in that brilliant town had, on a +single day, fired his tender imagination. He carried home the +pleasing illusion that a confectioner must be at once the happiest +and the foremost of men, since the things he made were not only the +most beautiful to behold, but the very best eating, and such as the +Lord Mayor must always order largely for his private recreation; so +that when his father declared he must be put to a trade, David chose +his line without a moment's hesitation; and, with a rashness +inspired by a sweet tooth, wedded himself irrevocably to +confectionery. Soon, however, the tooth lost its relish and fell +into blank indifference; and all the while, his mind expanded, his +ambition took new shapes, which could hardly be satisfied within the +sphere his youthful ardour had chosen. But what was he to do? He +was a young man of much mental activity, and, above all, gifted with +a spirit of contrivance; but then, his faculties would not tell with +great effect in any other medium than that of candied sugars, +conserves, and pastry. Say what you will about the identity of the +reasoning process in all branches of thought, or about the advantage +of coming to subjects with a fresh mind, the adjustment of butter to +flour, and of heat to pastry, is NOT the best preparation for the +office of prime minister; besides, in the present imperfectly- +organized state of society, there are social barriers. David could +invent delightful things in the way of drop-cakes, and he had the +widest views of the sugar department; but in other directions he +certainly felt hampered by the want of knowledge and practical +skill; and the world is so inconveniently constituted, that the +vague consciousness of being a fine fellow is no guarantee of +success in any line of business. + +This difficulty pressed with some severity on Mr. David Faux, even +before his apprenticeship was ended. His soul swelled with an +impatient sense that he ought to become something very remarkable-- +that it was quite out of the question for him to put up with a +narrow lot as other men did: he scorned the idea that he could +accept an average. He was sure there was nothing average about him: +even such a person as Mrs. Tibbits, the washer-woman, perceived it, +and probably had a preference for his linen. At that particular +period he was weighing out gingerbread nuts; but such an anomaly +could not continue. No position could be suited to Mr. David Faux +that was not in the highest degree easy to the flesh and flattering +to the spirit. If he had fallen on the present times, and enjoyed +the advantages of a Mechanic's Institute, he would certainly have +taken to literature and have written reviews; but his education had +not been liberal. He had read some novels from the adjoining +circulating library, and had even bought the story of Inkle and +Yarico, which had made him feel very sorry for poor Mr. Inkle; so +that his ideas might not have been below a certain mark of the +literary calling; but his spelling and diction were too +unconventional. + +When a man is not adequately appreciated or comfortably placed in +his own country, his thoughts naturally turn towards foreign climes; +and David's imagination circled round and round the utmost limits of +his geographical knowledge, in search of a country where a young +gentleman of pasty visage, lipless mouth, and stumpy hair, would be +likely to be received with the hospitable enthusiasm which he had a +right to expect. Having a general idea of America as a country +where the population was chiefly black, it appeared to him the most +propitious destination for an emigrant who, to begin with, had the +broad and easily recognizable merit of whiteness; and this idea +gradually took such strong possession of him that Satan seized the +opportunity of suggesting to him that he might emigrate under easier +circumstances, if he supplied himself with a little money from his +master's till. But that evil spirit, whose understanding, I am +convinced, has been much overrated, quite wasted his time on this +occasion. David would certainly have liked well to have some of his +master's money in his pocket, if he had been sure his master would +have been the only man to suffer for it; but he was a cautious +youth, and quite determined to run no risks on his own account. So +he stayed out his apprenticeship, and committed no act of dishonesty +that was at all likely to be discovered, reserving his plan of +emigration for a future opportunity. And the circumstances under +which he carried it out were in this wise. Having been at home a +week or two partaking of the family beans, he had used his leisure +in ascertaining a fact which was of considerable importance to him, +namely, that his mother had a small sum in guineas painfully saved +from her maiden perquisites, and kept in the corner of a drawer +where her baby-linen had reposed for the last twenty years--ever +since her son David had taken to his feet, with a slight promise of +bow-legs which had not been altogether unfulfilled. Mr. Faux, +senior, had told his son very frankly, that he must not look to +being set up in business by HIM: with seven sons, and one of them a +very healthy and well-developed idiot, who consumed a dumpling about +eight inches in diameter every day, it was pretty well if they got a +hundred apiece at his death. Under these circumstances, what was +David to do? It was certainly hard that he should take his mother's +money; but he saw no other ready means of getting any, and it was +not to be expected that a young man of his merit should put up with +inconveniences that could be avoided. Besides, it is not robbery to +take property belonging to your mother: she doesn't prosecute you. +And David was very well behaved to his mother; he comforted her by +speaking highly of himself to her, and assuring her that he never +fell into the vices he saw practised by other youths of his own age, +and that he was particularly fond of honesty. If his mother would +have given him her twenty guineas as a reward of this noble +disposition, he really would not have stolen them from her, and it +would have been more agreeable to his feelings. Nevertheless, to an +active mind like David's, ingenuity is not without its pleasures: +it was rather an interesting occupation to become stealthily +acquainted with the wards of his mother's simple key (not in the +least like Chubb's patent), and to get one that would do its work +equally well; and also to arrange a little drama by which he would +escape suspicion, and run no risk of forfeiting the prospective +hundred at his father's death, which would be convenient in the +improbable case of his NOT making a large fortune in the "Indies." + +First, he spoke freely of his intention to start shortly for +Liverpool and take ship for America; a resolution which cost his +good mother some pain, for, after Jacob the idiot, there was not one +of her sons to whom her heart clung more than to her youngest-born, +David. Next, it appeared to him that Sunday afternoon, when +everybody was gone to church except Jacob and the cowboy, was so +singularly favourable an opportunity for sons who wanted to +appropriate their mothers' guineas, that he half thought it must +have been kindly intended by Providence for such purposes. +Especially the third Sunday in Lent; because Jacob had been out on +one of his occasional wanderings for the last two days; and David, +being a timid young man, had a considerable dread and hatred of +Jacob, as of a large personage who went about habitually with a +pitchfork in his hand. + +Nothing could be easier, then, than for David on this Sunday +afternoon to decline going to church, on the ground that he was +going to tea at Mr. Lunn's, whose pretty daughter Sally had been an +early flame of his, and, when the church-goers were at a safe +distance, to abstract the guineas from their wooden box and slip +them into a small canvas bag--nothing easier than to call to the +cowboy that he was going, and tell him to keep an eye on the house +for fear of Sunday tramps. David thought it would be easy, too, to +get to a small thicket and bury his bag in a hole he had already +made and covered up under the roots of an old hollow ash, and he +had, in fact, found the hole without a moment's difficulty, had +uncovered it, and was about gently to drop the bag into it, when the +sound of a large body rustling towards him with something like a +bellow was such a surprise to David, who, as a gentleman gifted with +much contrivance, was naturally only prepared for what he expected, +that instead of dropping the bag gently he let it fall so as to make +it untwist and vomit forth the shining guineas. In the same moment +he looked up and saw his dear brother Jacob close upon him, holding +the pitchfork so that the bright smooth prongs were a yard in +advance of his own body, and about a foot off David's. (A learned +friend, to whom I once narrated this history, observed that it was +David's guilt which made these prongs formidable, and that the "mens +nil conscia sibi" strips a pitchfork of all terrors. I thought this +idea so valuable, that I obtained his leave to use it on condition +of suppressing his name.) Nevertheless, David did not entirely lose +his presence of mind; for in that case he would have sunk on the +earth or started backward; whereas he kept his ground and smiled at +Jacob, who nodded his head up and down, and said, "Hoich, Zavy!" in +a painfully equivocal manner. David's heart was beating audibly, +and if he had had any lips they would have been pale; but his mental +activity, instead of being paralysed, was stimulated. While he was +inwardly praying (he always prayed when he was much frightened)-- +"Oh, save me this once, and I'll never get into danger again!"--he +was thrusting his hand into his pocket in search of a box of yellow +lozenges, which he had brought with him from Brigford among other +delicacies of the same portable kind, as a means of conciliating +proud beauty, and more particularly the beauty of Miss Sarah Lunn. +Not one of these delicacies had he ever offered to poor Jacob, for +David was not a young man to waste his jujubes and barley-sugar in +giving pleasure to people from whom he expected nothing. But an +idiot with equivocal intentions and a pitchfork is as well worth +flattering and cajoling as if he were Louis Napoleon. So David, +with a promptitude equal to the occasion, drew out his box of yellow +lozenges, lifted the lid, and performed a pantomime with his mouth +and fingers, which was meant to imply that he was delighted to see +his dear brother Jacob, and seized the opportunity of making him a +small present, which he would find particularly agreeable to the +taste. Jacob, you understand, was not an intense idiot, but within +a certain limited range knew how to choose the good and reject the +evil: he took one lozenge, by way of test, and sucked it as if he +had been a philosopher; then, in as great an ecstacy at its new and +complex savour as Caliban at the taste of Trinculo's wine, chuckled +and stroked this suddenly beneficent brother, and held out his hand +for more; for, except in fits of anger, Jacob was not ferocious or +needlessly predatory. David's courage half returned, and he left +off praying; pouring a dozen lozenges into Jacob's palm, and trying +to look very fond of him. He congratulated himself that he had +formed the plan of going to see Miss Sally Lunn this afternoon, and +that, as a consequence, he had brought with him these propitiatory +delicacies: he was certainly a lucky fellow; indeed, it was always +likely Providence should be fonder of him than of other apprentices, +and since he WAS to be interrupted, why, an idiot was preferable to +any other sort of witness. For the first time in his life, David +thought he saw the advantage of idiots. + +As for Jacob, he had thrust his pitchfork into the ground, and had +thrown himself down beside it, in thorough abandonment to the +unprecedented pleasure of having five lozenges in his mouth at once, +blinking meanwhile, and making inarticulate sounds of gustative +content. He had not yet given any sign of noticing the guineas, but +in seating himself he had laid his broad right hand on them, and +unconsciously kept it in that position, absorbed in the sensations +of his palate. If he could only be kept so occupied with the +lozenges as not to see the guineas before David could manage to +cover them! That was David's best hope of safety; for Jacob knew +his mother's guineas; it had been part of their common experience as +boys to be allowed to look at these handsome coins, and rattle them +in their box on high days and holidays, and among all Jacob's narrow +experiences as to money, this was likely to be the most memorable. + +"Here, Jacob," said David, in an insinuating tone, handing the box +to him, "I'll give 'em all to you. Run!