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_ Chapter VI - Farther continued.
Mrs. Bennet, returning into the room, made a short apology for her
absence, and then proceeded in these words:
"We now left our lodging, and took a second floor in that very house
where you now are, to which we were recommended by the woman where we
had before lodged, for the mistresses of both houses were acquainted;
and, indeed, we had been all at the play together. To this new lodging
then (such was our wretched destiny) we immediately repaired, and were
received by Mrs. Ellison (how can I bear the sound of that detested
name?) with much civility; she took care, however, during the first
fortnight of our residence, to wait upon us every Monday morning for
her rent; such being, it seems, the custom of this place, which, as it
was inhabited chiefly by persons in debt, is not the region of credit.
"My husband, by the singular goodness of the rector, who greatly
compassionated his case, was enabled to continue in his curacy, though
he could only do the duty on Sundays. He was, however, sometimes
obliged to furnish a person to officiate at his expence; so that our
income was very scanty, and the poor little remainder of the legacy
being almost spent, we were reduced to some difficulties, and, what
was worse, saw still a prospect of greater before our eyes.
"Under these circumstances, how agreeable to poor Mr. Bennet must have
been the behaviour of Mrs. Ellison, who, when he carried her her rent
on the usual day, told him, with a benevolent smile, that he needed
not to give himself the trouble of such exact punctuality. She added
that, if it was at any time inconvenient to him, he might pay her when
he pleased. 'To say the truth,' says she, 'I never was so much pleased
with any lodgers in my life; I am convinced, Mr. Bennet, you are a
very worthy man, and you are a very happy one too; for you have the
prettiest wife and the prettiest child I ever saw' These, dear madam,
were the words she was pleased to make use of: and I am sure she
behaved to me with such an appearance of friendship and affection,
that, as I could not perceive any possible views of interest which she
could have in her professions, I easily believed them real.
"There lodged in the same house--O, Mrs. Booth! the blood runs cold to
my heart, and should run cold to yours, when I name him--there lodged
in the same house a lord--the lord, indeed, whom I have since seen in
your company. This lord, Mrs. Ellison told me, had taken a great fancy
to my little Charley. Fool that I was, and blinded by my own passion,
which made me conceive that an infant, not three months old, could be
really the object of affection to any besides a parent, and more
especially to a gay young fellow! But, if I was silly in being
deceived, how wicked was the wretch who deceived me--who used such
art, and employed such pains, such incredible pains, to deceive me! He
acted the part of a nurse to my little infant; he danced it, he lulled
it, he kissed it; declared it was the very picture of a nephew of his
--his favourite sister's child; and said so many kind and fond things
of its beauty, that I myself, though, I believe, one of the tenderest
and fondest of mothers, scarce carried my own ideas of my little
darling's perfection beyond the compliments which he paid it.
"My lord, however, perhaps from modesty, before my face, fell far
short of what Mrs. Ellison reported from him. And now, when she found
the impression which was made on me by these means, she took every
opportunity of insinuating to me his lordship's many virtues, his
great goodness to his sister's children in particular; nor did she
fail to drop some hints which gave me the most simple and groundless
hopes of strange consequences from his fondness to my Charley.
"When, by these means, which, simple as they may appear, were,
perhaps, the most artful, my lord had gained something more, I think,
than my esteem, he took the surest method to confirm himself in my
affection. This was, by professing the highest friendship for my
husband; for, as to myself, I do assure you he never shewed me more
than common respect; and I hope you will believe I should have
immediately startled and flown off if he had. Poor I accounted for all
the friendship which he expressed for my husband, and all the fondness
which he shewed to my boy, from the great prettiness of the one and
the great merit of the other; foolishly conceiving that others saw
with my eyes and felt with my heart. Little did I dream that my own
unfortunate person was the fountain of all this lord's goodness, and
was the intended price of it.
"One evening, as I was drinking tea with Mrs. Ellison by my lord's
fire (a liberty which she never scrupled taking when he was gone out),
my little Charley, now about half a year old, sitting in her lap, my
lord--accidentally, no doubt, indeed I then thought it so--came in. I
was confounded, and offered to go; but my lord declared, if he
disturbed Mrs. Ellison's company, as he phrased it, he would himself
leave the room. When I was thus prevailed on to keep my seat, my lord
immediately took my little baby into his lap, and gave it some tea
there, not a little at the expense of his embroidery; for he was very
richly drest; indeed, he was as fine a figure as perhaps ever was
seen. His behaviour on this occasion gave me many ideas in his favour.
I thought he discovered good sense, good nature, condescension, and
other good qualities, by the fondness he shewed to my child, and the
contempt he seemed to express for his finery, which so greatly became
him; for I cannot deny but that he was the handsomest and genteelest
person in the world, though such considerations advanced him not a
step in my favour.
"My husband now returned from church (for this happened on a Sunday),
and was, by my lord's particular desire, ushered into the room. My
lord received him with the utmost politeness, and with many
professions of esteem, which, he said, he had conceived from Mrs.
Ellison's representations of his merit. He then proceeded to mention
the living which was detained from my husband, of which Mrs. Ellison
had likewise informed him; and said, he thought it would be no
difficult matter to obtain a restoration of it by the authority of the
bishop, who was his particular friend, and to whom he would take an
immediate opportunity of mentioning it. This, at last, he determined
to do the very next day, when he invited us both to dinner, where we
were to be acquainted with his lordship's success.
