Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins (ebook reader screen .TXT) đ
- Author: Wilkie Collins
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The two gentlemen were left alone over their wine. There was a strong personal contrast between them. Mr. Vanborough was tall and darkâa dashing, handsome man; with an energy in his face which all the world saw; with an inbred falseness under it which only a special observer could detect. Mr. Kendrew was short and lightâslow and awkward in manner, except when something happened to rouse him. Looking in his face, the world saw an ugly and undemonstrative little man. The special observer, penetrating under the surface, found a fine nature beneath, resting on a steady foundation of honor and truth.
Mr. Vanborough opened the conversation.
âIf you ever marry,â he said, âdonât be such a fool, Kendrew, as I have been. Donât take a wife from the stage.â
âIf I could get such a wife as yours,â replied the other, âI would take her from the stage to-morrow. A beautiful woman, a clever woman, a woman of unblemished character, and a woman who truly loves you. Man alive! what do you want more?â
âI want a great deal more. I want a woman highly connected and highly bredâa woman who can receive the best society in England, and open her husbandâs way to a position in the world.â
âA position in the world!â cried Mr. Kendrew. âHere is a man whose father has left him half a million of moneyâwith the one condition annexed to it of taking his fatherâs place at the head of one of the greatest mercantile houses in England. And he talks about a position, as if he was a junior clerk in his own office! What on earth does your ambition see, beyond what your ambition has already got?â
Mr. Vanborough finished his glass of wine, and looked his friend steadily in the face.
âMy ambition,â he said, âsees a Parliamentary career, with a Peerage at the end of itâand with no obstacle in the way but my estimable wife.â
Mr. Kendrew lifted his hand warningly. âDonât talk in that way,â he said. âIf youâre jokingâitâs a joke I donât see. If youâre in earnestâyou force a suspicion on me which I would rather not feel. Let us change the subject.â
âNo! Let us have it out at once. What do you suspect?â
âI suspect you are getting tired of your wife.â
âShe is forty-two, and I am thirty-five; and I have been married to her for thirteen years. You know all thatâand you only suspect I am tired of her. Bless your innocence! Have you any thing more to say?â
âIf you force me to it, I take the freedom of an old friend, and I say you are not treating her fairly. Itâs nearly two years since you broke up your establishment abroad, and came to England on your fatherâs death. With the exception of myself, and one or two other friends of former days, you have presented your wife to nobody. Your new position has smoothed the way for you into the best society. You never take your wife with you. You go out as if you were a single man. I have reason to know that you are actually believed to be a single man, among these new acquaintances of yours, in more than one quarter. Forgive me for speaking my mind bluntlyâI say what I think. Itâs unworthy of you to keep your wife buried here, as if you were ashamed of her.â
âI am ashamed of her.â
âVanborough!â
âWait a little! you are not to have it all your own way, my good fellow. What are the facts? Thirteen years ago I fell in love with a handsome public singer, and married her. My father was angry with me; and I had to go and live with her abroad. It didnât matter, abroad. My father forgave me on his death-bed, and I had to bring her home again. It does matter, at home. I find myself, with a great career opening before me, tied to a woman whose relations are (as you well know) the lowest of the low. A woman without the slightest distinction of manner, or the slightest aspiration beyond her nursery and her kitchen, her piano and her books. Is that a wife who can help me to make my place in society?âwho can smooth my way through social obstacles and political obstacles, to the House of Lords? By Jupiter! if ever there was a woman to be âburiedâ (as you call it), that woman is my wife. And, whatâs more, if you want the truth, itâs because I canât bury her here that Iâm going to leave this house. She has got a cursed knack of making acquaintances wherever she goes. Sheâll have a circle of friends about her if I leave her in this neighborhood much longer. Friends who remember her as the famous opera-singer. Friends who will see her swindling scoundrel of a father (when my back is turned) coming drunk to the door to borrow money of her! I tell you, my marriage has wrecked my prospects. Itâs no use talking to me of my wifeâs virtues. She is a millstone round my neck, with all her virtues. If I had not been a born idiot I should have waited, and married a woman who would have been of some use to me; a woman with high connectionsââ
Mr. Kendrew touched his hostâs arm, and suddenly interrupted him.
âTo come to the point,â he saidââa woman like Lady Jane Parnell.â
Mr. Vanborough started. His eyes fell, for the first time, before the eyes of his friend.
âWhat do you know about Lady Jane?â he asked.