--make haste!--else +somebody'll come and take 'em." + +David, not having studied the psychology of idiots, was not aware +that they are not to be wrought upon by imaginative fears. Jacob +took the box with his left hand, but saw no necessity for running +away. Was ever a promising young man wishing to lay the foundation +of his fortune by appropriating his mother's guineas obstructed by +such a day-mare as this? But the moment must come when Jacob would +move his right hand to draw off the lid of the tin box, and then +David would sweep the guineas into the hole with the utmost address +and swiftness, and immediately seat himself upon them. Ah, no! +It's of no use to have foresight when you are dealing with an idiot: +he is not to be calculated upon. Jacob's right hand was given to +vague clutching and throwing; it suddenly clutched the guineas as if +they had been so many pebbles, and was raised in an attitude which +promised to scatter them like seed over a distant bramble, when, +from some prompting or other--probably of an unwonted sensation--it +paused, descended to Jacob's knee, and opened slowly under the +inspection of Jacob's dull eyes. David began to pray again, but +immediately desisted--another resource having occurred to him. + +"Mother! zinnies!" exclaimed the innocent Jacob. Then, looking at +David, he said, interrogatively, "Box?" + +"Hush! hush!" said David, summoning all his ingenuity in this severe +strait. "See, Jacob!" He took the tin box from his brother's hand, +and emptied it of the lozenges, returning half of them to Jacob, but +secretly keeping the rest in his own hand. Then he held out the +empty box, and said, "Here's the box, Jacob! The box for the +guineas!" gently sweeping them from Jacob's palm into the box. + +This procedure was not objectionable to Jacob; on the contrary, the +guineas clinked so pleasantly as they fell, that he wished for a +repetition of the sound, and seizing the box, began to rattle it +very gleefully. David, seizing the opportunity, deposited his +reserve of lozenges in the ground and hastily swept some earth over +them. "Look, Jacob!" he said, at last. Jacob paused from his +clinking, and looked into the hole, while David began to scratch +away the earth, as if in doubtful expectation. When the lozenges +were laid bare, he took them out one by one, and gave them to Jacob. +"Hush!" he said, in a loud whisper, "Tell nobody--all for Jacob-- +hush--sh--sh! Put guineas in the hole--they'll come out like this!" +To make the lesson more complete, he took a guinea, and lowering it +into the hole, said, "Put in SO." Then, as he took the last lozenge +out, he said, "Come out SO," and put the lozenge into Jacob's +hospitable mouth. + +Jacob turned his head on one side, looked first at his brother and +then at the hole, like a reflective monkey, and, finally, laid the +box of guineas in the hole with much decision. David made haste to +add every one of the stray coins, put on the lid, and covered it +well with earth, saying in his meet coaxing tone - + +"Take 'm out to-morrow, Jacob; all for Jacob! Hush--sh--sh!" + +Jacob, to whom this once indifferent brother had all at once become +a sort of sweet-tasted fetish, stroked David's best coat with his +adhesive fingers, and then hugged him with an accompaniment of that +mingled chuckling and gurgling by which he was accustomed to express +the milder passions. But if he had chosen to bite a small morsel +out of his beneficent brother's cheek, David would have been obliged +to bear it. + +And here I must pause, to point out to you the short-sightedness of +human contrivance. This ingenious young man, Mr. David Faux, +thought he had achieved a triumph of cunning when he had associated +himself in his brother's rudimentary mind with the flavour of yellow +lozenges. But he had yet to learn that it is a dreadful thing to +make an idiot fond of you, when you yourself are not of an +affectionate disposition: especially an idiot with a pitchfork-- +obviously a difficult friend to shake off by rough usage. + +It may seem to you rather a blundering contrivance for a clever +young man to bury the guineas. But, if everything had turned out as +David had calculated, you would have seen that his plan was worthy +of his talents. The guineas would have lain safely in the earth +while the theft was discovered, and David, with the calm of +conscious innocence, would have lingered at home, reluctant to say +good-bye to his dear mother while she was in grief about her +guineas; till at length, on the eve of his departure, he would have +disinterred them in the strictest privacy, and carried them on his +own person without inconvenience. But David, you perceive, had +reckoned without his host, or, to speak more precisely, without his +idiot brother--an item of so uncertain and fluctuating a character, +that I doubt whether he would not have puzzled the astute heroes of +M. de Balzac, whose foresight is so remarkably at home in the +future. + +It was clear to David now that he had only one alternative before +him: he must either renounce the guineas, by quietly putting them +back in his mother's drawer (a course not unattended with +difficulty); or he must leave more than a suspicion behind him, by +departing early the next morning without giving notice, and with the +guineas in his pocket. For if he gave notice that he was going, his +mother, he knew, would insist on fetching from her box of guineas +the three she had always promised him as his share; indeed, in his +original plan, he had counted on this as a means by which the theft +would be discovered under circumstances that would themselves speak +for his innocence; but now, as I need hardly explain, that well- +combined plan was completely frustrated. Even if David could have +bribed Jacob with perpetual lozenges, an idiot's secrecy is itself +betrayal. He dared not even go to tea at Mr. Lunn's, for in that +case he would have lost sight of Jacob, who, in his impatience for +the crop of lozenges, might scratch up the box again while he was +absent, and carry it home--depriving him at once of reputation and +guineas. No! he must think of nothing all the rest of this day, but +of coaxing Jacob and keeping him out of mischief. It was a +fatiguing and anxious evening to David; nevertheless, he dared not +go to sleep without tying a piece of string to his thumb and great +toe, to secure his frequent waking; for he meant to be up with the +first peep of dawn, and be far out of reach before breakfast-time. +His father, he thought, would certainly cut him off with a shilling; +but what then? Such a striking young man as he would be sure to be +well received in the West Indies: in foreign countries there are +always openings--even for cats. It was probable that some Princess +Yarico would want him to marry her, and make him presents of very +large jewels beforehand; after which, he needn't marry her unless he +liked. David had made up his mind not to steal any more, even from +people who were fond of him: it was an unpleasant way of making +your fortune in a world where you were likely to surprised in the +act by brothers. Such alarms did not agree with David's +constitution, and he had felt so much nausea this evening that no +doubt his liver was affected. Besides, he would have been greatly +hurt not to be thought well of in the world: he always meant to +make a figure, and be thought worthy of the best seats and the best +morsels. + +Ruminating to this effect on the brilliant future in reserve for +him, David by the help of his check-string kept himself on the alert +to seize the time of earliest dawn for his rising and departure. +His brothers, of course, were early risers, but he should anticipate +them by at least an hour and a half, and the little room which he +had to himself as only an occasional visitor, had its window over +the horse-block, so that he could slip out through the window +without the least difficulty. Jacob, the horrible Jacob, had an +awkward trick of getting up before everybody else, to stem his +hunger by emptying the milk-bowl that was "duly set" for him; but of +late he had taken to sleeping in the hay-loft, and if he came into +the house, it would be on the opposite side to that from which David +was making his exit. There was no need to think of Jacob; yet David +was liberal enough to bestow a curse on him--it was the only thing +he ever did bestow gratuitously. His small bundle of clothes was +ready packed, and he was soon treading lightly on the steps of the +horse-block, soon walking at a smart pace across the fields towards +the thicket. It would take him no more than two minutes to get out +the box; he could make out the tree it was under by the pale strip +where the bark was off, although the dawning light was rather dimmer +in the thicket. But what, in the name of--burnt pastry--was that +large body with a staff planted beside it, close at the foot of the +ash-tree? David paused, not to make up his mind as to the nature of +the apparition--he had not the happiness of doubting for a moment +that the staff was Jacob's pitchfork--but to gather the self-command +necessary for addressing his brother with a sufficiently honeyed +accent. Jacob was absorbed in scratching up the earth, and had not +heard David's approach. + +"I say, Jacob," said David in a loud whisper, just as the tin box +was lifted out of the hole. + +Jacob looked up, and discerning his sweet-flavoured brother, nodded +and grinned in the dim light in a way that made him seem to David +like a triumphant demon. If he had been of an impetuous +disposition, he would have snatched the pitchfork from the ground +and impaled this fraternal demon. But David was by no means +impetuous; he was a young man greatly given to calculate +consequences, a habit which has been held to be the foundation of +virtue. But somehow it had not precisely that effect in David: he +calculated whether an action would harm himself, or whether it would +only harm other people. In the former case he was very timid about +satisfying his immediate desires, but in the latter he would risk +the result with much courage. + +"Give it me, Jacob," he said, stooping down and patting his brother. +"Let us see." + +Jacob, finding the lid rather tight, gave the box to his brother in +perfect faith. David raised the lids and shook his head, while +Jacob put his finger in and took out a guinea to taste whether the +metamorphosis into