"My lord now insisted on my husband's staying supper with him, without
taking any notice of me; but Mrs. Ellison declared he should not part
man and wife, and that she herself would stay with me. The motion was
too agreeable to me to be rejected; and, except the little time I
retired to put my child to bed, we spent together the most agreeable
evening imaginable; nor was it, I believe, easy to decide whether Mr.
Bennet or myself were most delighted with his lordship and Mrs.
Ellison; but this, I assure you, the generosity of the one, and the
extreme civility and kindness of the other, were the subjects of our
conversation all the ensuing night, during which we neither of us
closed our eyes.
"The next day at dinner my lord acquainted us that he had prevailed
with the bishop to write to the clergyman in the country; indeed, he
told us that he had engaged the bishop to be very warm in our
interest, and had not the least doubt of success. This threw us both
into a flow of spirits; and in the afternoon Mr. Bennet, at Mrs.
Ellison's request, which was seconded by his lordship, related the
history of our lives from our first acquaintance. My lord seemed much
affected with some tender scenes, which, as no man could better feel,
so none could better describe, than my husband. When he had finished,
my lord begged pardon for mentioning an occurrence which gave him such
a particular concern, as it had disturbed that delicious state of
happiness in which we had lived at our former lodging. 'It would be
ungenerous,' said he, 'to rejoice at an accident which, though it
brought me fortunately acquainted with two of the most agreeable
people in the world, was yet at the expense of your mutual felicity.
The circumstance, I mean, is your debt at Oxford; pray, how doth that
stand? I am resolved it shall never disturb your happiness hereafter.'
At these words the tears burst from my poor husband's eyes; and, in an
ecstasy of gratitude, he cried out, 'Your lordship overcomes me with
generosity. If you go on in this manner, both my wife's gratitude and
mine must be bankrupt' He then acquainted my lord with the exact state
of the case, and received assurances from him that the debt should
never trouble him. My husband was again breaking out into the warmest
expressions of gratitude, but my lord stopt him short, saying, 'If you
have any obligation, it is to my little Charley here, from whose
little innocent smiles I have received more than the value of this
trifling debt in pleasure.' I forgot to tell you that, when I offered
to leave the room after dinner upon my child's account, my lord would
not suffer me, but ordered the child to be brought to me. He now took
it out of my arms, placed it upon his own knee, and fed it with some
fruit from the dessert. In short, it would be more tedious to you than
to myself to relate the thousand little tendernesses he shewed to the
child. He gave it many baubles; amongst the rest was a coral worth at
least three pounds; and, when my husband was confined near a fortnight
to his chamber with a cold, he visited the child every day (for to
this infant's account were all the visits placed), and seldom failed
of accompanying his visit with a present to the little thing.
"Here, Mrs. Booth, I cannot help mentioning a doubt which hath often
arisen in my mind since I have been enough mistress of myself to
reflect on this horrid train which was laid to blow up my innocence.
Wicked and barbarous it was to the highest degree without any
question; but my doubt is, whether the art or folly of it be the more
conspicuous; for, however delicate and refined the art must be allowed
to have been, the folly, I think, must upon a fair examination appear
no less astonishing: for to lay all considerations of cruelty and
crime out of the case, what a foolish bargain doth the man make for
himself who purchases so poor a pleasure at so high a price!
"We had lived near three weeks with as much freedom as if we had been
all of the same family, when, one afternoon, my lord proposed to my
husband to ride down himself to solicit the surrender; for he said the
bishop had received an unsatisfactory answer from the parson, and had
writ a second letter more pressing, which his lordship now promised us
to strengthen by one of his own that my husband was to carry with him.
Mr. Bennet agreed to this proposal with great thankfulness, and the
next day was appointed for his journey. The distance was near seventy
miles.
"My husband set out on his journey, and he had scarce left me before
Mrs. Ellison came into my room, and endeavoured to comfort me in his
absence; to say the truth, though he was to be from me but a few days,
and the purpose of his going was to fix our happiness on a sound
foundation for all our future days, I could scarce support my spirits
under this first separation. But though I then thought Mrs. Ellison's
intentions to be most kind and friendly, yet the means she used were
utterly ineffectual, and appeared to me injudicious. Instead of
soothing my uneasiness, which is always the first physic to be given
to grief, she rallied me upon it, and began to talk in a very unusual
stile of gaiety, in which she treated conjugal love with much
ridicule.
"I gave her to understand that she displeased me by this discourse;
but she soon found means to give such a turn to it as made a merit of
all she had said. And now, when she had worked me into a good humour,
she made a proposal to me which I at first rejected--but at last
fatally, too fatally, suffered myself to be over-persuaded. This was
to go to a masquerade at Ranelagh, for which my lord had furnished her
with tickets."
At these words Amelia turned pale as death, and hastily begged her
friend to give her a glass of water, some air, or anything. Mrs.
Bennet, having thrown open the window, and procured the water, which
prevented Amelia from fainting, looked at her with much tenderness,
and cried, "I do not wonder, my dear madam, that you are affected with
my mentioning that fatal masquerade; since I firmly believe the same
ruin was intended for you at the same place; the apprehension of which
occasioned the letter I sent you this morning, and all the trial of
your patience which I have made since."
Amelia gave her a tender embrace, with many expressions of the warmest
gratitude; assured her she had pretty well recovered her spirits, and
begged her to continue her story, which Mrs. Bennet then did. However,
as our readers may likewise be glad to recover their spirits also, we
shall here put an end to this chapter. _
Read next: VOLUME II: BOOK VII: CHAPTER VII
Read previous: VOLUME II: BOOK VII: CHAPTER V
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