âNothing. I donât move in Lady Janeâs worldâbut I do go sometimes to the opera. I saw you with her last night in her box; and I heard what was said in the stalls near me. You were openly spoken of as the favored man who was singled out from the rest by Lady Jane. Imagine what would happen if your wife heard that! You are wrong, Vanboroughâyou are in every way wrong. You alarm, you distress, you disappoint me. I never sought this explanationâbut now it has come, I wonât shrink from it. Reconsider your conduct; reconsider what you have said to meâor you count me no longer among your friends. No! I want no farther talk about it now. We are both getting hotâwe may end in saying what had better have been left unsaid. Once more, let us change the subject. You wrote me word that you wanted me here to-day, because you needed my advice on a matter of some importance. What is it?â
Silence followed that question. Mr. Vanboroughâs face betrayed signs of embarrassment. He poured himself out another glass of wine, and drank it at a draught before he replied.
âItâs not so easy to tell you what I want,â he said, âafter the tone you have taken with me about my wife.â
Mr. Kendrew looked surprised.
âIs Mrs. Vanborough concerned in the matter?â he asked.
âYes.â
âDoes she know about it?â
âNo.â
âHave you kept the thing a secret out of regard for her?â
âYes.â
âHave I any right to advise on it?â
âYou have the right of an old friend.â
âThen, why not tell me frankly what it is?â
There was another moment of embarrassment on Mr. Vanboroughâs part.
âIt will come better,â he answered, âfrom a third person, whom I expect here every minute. He is in possession of all the factsâand he is better able to state them than I am.â
âWho is the person?â
âMy friend, Delamayn.â
âYour lawyer?â
âYesâthe junior partner in the firm of Delamayn, Hawke, and Delamayn. Do you know him?â
âI am acquainted with him. His wifeâs family were friends of mine before he married. I donât like him.â
âYouâre rather hard to please to-day! Delamayn is a rising man, if ever there was one yet. A man with a career before him, and with courage enough to pursue it. He is going to leave the Firm, and try his luck at the Bar. Every body says he will do great things. Whatâs your objection to him?â
âI have no objection whatever. We meet with people occasionally whom we dislike without knowing why. Without knowing why, I dislike Mr. Delamayn.â
âWhatever you do you must put up with him this evening. He will be here directly.â
He was there at that moment. The servant opened the door, and announcedââMr. Delamayn.â
III.
Externally speaking, the rising solicitor, who was going to try his luck at the Bar, looked like a man who was going to succeed. His hard, hairless face, his watchful gray eyes, his thin, resolute lips, said plainly, in so many words, âI mean to get on in the world; and, if you are in my way, I mean to get on at your expense.â Mr. Delamayn was habitually polite to every bodyâbut he had never been known to say one unnecessary word to his dearest friend. A man of rare ability; a man of unblemished honor (as the code of the world goes); but not a man to be taken familiarly by the hand. You would never have borrowed money of himâbut you would have trusted him with untold gold. Involved in private and personal troubles, you would have hesitated at asking him to help you. Involved in public and producible troubles, you would have said, Here is my man. Sure to push his wayânobody could look at him and doubt itâsure to push his way.
âKendrew is an old friend of mine,â said Mr. Vanborough, addressing himself to the lawyer. âWhatever you have to say to me you may say before him. Will you have some wine?â
âNoâthank you.â
âHave you brought any news?â
âYes.â
âHave you got the written opinions of the two barristers?â
âNo.â
âWhy not?â
ââBecause nothing of the sort is necessary. If the facts of the case are correctly stated there is not the slightest doubt about the law.â
With that reply Mr. Delamayn took a written paper from his pocket, and spread it out on the table before him.
âWhat is that?â asked Mr. Vanborough.
âThe case relating to your marriage.â
Mr. Kendrew started, and showed the first tokens of interest in the proceedings which had escaped him yet. Mr. Delamayn looked at him for a moment, and went on.
âThe case,â he resumed, âas originally stated by you, and taken down in writing by our head-clerk.â
Mr. Vanboroughâs temper began to show itself again.
âWhat have we got to do with that now?â he asked. âYou have made your inquiries to prove the correctness of my statementâhavenât you?â
âYes.â
âAnd you have found out that I am right?â
âI have found out that you are rightâif the case is right. I wish to be sure that no mistake has occurred between you and the clerk. This is a very important matter. I am going to take the responsibility of giving an opinion which may be followed by serious consequences; and I mean to assure myself that the opinion is given on a sound basis, first. I have some questions to ask you. Donât be impatient, if you please. They wonât take long.â
He referred to the manuscript, and put the first question.
âYou were married at Inchmallock, in Ireland, Mr. Vanborough, thirteen years since?â
âYes.â
âYour wifeâthen Miss Anne Silvesterâwas a Roman Catholic?â
âYes.â
âHer father and mother were Roman Catholics?â
âThey were.â
âYour father and mother were Protestants? and you were baptized and brought
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