lozenges was complete and satisfactory. + +"No, Jacob; too soon, too soon," said David, when the guinea had +been tasted. "Give it me; we'll go and bury it somewhere else; +we'll put it in yonder," he added, pointing vaguely toward the +distance. + +David screwed on the lid, while Jacob, looking grave, rose and +grasped his pitchfork. Then, seeing David's bundle, he snatched it, +like a too officious Newfoundland, stuck his pitchfork into it and +carried it over his shoulder in triumph as he accompanied David and +the box out of the thicket. + +What on earth was David to do? It would have been easy to frown at +Jacob, and kick him, and order him to get away; but David dared as +soon have kicked the bull. Jacob was quiet as long as he was +treated indulgently; but on the slightest show of anger, he became +unmanageable, and was liable to fits of fury which would have made +him formidable even without his pitchfork. There was no mastery to +be obtained over him except by kindness or guile. David tried +guile. + +"Go, Jacob," he said, when they were out of the thicket--pointing +towards the house as he spoke; "go and fetch me a spade--a spade. +But give ME the bundle," he added, trying to reach it from the fork, +where it hung high above Jacob's tall shoulder. + +But Jacob showed as much alacrity in obeying as a wasp shows in +leaving a sugar-basin. Near David, he felt himself in the vicinity +of lozenges: he chuckled and rubbed his brother's back, brandishing +the bundle higher out of reach. David, with an inward groan, +changed his tactics, and walked on as fast as he could. It was not +safe to linger. Jacob would get tired of following him, or, at all +events, could be eluded. If they could once get to the distant +highroad, a coach would overtake them, David would mount it, having +previously by some ingenious means secured his bundle, and then +Jacob might howl and flourish his pitchfork as much as he liked. +Meanwhile he was under the fatal necessity of being very kind to +this ogre, and of providing a large breakfast for him when they +stopped at a roadside inn. It was already three hours since they +had started, and David was tired. Would no coach be coming up soon? +he inquired. No coach for the next two hours. But there was a +carrier's cart to come immediately, on its way to the next town. If +he could slip out, even leaving his bundle behind, and get into the +cart without Jacob! But there was a new obstacle. Jacob had +recently discovered a remnant of sugar-candy in one of his brother's +tail-pockets; and, since then, had cautiously kept his hold on that +limb of the garment, perhaps with an expectation that there would be +a further development of sugar-candy after a longer or shorter +interval. Now every one who has worn a coat will understand the +sensibilities that must keep a man from starting away in a hurry +when there is a grasp on his coat-tail. David looked forward to +being well received among strangers, but it might make a difference +if he had only one tail to his coat. + +He felt himself in a cold perspiration. He could walk no more: he +must get into the cart and let Jacob get in with him. Presently a +cheering idea occurred to him: after so large a breakfast, Jacob +would be sure to go to sleep in the cart; you see at once that David +meant to seize his bundle, jump out, and be free. His expectation +was partly fulfilled: Jacob did go to sleep in the cart, but it was +in a peculiar attitude--it was with his arms tightly fastened round +his dear brother's body; and if ever David attempted to move, the +grasp tightened with the force of an affectionate boa-constrictor. + +"Th' innicent's fond on you," observed the carrier, thinking that +David was probably an amiable brother, and wishing to pay him a +compliment. + +David groaned. The ways of thieving were not ways of pleasantness. +Oh, why had he an idiot brother? Oh, why, in general, was the world +so constituted that a man could not take his mother's guineas +comfortably? David became grimly speculative. + +Copious dinner at noon for Jacob; but little dinner, because little +appetite, for David. Instead of eating, he plied Jacob with beer; +for through this liberality he descried a hope. Jacob fell into a +dead sleep, at last, without having his arms round David, who paid +the reckoning, took his bundle, and walked off. In another half- +hour he was on the coach on his way to Liverpool, smiling the smile +of the triumphant wicked. He was rid of Jacob--he was bound for the +Indies, where a gullible princess awaited him. He would never steal +any more, but there would be no need; he would show himself so +deserving, that people would make him presents freely. He must give +up the notion of his father's legacy; but it was not likely he would +ever want that trifle; and even if he did--why, it was a +compensation to think that in being for ever divided from his family +he was divided from Jacob, more terrible than Gorgon or Demogorgon +to David's timid green eyes. Thank heaven, he should never see +Jacob any more! + + + +CHAPTER II + + + +It was nearly six years after the departure of Mr. David Faux for +the West Indies, that the vacant shop in the marketplace at +Grimworth was understood to have been let to the stranger with a +sallow complexion and a buff cravat, whose first appearance had +caused some excitement in the bar of the Woolpack, where he had +called to wait for the coach. + +Grimworth, to a discerning eye, was a good place to set up +shopkeeping in. There was no competition in it at present; the +Church-people had their own grocer and draper; the Dissenters had +theirs; and the two or three butchers found a ready market for their +joints without strict reference to religious persuasion--except that +the rector's wife had given a general order for the veal sweet- +breads and the mutton kidneys, while Mr. Rodd, the Baptist minister, +had requested that, so far as was compatible with the fair +accommodation of other customers, the sheep's trotters might be +reserved for him. And it was likely to be a growing place, for the +trustees of Mr. Zephaniah Crypt's Charity, under the stimulus of a +late visitation by commissioners, were beginning to apply long- +accumulating funds to the rebuilding of the Yellow Coat School, +which was henceforth to be carried forward on a greatly-extended +scale, the testator having left no restrictions concerning the +curriculum, but only concerning the coat. + +The shopkeepers at Grimworth were by no means unanimous as to the +advantages promised by this prospect of increased population and +trading, being substantial men, who liked doing a quiet business in +which they were sure of their customers, and could calculate their +returns to a nicety. Hitherto, it had been held a point of honour +by the families in Grimworth parish, to buy their sugar and their +flannel at the shop where their fathers and mothers had bought +before them; but, if newcomers were to bring in the system of neck- +and-neck trading, and solicit feminine eyes by gown-pieces laid in +fan-like folds, and surmounted by artificial flowers, giving them a +factitious charm (for on what human figure would a gown sit like a +fan, or what female head was like a bunch of China-asters?), or, if +new grocers were to fill their windows with mountains of currants +and sugar, made seductive by contrast and tickets,--what security +was there for Grimworth, that a vagrant spirit in shopping, once +introduced, would not in the end carry the most important families +to the larger market town of Cattleton, where, business being done +on a system of small profits and quick returns, the fashions were of +the freshest, and goods of all kinds might be bought at an +advantage? + +With this view of the times predominant among the tradespeople at +Grimworth, their uncertainty concerning the nature of the business +which the sallow-complexioned stranger was about to set up in the +vacant shop, naturally gave some additional strength to the fears of +the less sanguine. If he was going to sell drapery, it was probable +that a pale-faced fellow like that would deal in showy and inferior +articles--printed cottons and muslins which would leave their dye in +the wash-tub, jobbed linen full of knots, and flannel that would +soon look like gauze. If grocery, then it was to be hoped that no +mother of a family would trust the teas of an untried grocer. Such +things had been known in some parishes as tradesmen going about +canvassing for custom with cards in their pockets: when people came +from nobody knew where, there was no knowing what they might do. It +was a thousand pities that Mr. Moffat, the auctioneer and broker, +had died without leaving anybody to follow him in the business, and +Mrs. Cleve's trustee ought to have known better than to let a shop +to a stranger. Even the discovery that ovens were being put up on +the premises, and that the shop was, in fact, being fitted up for a +confectioner and pastry-cook's business, hitherto unknown in +Grimworth, did not quite suffice to turn the scale in the newcomer's +favour, though the landlady at the Woolpack defended him warmly, +said he seemed to be a very clever young man, and from what she +could make out, came of a very good family; indeed, was most likely +a good many people's betters. + +It certainly made a blaze of light and colour, almost as if a +rainbow had suddenly descended into the marketplace, when, one fine +morning, the shutters were taken down from the new shop, and the two +windows displayed their decorations. On one side, there were the +variegated tints of collared and marbled meats, set off by bright +green leaves, the pale brown of glazed pies, the rich tones of +sauces and bottled fruits enclosed in their veil of glass-- +altogether a sight to bring tears into the eyes of a Dutch painter; +and on the other, there was a predominance of the more delicate hues +of pink, and white, and yellow, and buff, in the abundant lozenges, +candies, sweet biscuits and icings, which to the eyes of a bilious +person might easily have been blended into a faery landscape in +Turner's latest style. What a sight to dawn upon the eyes of +Grimworth children! They almost forgot to go to their dinner that +day, their appetites being preoccupied with imaginary sugar-plums; +and I think even Punch, setting up his tabernacle in the market- +place, would not have succeeded in drawing them away from those +shop-windows, where they stood according to gradations of size and +strength, the biggest and strongest being nearest the window, and +the little ones in the outermost rows lifting wide-open eyes and +mouths towards the upper tier of jars, like small birds at meal- +time. + +The elder inhabitants pished and pshawed a little at the folly of +the new shopkeeper in venturing on such an outlay in goods that +would not keep; to be sure, Christmas was coming, but what housewife +in Grimworth would not think shame to furnish forth her table with +articles that were not home-cooked? No, no. Mr. Edward Freely, as +he called himself, was deceived, if he thought Grimworth money was +to flow into his pockets on such terms. + +Edward Freely was the name that shone in gilt letters on a mazarine +ground over the doorplace of the new shop--a generous-sounding name, +that might have belonged to the open-hearted, improvident hero of an +old comedy, who would have delighted in raining sugared almonds, +like a new manna-gift, among that small generation outside the +windows. But Mr. Edward Freely was a man whose impulses were kept +in due subordination: he held that the desire for sweets and pastry +must only be satisfied in a direct ratio with the power of paying +for them. If the smallest child in Grimworth would go to him with a +halfpenny in its tiny fist, he would, after ringing the halfpenny, +deliver a just equivalent in "rock." He was not a man to cheat even +the smallest child--he often said so, observing at the same time +that he loved honesty, and also that he was very tender-hearted, +though he didn't show his feelings as some people did. + +Either in reward of such virtue, or according to some more hidden +law of sequence, Mr. Freely's business, in spite of prejudice, +started under favourable auspices. For Mrs. Chaloner, the rector's +wife, was among the earliest customers at the shop, thinking it only +right to encourage a new parishioner who had made a decorous +appearance at church; and she found Mr. Freely a most civil, +obliging young man, and intelligent to a surprising degree for a +confectioner; well-principled, too, for in giving her useful hints +about choosing sugars he had thrown much light on the dishonesty of +other tradesmen. Moreover, he had been in the West Indies, and had +seen the very estate which had been her poor grandfather's property; +and he said the missionaries were the only cause of the negro's +discontent--an observing young man, evidently. Mrs. Chaloner +ordered wine-biscuits and olives, and gave Mr. Freely to understand +that she should find his shop a great convenience. So did the +doctor's wife, and so did Mrs. Gate, at the large carding-mill, who, +having high connexions frequently visiting her, might be expected to +have a large consumption of ratafias and macaroons. + +The less aristocratic matrons of Grimworth seemed likely at first to +justify their husbands' confidence that they would never pay a +percentage of profits on drop-cakes, instead of making their own, or +get up a hollow show of liberal housekeeping by purchasing slices of +collared meat when a neighbour came in for supper. But it is my +task to narrate the gradual corruption of Grimworth manners from +their primitive simplicity--a melancholy task, if it were not +cheered by the prospect of the fine peripateia or downfall by which +the progress of the corruption was ultimately checked. + +It was young Mrs. Steene, the veterinary surgeons wife, who first +gave way to temptation. I fear she had been rather over-educated +for her station in life, for she knew by heart many passages in +Lalla Rookh, the Corsair, and the Siege of Corinth, which had given +her a distaste for domestic occupations, and caused her a withering +disappointment at the discovery that Mr. Steene, since his marriage, +had lost all interest in the "bulbul," openly preferred discussing +the nature of spavin with a coarse neighbour, and was angry if the +pudding turned out watery--indeed, was simply a top-booted "vet.", +who came in hungry at dinner-time; and not in the least like a +nobleman turned Corsair out of pure scorn for his race, or like a +renegade with a turban and crescent, unless it were in the +irritability of his temper. And scorn is such a very different +thing in top-boots! + +This brutal man had invited a supper-party for Christmas eve, when +he would expect to see mince-pies on the table. Mrs. Steene had +prepared her mince-meat, and had devoted much butter, fine flour, +and labour, to the making of a batch of pies in the morning; but +they proved to be so very heavy when they came out of the oven, that +she could only think with trembling of the moment when her husband +should catch sight of them on the supper-table. He would storm at +her, she was certain; and before all the company; and then she +should never help crying: it was so dreadful to think she had come +to that, after the bulbul and everything! Suddenly the thought +darted through her mind that THIS ONCE she might send for a dish of +mince-pies from Freely's: she knew he had some. But what was to +become of the eighteen heavy mince-pies? Oh, it was of no use +thinking about that; it was very expensive--indeed, making mince- +pies at all was a great expense, when they were not sure to turn out +well: it would be much better to buy them ready-made. You paid a +little more for them, but there was no risk of waste. + +Such was the sophistry with which this misguided young woman-- +enough. Mrs. Steene sent for the mince-pies, and, I am grieved to +add, garbled her household accounts in order to conceal the fact +from her husband. This was the second step in a downward course, +all owing to a young woman's being out of harmony with her +circumstances, yearning after renegades and bulbuls, and being +subject to claims from a veterinary surgeon fond of mince-pies. The +third step was to harden herself by telling the fact of the bought +mince-pies to her intimate friend Mrs. Mole, who had already guessed +it, and who subsequently encouraged herself in buying a mould of +jelly, instead of exerting her own skill, by the reflection that +"other people" did the same sort of thing. The infection spread; +soon there was a party or clique in Grimworth on the side of "buying +at Freely's"; and many husbands, kept for some time in the dark on +this point, innocently swallowed at two mouthfuls a tart on which +they were paying a profit of a hundred per cent., and as innocently +encouraged a fatal disingenuousness in the partners of their bosoms +by praising the pastry. Others, more keen-sighted, winked at the +too frequent presentation on washing-days, and at impromptu suppers, +of superior spiced-beef, which flattered their palates more than the +cold remnants they had formerly been contented with. Every +housewife who had once "bought at Freely's" felt a secret joy when +she detected a similar perversion in her neighbour's practice, and +soon only two or three old-fashioned mistresses of families held out +in the protest against the growing demoralization, saying to their +neighbours who came to sup with them, "I can't offer you Freely's +beef, or Freely's cheesecakes; everything in our house is home-made; +I'm afraid you'll hardly have any appetite for our plain pastry." +The doctor, whose cook was not satisfactory, the curate, who kept no +cook, and the mining agent, who was a great bon vivant, even began +to rely on Freely for the greater part of their dinner, when they +wished to give an entertainment of some brilliancy. In short, the +business of manufacturing the more fanciful viands was fast passing +out of the hinds of maids and matrons in private families, and was +becoming the work of a special commercial organ. + +I am not ignorant that this sort of thing is called the inevitable +course of civilization, division of labour, and so forth, and that +the maids and matrons may be said to have had their hands set free +from cookery to add to the wealth of society in some other way. +Only it happened at Grimworth, which, to be sure, was a low place, +that the maids and matrons could do nothing with their hands at all +better than cooking: not even those who had always made heavy cakes +and leathery pastry. And so it came to pass, that the progress of +civilization at Grimworth was not otherwise apparent than in the +impoverishment of men, the gossiping idleness of women, and the +heightening prosperity of Mr. Edward Freely. + +The Yellow Coat School was a double source of profit to the +calculating confectioner; for he opened an eating-room for the +superior workmen employed on the new school, and he accommodated the +pupils at the old school by giving great attention to the fancy- +sugar department. When I think of the sweet-tasted swans and other +ingenious white shapes crunched by the small teeth of that rising +generation, I am glad to remember that a certain amount of +calcareous food has been held good for young creatures whose bones +are not quite formed; for I have observed these delicacies to have +an inorganic flavour which would have recommended them greatly to +that young lady of the Spectator's acquaintance who habitually made +her dessert on the stems of tobacco-pipes. + +As for the confectioner himself, he made his way gradually into +Grimworth homes, as his commodities did, in spite of some initial +repugnance. Somehow or other, his reception as a guest seemed a +thing that required justifying, like the purchasing of his pastry. +In the first place, he was a stranger, and therefore open to +suspicion; secondly, the confectionery business was so entirely new +at Grimworth, that its place in the scale of rank had not been +distinctly ascertained. There was no doubt about drapers and +grocers, when they came of good old Grimworth families, like Mr. +Luff and Mr. Prettyman: they visited with the Palfreys, who farmed +their own land, played many a game at whist with the doctor, and +condescended a little towards the timber-merchant, who had lately +taken to the coal-trade also, and had got new furniture; but whether +a confectioner should be admitted to this higher level of +respectability, or should be understood to find his associates among +butchers and bakers, was a new question on which tradition threw no +light. His being a bachelor was in his favour, and would perhaps +have been enough to turn the scale, even if Mr. Edward Freely's +other personal pretensions had been of an entirely insignificant +cast. But so far from this, it very soon appeared that he was a +remarkable young man, who had been in the West Indies, and had seen +many wonders by sea and land, so that he could charm the ears of +Grimworth Desdemonas with stories of strange fishes, especially +sharks, which he had stabbed in the nick of time by bravely plunging +overboard just as the monster was turning on his side to devour the +cook's mate; of terrible fevers which he had undergone in a land +where the wind blows from all quarters at once; of rounds of toast +cut straight from the breadfruit trees; of toes bitten off by land- +crabs; of large honours that had been offered to him as a man who +knew what was what, and was therefore particularly needed in a +tropical climate; and of a Creole heiress who had wept bitterly at +his departure. Such conversational talents as these, we know, will +overcome disadvantages of complexion; and young Towers, whose cheeks +were of the finest pink, set off by a fringe of dark whisker, was +quite eclipsed by the presence of the sallow Mr. Freely. So +exceptional a confectioner elevated the business, and might well +begin to make disengaged hearts flutter a little. + +Fathers and mothers were naturally more slow and cautious in their +recognition of the new-comer's merits. + +"He's an amusing fellow," said Mr. Prettyman, the highly respectable +grocer. (Mrs. Prettyman was a Miss Fothergill, and her sister had +married a London mercer.) "He's an amusing fellow; and I've no +objection to his making one at the Oyster Club; but he's a bit too +fond of riding the high horse. He's uncommonly knowing, I'll allow; +but how came he to go to the Indies? I should like that answered. +It's unnatural in a confectioner. I'm not fond of people that have +been beyond seas, if they can't give a good account how they +happened to go. When folks go so far off, it's because they've got +little credit nearer home--that's my opinion. However, he's got +some good rum; but I don't want to be hand and glove with him, for +all that." + +It was this kind of dim suspicion which beclouded the view of Mr. +Freely's qualities in the maturer minds of Grimworth through the +early months of his residence there. But when the confectioner +ceased to be a novelty, the suspicions also ceased to be novel, and +people got tired of hinting at them, especially as they seemed to be +refuted by his advancing prosperity and importance. Mr. Freely was +becoming a person of influence in the parish; he was found useful as +an overseer of the poor, having great firmness in enduring other +people's pain, which firmness, he said, was due to his great +benevolence; he always did what was good for people in the end. Mr. +Chaloner had even selected him as clergyman's churchwarden, for he +was a very handy man, and much more of Mr. Chaloner's opinion in +everything about church business than the older parishioners. Mr. +Freely was a very regular churchman, but at the Oyster Club he was +sometimes a little free in his conversation, more than hinting at a +life of Sultanic self-indulgence which he had passed in the West +Indies, shaking his head now and then and smiling rather bitterly, +as men are wont to do when they intimate that they have become a +little too wise to be instructed about a world which has long been +flat and stale to them. + +For some time he was quite general in his attentions to the fair +sex, combining the gallantries of a lady's man with a severity of +criticism on the person and manners of absent belles, which tended +rather to stimulate in the feminine breast the desire to conquer the +approval of so fastidious a judge. Nothing short of the very best +in the department of female charms and virtues could suffice to +kindle the ardour of Mr. Edward Freely, who had become familiar with +the most luxuriant and dazzling beauty in the West Indies. It may +seem incredible that a confectioner should have ideas and +conversation so much resembling those to be met with in a higher +walk of life, but it must be remembered that he had not merely +travelled, he had also bow-legs and a sallow, small-featured visage, +so that nature herself had stamped him for a fastidious connoisseur +of the fair sex. + +At last, however, it seemed clear that Cupid had found a sharper +arrow than usual, and that Mr. Freely's heart was pierced. It was +the general talk among the young people at Grimworth. But was it +really love, and not rather ambition? Miss Fullilove, the timber- +merchant's daughter, was quite sure that if SHE were Miss Penny +Palfrey, she would be cautious; it was not a good sign when men +looked so much above themselves for a wife. For it was no less a +person than Miss Penelope Palfrey, second daughter of the Mr. +Palfrey who farmed his own land, that had attracted Mr. Freely's +peculiar regard, and conquered his fastidiousness; and no wonder, +for the Ideal, as exhibited in the finest waxwork, was perhaps never +so closely approached by the Real as in the person of the pretty +Penelope. Her yellowish flaxen hair did not curl naturally, I +admit, but its bright crisp ringlets were such smooth, perfect +miniature tubes, that you would have longed to pass your little +finger through them, and feel their soft elasticity. She wore them +in a crop, for in those days, when society was in a healthier state, +young ladies wore crops long after they were twenty, and Penelope +was not yet nineteen. Like the waxen ideal, she had round blue +eyes, and round nostrils in her little nose, and teeth such as the +ideal would be seen to have, if it ever showed them. Altogether, +she was a small, round thing, as neat as a pink and white double +daisy, and as guileless; for I hope it does not argue guile in a +pretty damsel of nineteen, to think that she should like to have a +beau and be "engaged," when her elder sister had already been in +that position a year and a half. To be sure, there was young Towers +always coming to the house; but Penny felt convinced he only came to +see her brother, for he never had anything to say to her, and never +offered her his arm, and was as awkward and silent as possible. + +It is not unlikely that Mr. Freely had early been smitten by Penny's +charms, as brought under his observation at church, but he had to +make his way in society a little before he could come into nearer +contact with them; and even after he was well received in Grimworth +families, it was a long while before he could converse with Penny +otherwise than in an incidental meeting at Mr. Luff's. It was not +so easy to get invited to Long Meadows, the residence of the +Palfreys; for though Mr. Palfrey had been losing money of late +years, not being able quite to recover his feet after the terrible +murrain which forced him to borrow, his family were far from +considering themselves on the same level even as the old-established +tradespeople with whom they visited. The greatest people, even +kings and queens, must visit with somebody, and the equals of the +great are scarce. They were especially scarce at Grimworth, which, +as I have before observed, was a low parish, mentioned with the most +scornful brevity in gazetteers. Even the great people there were +far behind those of their own standing in other parts of this realm. +Mr. Palfrey's farmyard doors had the paint all worn off them, and +the front garden walks had long been merged in a general weediness. +Still, his father had been called Squire Palfrey, and had been +respected by the last Grimworth generation as a man who could afford +to drink too much in his own house. + +Pretty Penny was not blind to the fact that Mr. Freely admired her, +and she felt sure that it was he who had sent her a beautiful +valentine; but her sister seemed to think so lightly of him (all +young ladies think lightly of the gentlemen to whom they are not +engaged), that Penny never dared mention him, and trembled and +blushed whenever they met him, thinking of the valentine, which was +very strong in its expressions, and which she felt guilty of knowing +by heart. A man who had been to the Indies, and knew the sea so +well, seemed to her a sort of public character, almost like Robinson +Crusoe or Captain Cook; and Penny had always wished her husband to +be a remarkable personage, likely to be put in Mangnall's Questions, +with which register of the immortals she had become acquainted +during her one year at a boarding-school. Only it seemed strange +that a remarkable man should be a confectioner and pastry-cook, and +this anomaly quite disturbed Penny's dreams. Her brothers, she +knew, laughed at men who couldn't sit on horseback well, and called +them tailors; but her brothers were very rough, and were quite +without that power of anecdote which made Mr. Freely such a +delightful companion. He was a very good man, she thought, for she +had heard him say at Mr. Luff's, one day, that he always wished to +do his duty in whatever state of life he might be placed; and he +knew a great deal of poetry, for one day he had repeated a verse of +a song. She wondered if he had made the words of the valentine!--it +ended in this way:- + + +"Without thee, it is pain to live, +But with thee, it were sweet to die." + + +Poor Mr. Freely! her father would very likely object--she felt sure +he would, for he always called Mr. Freely "that sugar-plum fellow." +Oh, it was very cruel, when true love was crossed in that way, and +all because Mr. Freely was a confectioner: well, Penny would be +true to him, for all that, and since his being a confectioner gave +her an opportunity of showing her faithfulness, she was glad of it. +Edward Freely was a pretty name, much better than John Towers. +Young Towers had offered her a rose out of his button-hole the other +day, blushing very much; but she refused it, and thought with +delight how much Mr. Freely would be comforted if he knew her +firmness of mind. + +Poor little Penny! the days were so very long among the daisies on a +grazing farm, and thought is so active--how was it possible that the +inward drama should not get the start of the outward? I have known +young ladies, much better educated, and with an outward world +diversified by instructive lectures, to say nothing of literature +and highly-developed fancy-work, who have spun a cocoon of visionary +joys and sorrows for themselves, just as Penny did. Her elder +sister Letitia, who had a prouder style of beauty, and a more +worldly ambition, was engaged to a wool-factor, who came all the way +from Cattelton to see her; and everybody knows that a wool-factor +takes a very high rank, sometimes driving a double-bodied gig. +Letty's notions got higher every day, and Penny never dared to speak +of her cherished griefs to her lofty sister--never dared to propose +that they should call at Mr. Freely's to buy liquorice, though she +had prepared for such an incident by mentioning a slight sore +throat. So she had to pass the shop on the other side of the +market-place, and reflect, with a suppressed sigh, that behind those +pink and white jars somebody was thinking of her tenderly, +unconscious of the small space that divided her from him. + +And it was quite true that, when business permitted, Mr. Freely +thought a great deal of Penny. He thought her prettiness comparable +to the loveliest things in confectionery; he judged her to be of +submissive temper--likely to wait upon him as well as if she had +been a negress, and to be silently terrified when his liver made him +irritable; and he considered the Palfrey family quite the best in +the parish, possessing marriageable daughters. On the whole, he +thought her worthy to become Mrs. Edward Freely, and all the more +so, because it would probably require some ingenuity to win her. +Mr. Palfrey was capable of horse-whipping a too rash pretender to +his daughter's hand; and, moreover, he had three tall sons: it was +clear that a suitor would be at a disadvantage with such a family, +unless travel and natural acumen had given him a countervailing +power of contrivance. And the first idea that occurred to him in +the matter was, that Mr. Palfrey would object less if he knew that +the Freelys were a much higher family than his own. It had been +foolish modesty in him hitherto to conceal the fact that a branch of +the Freelys held a manor in Yorkshire, and to shut up the portrait +of his great uncle the admiral, instead of hanging it up where a +family portrait should be hung--over the mantelpiece in the parlour. +Admiral Freely, K.C.B., once placed in this conspicuous position, +was seen to have had one arm only, and one eye--in these points +resembling the heroic Nelson--while a certain pallid insignificance +of feature confirmed the relationship between himself and his grand- +nephew. + +Next, Mr. Freely was seized with an irrepressible ambition to posses +Mrs. Palfrey's receipt for brawn, hers being pronounced on all hands +to be superior to his own--as he informed her in a very flattering +letter carried by his errand-boy. Now Mrs. Palfrey, like other +geniuses, wrought by instinct rather than by rule, and possessed no +receipts--indeed, despised all people who used them, observing that +people who pickled by book, must pickle by weights and measures, and +such nonsense; as for herself, her weights and measures were the tip +of her finger and the tip of her tongue, and if you went nearer, +why, of course, for dry goods like flour and spice, you went by +handfuls and pinches, and for wet, there was a middle-sized jug-- +quite the best thing whether for much or little, because you might +know how much a teacupful was if you'd got any use of your senses, +and you might be sure it would take five middle-sized jugs to make a +gallon. Knowledge of this kind is like Titian's colouring, +difficult to communicate; and as Mrs. Palfrey, once remarkably +handsome, had now become rather stout and asthmatical, and scarcely +ever left home, her oral teaching could hardly be given anywhere +except at Long Meadows. Even a matron is not insusceptible to +flattery, and the prospect of a visitor whose great object would be +to listen to her conversation, was not without its charms to Mrs. +Palfrey. Since there was no receipt to be sent in reply to Mr. +Freely's humble request, she called on her more docile daughter, +Penny, to write a note, telling him that her mother would be glad to +see him and talk with him on brawn, any day that he could call at +Long Meadows. Penny obeyed with a trembling hand, thinking how +wonderfully things came about in this world. + +In this way, Mr. Freely got himself introduced into the home of the +Palfreys, and notwithstanding a tendency in the male part of the +family to jeer at him a little as "peaky" and bow-legged, he +presently established his position as an accepted and frequent +guest. Young Towers looked at him with increasing disgust when they +met at the house on a Sunday, and secretly longed to try his ferret +upon him, as a piece of vermin which that valuable animal would be +likely to tackle with unhesitating vigour. But--so blind sometimes +are parents--neither Mr. nor Mrs. Palfrey suspected that Penny would +have anything to say to a tradesman of questionable rank whose +youthful bloom was much withered. Young Towers, they thought, had +an eye to her, and THAT was likely enough to be a match some day; +but Penny was a child at present. And all the while Penny was +imagining the circumstances under which Mr. Freely would make her an +offer: perhaps down by the row of damson-trees, when they were in +the garden before tea; perhaps by letter--in which case, how would +the letter begin? "Dearest Penelope?" or "My dear Miss Penelope?" +or straight off, without dear anything, as seemed the most natural +when people were embarrassed? But, however he might make the offer, +she would not accept it without her father's consent: she would +always be true to Mr. Freely, but she would not disobey her father. +For Penny was a good girl, though some of her female friends were +afterwards of opinion that it spoke ill for her not to have felt an +instinctive repugnance to Mr. Freely. + +But he was cautious, and wished to be quite sure of the ground he +trod on. His views on marriage were not entirely sentimental, but +were as duly mingled with considerations of what would be +advantageous to a man in his position, as if he had had a very large +amount of money spent on his education. He was not a man to fall in +love in the wrong place; and so, he applied himself quite as much to +conciliate the favour of the parents, as to secure the attachment of +Penny. Mrs. Palfrey had not been inaccessible to flattery, and her +husband, being also of mortal mould, would not, it might be hoped, +be proof against rum--that very fine Jamaica rum--of which Mr. +Freely expected always to have a supply sent him from Jamaica. It +was not easy to get Mr. Palfrey into the parlour behind the shop, +where a mild back-street light fell on the features of the heroic +admiral; but by getting hold of him rather late one evening as he +was about to return home from Grimworth, the aspiring lover +succeeded in persuading him to sup on some collared beef which, +after Mrs. Palfrey's brawn, he would find the very best of cold +eating. + +From that hour Mr. Freely felt sure of success: being in privacy +with an estimable man old enough to be his father, and being rather +lonely in the world, it was natural he should unbosom himself a +little on subjects which he could not speak of in a mixed circle-- +especially concerning his expectations from his uncle in Jamaica, +who had no children, and loved his nephew Edward better than any one +else in the world, though he had been so hurt at his leaving +Jamaica, that he had threatened to cut him off with a shilling. +However, he had since written to state his full forgiveness, and +though he was an eccentric old gentleman and could not bear to give +away money during his life, Mr. Edward Freely could show Mr. Palfrey +the letter which declared, plainly enough, who would be the +affectionate uncle's heir. Mr. Palfrey actually saw the letter, and +could not help admiring the spirit of the nephew who declared that +such brilliant hopes as these made no difference to his conduct; he +should work at his humble business and make his modest fortune at it +all the same. If the Jamaica estate was to come to him--well and +good. It was nothing very surprising for one of the Freely family +to have an estate left him, considering the lands that family had +possessed in time gone by--nay, still possessed in the +Northumberland branch. Would not Mr. Palfrey take another glass of +rum? and also look at the last year's balance of the accounts? Mr. +Freely was a man who cared to possess personal virtues, and did not +pique himself on his family, though some men would. + +We know how easily the great Leviathan may be led, when once there +is a hook in his nose or a bridle in his jaws. Mr. Palfrey was a +large man, but, like Leviathan's, his bulk went against him when +once he had taken a turning. He was not a mercurial man, who easily +changed his point of view. Enough. Before two months were over, he +had given his consent to Mr. Freely's marriage with his daughter +Penny, and having hit on a formula by which he could justify it, +fenced off all doubts and objections, his own included. The formula +was this: "I'm not a man to put my head up an entry before I know +where it leads." + +Little Penny was very proud and fluttering, but hardly so happy as +she expected to be in an engagement. She wondered if young Towers +cared much about it, for he had not been to the house lately, and +her sister and brothers were rather inclined to sneer than to +sympathize. Grimworth rang with the news. All men extolled Mr. +Freely's good fortune; while the women, with the tender solicitude +characteristic of the sex, wished the marriage might turn out well. + +While affairs were at this triumphant juncture, Mr. Freely one +morning observed that a stone-carver who had been breakfasting in +the eating-room had left a newspaper behind. It was the X-shire +Gazette, and X-shire being a county not unknown to Mr. Freely, he +felt some curiosity to glance over it, and especially over the +advertisements. A slight flush came over his face as he read. It +was produced by the following announcement:- "If David Faux, son of +Jonathan Faux, late of Gilsbrook, will apply at the office of Mr. +Strutt, attorney, of Rodham, he will hear of something to his +advantage." + +"Father's dead!" exclaimed Mr. Freely, involuntarily. "Can he have +left me a legacy?" + + + +CHAPTER III + + + +Perhaps it was a result quite different from your expectations, that +Mr. David Faux should have returned from the West Indies only a few +years after his arrival there, and have set up in his old business, +like any plain man who has never travelled. But these cases do +occur in life. Since, as we know, men change their skies and see +new constellations without changing their souls, it will follow +sometimes that they don't change their business under those novel +circumstances. + +Certainly, this result was contrary to David's own expectations. He +had looked forward, you are aware, to a brilliant career among "the +blacks"; but, either because they had already seen too many white +men, or for some other reason, they did not at once recognize him as +a superior order of human being; besides, there were no princesses +among them. Nobody in Jamaica was anxious to maintain David for the +mere pleasure of his society; and those hidden merits of a man which +are so well known to himself were as little recognized there as they +notoriously are in the effete society of the Old World. So that in +the dark hints that David threw out at the Oyster Club about that +life of Sultanic self-indulgence spent by him in the luxurious +Indies, I really think he was doing himself a wrong; I believe he +worked for his bread, and, in fact, took to cooking as, after all, +the only department in which he could offer skilled labour. He had +formed several ingenious plans by which he meant to circumvent +people of large fortune and small faculty; but then he never met +with exactly the right circumstances. David's devices for getting +rich without work had apparently no direct relation with the world +outside him, as his confectionery receipts had. It is possible to +pass a great many bad half pennies and bad half-crowns, but I +believe there has no instance been known of passing a halfpenny or a +half-crown as a sovereign. A sharper can drive a brisk trade in +this world: it is undeniable that there may be a fine career for +him, if he will dare consequences; but David was too timid to be a +sharper, or venture in any way among the mantraps of the law. He +dared rob nobody but his mother. And so he had to fall back on the +genuine value there was in him--to be content to pass as a good +halfpenny, or, to speak more accurately, as a good confectioner. +For in spite of some additional reading and observation, there was +nothing else he could make so much money by; nay, he found in +himself even a capability of extending his skill in this direction, +and embracing all forms of cookery; while, in other branches of +human labour, he began to see that it was not possible for him to +shine. Fate was too strong for him; he had thought to master her +inclination and had fled over the seas to that end; but she caught +him, tied an apron round him, and snatching him from all other +devices, made him devise cakes and patties in a kitchen at +Kingstown. He was getting submissive to her, since she paid him +with tolerable gains; but fevers and prickly heat, and other evils +incidental to cooks in ardent climates, made him long for his native +land; so he took ship once more, carrying his six years' savings, +and seeing distinctly, this time, what were Fate's intentions as to +his career. If you question me closely as to whether all the money +with which he set up at Grimworth consisted of pure and simple +earnings, I am obliged to confess that he got a sum or two for +charitably abstaining from mentioning some other people's +misdemeanours. Altogether, since no prospects were attached to his +family name, and since a new christening seemed a suitable +commencement of a new life, Mr. David Faux thought it as well to +call himself Mr. Edward Freely. + +But lo! now, in opposition to all calculable probability, some +benefit appeared to be attached to the name of David Faux. Should +he neglect it, as beneath the attention of a prosperous tradesman? +It might bring him into contact with his family again, and he felt +no yearnings in that direction: moreover, he had small belief that +the "something to his advantage" could be anything considerable. On +the other hand, even a small gain is pleasant, and the promise of it +in this instance was so surprising, that David felt his curiosity +awakened. The scale dipped at last on the side of writing to the +lawyer, and, to be brief, the correspondence ended in an appointment +for a meeting between David and his eldest brother at Mr. Strutt's, +the vague "something" having been defined as a legacy from his +father of eighty-two pounds, three shillings. + +David, you know, had expected to be disinherited; and so he would +have been, if he had not, like some other indifferent sons, come of +excellent parents, whose conscience made them scrupulous where much +more highly-instructed people often feel themselves warranted in +following the bent of their indignation. Good Mrs. Faux could never +forget that she had brought this ill-conditioned son into the world +when he was in that entirely helpless state which excluded the +smallest choice on his part; and, somehow or other, she felt that +his going wrong would be his father's and mother's fault, if they +failed in one tittle of their parental duty. Her notion of parental +duty was not of a high and subtle kind, but it included giving him +his due share of the family property; for when a man had got a +little honest money of his own, was he so likely to steal? To cut +the delinquent son off with a shilling, was like delivering him over +to his evil propensities. No; let the sum of twenty guineas which +he had stolen be deducted from his share, and then let the sum of +three guineas be put back from it, seeing that his mother had always +considered three of the twenty guineas as his; and, though he had +run away, and was, perhaps, gone across the sea, let the money be +left to him all the same, and be kept in reserve for his possible +return. Mr. Faux agreed to his wife's views, and made a codicil to +his will accordingly, in time to die with a clear conscience. But +for some time his family thought it likely that David would never +reappear; and the eldest son, who had the charge of Jacob on his +hands, often thought it a little hard that David might perhaps be +dead, and yet, for want of certitude on that point, his legacy could +not fall to his legal heir. But in this state of things the +opposite certitude--namely, that David was still alive and in +England--seemed to be brought by the testimony of a neighbour, who, +having been on a journey to Cattelton, was pretty sure he had seen +David in a gig, with a stout man driving by his side. He could +"swear it was David," though he could "give no account why, for he +had no marks on him; but no more had a white dog, and that didn't +hinder folks from knowing a white dog." It was this incident which +had led to the advertisement. + +The legacy was paid, of course, after a few preliminary disclosures +as to Mr. David's actual position. He begged to send his love to +his mother, and to say that he hoped to pay her a dutiful visit by +and by; but, at present, his business and near prospect of marriage +made it difficult for him to leave home. His brother replied with +much frankness. + +"My mother may do as she likes about having you to see her, but, for +my part, I don't want to catch sight of you on the premises again. +When folks have taken a new name, they'd better keep to their new +'quinetance." + +David pocketed the insult along with the eighty-two pounds three, +and travelled home again in some triumph at the ease of a +transaction which had enriched him to this extent. He had no +intention of offending his brother by further claims on his +fraternal recognition, and relapsed with full contentment into the +character of Mr. Edward Freely, the orphan, scion of a great but +reduced family, with an eccentric uncle in the West Indies. (I have +already hinted that he had some acquaintance with imaginative +literature; and being of a practical turn, he had, you perceive, +applied even this form of knowledge to practical purposes.) + +It was little more than a week after the return from his fruitful +journey, that the day of his marriage with Penny having been fixed, +it was agreed that Mrs. Palfrey should overcome her reluctance to +move from home, and that she and her husband should bring their two +daughters to inspect little Penny's future abode and decide on the +new arrangements to be made for the reception of the bride. Mr. +Freely meant her to have a house so pretty and comfortable that she +need not envy even a wool-factor's wife. Of course, the upper room +over the shop was to be the best sitting-room; but also the parlour +behind the shop was to be made a suitable bower for the lovely +Penny, who would naturally wish to be near her husband, though Mr. +Freely declared his resolution never to allow HIS wife to wait in +the shop. The decisions about the parlour furniture were left till +last, because the party was to take tea there; and, about five +o'clock, they were all seated there with the best muffins and +buttered buns before them, little Penny blushing and smiling, with +her "crop" in the best order, and a blue frock showing her little +white shoulders, while her opinion was being always asked and never +given. She secretly wished to have a particular sort of chimney +ornaments, but she could not have brought herself to mention it. +Seated by the side of her yellow and rather withered lover, who, +though he had not reached his thirtieth year, had already crow's- +feet about his eyes, she was quite tremulous at the greatness of her +lot in being married to a man who had travelled so much--and before +her sister Letty! The handsome Letitia looked rather proud and +contemptuous, thought her nature brother-in-law an odious person, +and was vexed with her father and mother for letting Penny marry +him. Dear little Penny! She certainly did look like a fresh white- +heart cherry going to be bitten off the stem by that lipless mouth. +Would no deliverer come to make a slip between that cherry and that +mouth without a lip? + +"Quite a family likeness between the admiral and you, Mr. Freely," +observed Mrs. Palfrey, who was looking at the family portrait for +the first time. "It's wonderful! and only a grand-uncle. Do you +feature the rest of your family, as you know of?" + +"I can't say," said Mr. Freely, with a sigh. "My family have mostly +thought themselves too high to take any notice of me." + +At this moment an extraordinary disturbance was heard in the shop, +as of a heavy animal stamping about and making angry noises, and +then of a glass vessel falling in shivers, while the voice of the +apprentice was heard calling "Master" in great alarm. + +Mr. Freely rose in anxious astonishment, and hastened into the shop, +followed by the four Palfreys, who made a group at the parlour-door, +transfixed with wonder at seeing a large man in a smock-frock, with +a pitchfork in his hand, rush up to Mr. Freely and hug him, crying +out,--"Zavy, Zavy, b'other Zavy!" + +It was Jacob, and for some moments David lost all presence of mind. +He felt arrested for having stolen his mother's guineas. He turned +cold, and trembled in his brother's grasp. + +"Why, how's this?" said Mr. Palfrey, advancing from the door. "Who +is he?" + +Jacob supplied the answer by saying over and over again - + +"I'se Zacob, b'other Zacob. Come 'o zee Zavy"--till hunger prompted +him to relax his grasp, and to seize a large raised pie, which he +lifted to his mouth. + +By this time David's power of device had begun to return, but it was +a very hard task for his prudence to master his rage and hatred +towards poor Jacob. + +"I don't know who he is; he must be drunk," he said, in a low tone +to Mr. Palfrey. "But he's dangerous with that pitchfork. He'll +never let it go." Then checking himself on the point of betraying +too great an intimacy with Jacob's habits, he added "You watch him, +while I run for the constable." And he hurried out of the shop. + +"Why, where do you come from, my man?" said Mr. Palfrey, speaking to +Jacob in a conciliatory tone. Jacob was eating his pie by large +mouthfuls, and looking round at the other good things in the shop, +while he embraced his pitchfork with his left arm, and laid his left +hand on some Bath buns. He was in the rare position of a person who +recovers a long absent friend and finds him richer than ever in the +characteristics that won his heart. + +"I's Zacob--b'other Zacob--'t home. I love Zavy--b'other Zavy," he +said, as soon as Mr. Palfrey had drawn his attention. "Zavy come +back from z' Indies--got mother's zinnies. Where's Zavy?" he added, +looking round and then turning to the others with a questioning air, +puzzled by David's disappearance. + +"It's very odd," observed Mr. Palfrey to his wife and daughters. +"He seems to say Freely's his brother come back from th' Indies." + +"What a pleasant relation for us!" said Letitia, sarcastically. "I +think he's a good deal like Mr. Freely. He's got just the same sort +of nose, and his eyes are the same colour." + +Poor Penny was ready to cry. + +But now Mr. Freely re-entered the shop without the constable. +During his walk of a few yards he had had time and calmness enough +to widen his view of consequences, and he saw that to get Jacob +taken to the workhouse or to the lock-up house as an offensive +stranger might have awkward effects if his family took the trouble +of inquiring after him. He must resign himself to more patient +measures. + +"On second thoughts," he said, beckoning to Mr. Palfrey and +whispering to him while Jacob's back was turned, "he's a poor half- +witted fellow. Perhaps his friends will come after him. I don't +mind giving him something to eat, and letting him lie down for the +night. He's got it into his head that he knows me--they do get +these fancies, idiots do. He'll perhaps go away again in an hour or +two, and make no more ado. I'm a kind-hearted man MYSELF--I +shouldn't like to have the poor fellow ill-used." + +"Why, he'll eat a sovereign's worth in no time," said Mr. Palfrey, +thinking Mr. Freely a little too magnificent in his generosity. + +"Eh, Zavy, come back?" exclaimed Jacob, giving his dear brother +another hug, which crushed Mr. Freely's features inconveniently +against the stale of the pitchfork. + +"Aye, aye," said Mr. Freely, smiling, with every capability of +murder in his mind, except the courage to commit it. He wished the +Bath buns might by chance have arsenic in them. + +"Mother's zinnies?" said Jacob, pointing to a glass jar of yellow +lozenges that stood in the window. "Zive 'em me." + +David dared not do otherwise than reach down the glass jar and give +Jacob a handful. He received them in his smock-frock, which he held +out for more. + +"They'll keep him quiet a bit, at any rate," thought David, and +emptied the jar. Jacob grinned and mowed with delight. + +"You're very good to this stranger, Mr. Freely," said Letitia; and +then spitefully, as David joined the party at the parlour-door, "I +think you could hardly treat him better, if he was really your +brother." + +"I've always thought it a duty to be good to idiots," said Mr. +Freely, striving after the most moral view of the subject. "We +might have been idiots ourselves--everybody might have been born +idiots, instead of having their right senses." + +"I don't know where there'd ha' been victual for us all then," +observed Mrs. Palfrey, regarding the matter in a housewifely light. + +"But let us sit down again and finish our tea," said Mr. Freely. +"Let us leave the poor creature to himself." + +They walked into the parlour again; but Jacob, not apparently +appreciating the kindness of leaving him to himself, immediately +followed his brother, and seated himself, pitchfork grounded, at the +table. + +"Well," said Miss Letitia, rising, "I don't know whether YOU mean to +stay, mother; but I shall go home." + +"Oh, me too," said Penny, frightened to death at Jacob, who had +begun to nod and grin at her. + +"Well, I think we HAD better be going, Mr. Palfrey," said the +mother, rising more slowly. + +Mr. Freely, whose complexion had become decidedly yellower during +the last half-hour, did not resist this proposition. He hoped they +should meet again "under happier circumstances." + +"It's my belief the man is his brother," said Letitia, when they +were all on their way home. + +"Nonsense!" said Mr. Palfrey. "Freely's got no brother--he's said +so many and many a time; he's an orphan; he's got nothing but +uncles--leastwise, one. What's it matter what an idiot says? What +call had Freely to tell lies?" + +Letitia tossed her head and was silent. + +Mr. Freely, left alone with his affectionate brother Jacob, brooded +over the possibility of luring him out of the town early the next +morning, and getting him conveyed to Gilsbrook without further +betrayals. But the thing was difficult. He saw clearly that if he +took Jacob himself, his absence, conjoined with the disappearance of +the stranger, would either cause the conviction that he was really a +relative, or would oblige him to the dangerous course of inventing a +story to account for his disappearance, and his own absence at the +same time. David groaned. There come occasions when falsehood is +felt to be inconvenient. It would, perhaps, have been a longer- +headed device, if he had never told any of those clever fibs about +his uncles, grand and otherwise; for the Palfreys were simple +people, and shared the popular prejudice against lying. Even if he +could get Jacob away this time, what security was there that he +would not come again, having once found the way? O guineas! O +lozenges! what enviable people those were who had never robbed their +mothers, and had never told fibs! David spent a sleepless night, +while Jacob was snoring close by. Was this the upshot of travelling +to the Indies, and acquiring experience combined with anecdote? + +He rose at break of day, as he had once before done when he was in +fear of Jacob, and took all gentle means to rouse this fatal brother +from his deep sleep; he dared not be loud, because his apprentice +was in the house, and would report everything. But Jacob was not to +be roused. He fought out with his fist at the unknown cause of +disturbance, turned over, and snored again. He must be left to wake +as he would. David, with a cold perspiration on his brow, confessed +to himself that Jacob could not be got away that day. + +Mr. Palfrey came over to Grimworth before noon, with a natural +curiosity to see how his future son-in-law got on with the stranger +to whom he was so benevolently inclined. He found a crowd round the +shop. All Grimworth by this time had heard how Freely had been +fastened on by an idiot, who called him "Brother Zavy"; and the +younger population seemed to find the singular stranger an +unwearying source of fascination, while the householders dropped in +one by one to inquire into the incident. + +"Why don't you send him to the workhouse?" said Mr. Prettyman. +"You'll have a row with him and the children presently, and he'll +eat you up. The workhouse is the proper place for him; let his kin +claim him, if he's got any." + +"Those may be YOUR feelings, Mr. Prettyman," said David, his mind +quite enfeebled by the torture of his position. + +"What! IS he your brother, then?" said Mr. Prettyman, looking at his +neighbour Freely rather sharply. + +"All men are our brothers, and idiots particular so," said Mr. +Freely, who, like many other travelled men, was not master of the +English language. + +"Come, come, if he's your brother, tell the truth, man," said Mr. +Prettyman, with growing suspicion. "Don't be ashamed of your own +flesh and blood." + +Mr. Palfrey was present, and also had his eye on Freely. It is +difficult for a man to believe in the advantage of a truth which +will disclose him to have been a liar. In this critical moment, +David shrank from this immediate disgrace in the eyes of his future +father-in-law. + +"Mr. Prettyman," he said, "I take your observations as an insult. +I've no reason to be otherwise than proud of my own flesh and blood. +If this poor man was my brother more than all men are, I should say +so." + +A tall figure darkened the door, and David, lifting his eyes in that +direction, saw his eldest brother, Jonathan, on the door-sill. + +"I'll stay wi' Zavy," shouted Jacob, as he, too, caught sight of his +eldest brother; and, running behind the counter, he clutched David +hard. + +"What, he IS here?" said Jonathan Faux, coming forward. "My mother +would have no nay, as he'd been away so long, but I must see after +him. And it struck me he was very like come after you, because we'd +been talking of you o' late, and where you lived." + +David saw there was no escape; he smiled a ghastly smile. + +"What! is this a relation of yours, sir?" said Mr. Palfrey to +Jonathan. + +"Aye, it's my innicent of a brother, sure enough," said honest +Jonathan. "A fine trouble and cost he is to us, in th' eating and +other things, but we must bear what's laid on us." + +"And your name's Freely, is it?" said Mr. Prettyman. + +"Nay, nay, my name's Faux, I know nothing o' Freelys," said +Jonathan, curtly. "Come," he added, turning to David, "I must take +some news to mother about Jacob. Shall I take him with me, or will +you undertake to send him back?" + +"Take him, if you can make him loose his hold of me," said David, +feebly. + +"Is this gentleman here in the confectionery line your brother, +then, sir?" said Mr. Prettyman, feeling that it was an occasion on +which format language must be used. + +"I don't want to own him," said Jonathan, unable to resist a +movement of indignation that had never been allowed to satisfy +itself. "He ran away from home with good reasons in his pocket +years ago: he didn't want to be owned again, I reckon." + +Mr. Palfrey left the shop; he felt his own pride too severely +wounded by the sense that he had let himself be fooled, to feel +curiosity for further details. The most pressing business was to go +home and tell his daughter that Freely was a poor sneak, probably a +rascal, and that her engagement was broken off. + +Mr. Prettyman stayed, with some internal self-gratulation that HE +had never given in to Freely, and that Mr. Chaloner would see now +what sort of fellow it was that he had put over the heads of older +parishioners. He considered it due from him (Mr. Prettyman) that, +for the interests of the parish, he should know all that was to be +known about this "interloper." Grimworth would have people coming +from Botany Bay to settle in it, if things went on in this way. + +It soon appeared that Jacob could not be made to quit his dear +brother David except by force. He understood, with a clearness +equal to that of the most intelligent mind, that Jonathan would take +him back to skimmed milk, apple-dumpling, broad beans, and pork. +And he had found a paradise in his brother's shop. It was a +difficult matter to use force with Jacob, for he wore heavy nailed +boots; and if his pitchfork had been mastered, he would have +resorted without hesitation to kicks. Nothing short of using guile +to bind him hand and foot would have made all parties safe. + +"Let him stay," said David, with desperate resignation, frightened +above all things at the idea of further disturbances in his shop, +which would make his exposure all the more conspicuous. "YOU go +away again, and to-morrow I can, perhaps, get him to go to Gilsbrook +with me. He'll follow me fast enough, I daresay," he added, with a +half-groan. + +"Very well," said Jonathan, gruffly. "I don't see why YOU shouldn't +have some trouble and expense with him as well as the rest of us. +But mind you bring him back safe and soon, else mother'll never +rest." + +On this arrangement being concluded, Mr. Prettyman begged Mr. +Jonathan Faux to go and take a snack with him, an invitation which +was quite acceptable; and as honest Jonathan had nothing to be +ashamed of, it is probable that he was very frank in his +communications to the civil draper, who, pursuing the benefit of the +parish, hastened to make all the information he could gather about +Freely common parochial property. You may imagine that the meeting +of the Club at the Woolpack that evening was unusually lively. +Every member was anxious to prove that he had never liked Freely, as +he called himself. Faux was his name, was it? Fox would have been +more suitable. The majority expressed a desire to see him hooted +out of the town. + +Mr. Freely did not venture over his door-sill that day, for he knew +Jacob would keep at his side, and there was every probability that +they would have a train of juvenile followers. He sent to engage +the Woolpack gig for an early hour the next morning; but this order +was not kept religiously a secret by the landlord. Mr. Freely was +informed that he could not have the gig till seven; and the +Grimworth people were early risers. Perhaps they were more alert +than usual on this particular morning; for when Jacob, with a bag of +sweets in his hand, was induced to mount the gig with his brother +David, the inhabitants of the market-place were looking out of their +doors and windows, and at the turning of the street there was even a +muster of apprentices and schoolboys, who shouted as they passed in +what Jacob took to be a very merry and friendly way, nodding and +grinning in return. "Huzzay, David Faux! how's your uncle?" was +their morning's greeting. Like other pointed things, it was not +altogether impromptu. + +Even this public derision was not so crushing to David as the +horrible thought that though he might succeed now in getting Jacob +home again there would never be any security against his coming +back, like a wasp to the honey-pot. As long as David lived at +Grimworth, Jacob's return would be hanging over him. But could he +go on living at Grimworth--an object of ridicule, discarded by the +Palfreys, after having revelled in the consciousness that he was an +envied and prosperous confectioner? David liked to be envied; he +minded less about being loved. + +His doubts on this point were soon settled. The mind of Grimworth +became obstinately set against him and his viands, and the new +school being finished, the eating-room was closed. If there had +been no other reason, sympathy with the Palfreys, that respectable +family who had lived in the parish time out of mind, would have +determined all well-to-do people to decline Freely's goods. +Besides, he had absconded with his mother's guineas: who knew what +else he had done, in Jamaica or elsewhere, before he came to +Grimworth, worming himself into families under false pretences? +Females shuddered. Dreadful suspicions gathered round him: his +green eyes, his bow-legs had a criminal aspect. The rector disliked +the sight of a man who had imposed upon him; and all boys who could +not afford to purchase, hooted "David Faux" as they passed his shop. +Certainly no man now would pay anything for the "goodwill" of Mr. +Freely's business, and he would be obliged to quit it without a +peculium so desirable towards defraying the expense of moving. + +In a few months the shop in the marketplace was again to let, and +Mr. David Faux, alias Mr. Edward Freely, had gone--nobody at +Grimworth knew whither. In this way the demoralization of Grimworth +women was checked. Young Mrs. Steene renewed her efforts to make +light mince-pies, and having at last made a batch so excellent that +Mr. Steene looked at her with complacency as he ate them, and said +they were the best he had ever eaten in his life, she thought less +of bulbuls and renegades ever after. The secrets of the finer +cookery were revived in the breasts of matronly house-wives, and +daughters were again anxious to be initiated in them. + +You will further, I hope, be glad to bear, that some purchases of +drapery made by pretty Penny, in preparation for her marriage with +Mr. Freely, came in quite as well for her wedding with young Towers +as if they had been made expressly for the latter occasion. For +Penny's complexion had not altered, and blue always became it best. + +Here ends the story of Mr. David Faux, confectioner, and his brother +Jacob. And we see in it, I think, an admirable instance of the +unexpected forms in which the great Nemesis hides herself. + +(1860) + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Brother Jacob, by George Eliot + |