Run to Earth by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (have you read this book TXT) đ
- Author: Mary Elizabeth Braddon
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I was to fill a situation which had been procured for me. That
situation was in the household of Paulina Durskiâs father. Paulina was
ten years of age, and I was appointed as her governess and companion.
From that day to this, I have never left her. As much as I am capable
of loving any one, I love her. But my mind has been embittered by the
miseries of my girlhood, and I do not pretend to be capable of much
womanly feeling.â
âI thank you for your candour,â said Victor. âIt is of importance for
me to understand your position, for, by so doing, I shall be the better
able to assist you. I may believe, then, that there is only one person
in the world for whom you care, and that person is Paulina Durski?â
âYou may believe that.â
âAnd I may also believe that you, who have drained to the dregs the
bitter cup of poverty, would do much, and risk much, in order to be
rich?â
âYou may.â
âThen, Miss Brewer, let me speak to you openly, as one sincerely
interested in you, and desirous of serving you and your charming but
infatuated friend. May I hope that we shall be uninterrupted for some
time longer, for I am anxious to explain myself at once, and fully, now
that the opportunity has arisen?â
âNo one is likely to enter this room, unless summoned by me,â said Miss
Brewer. âYou may speak freely, and at any length you please, Mr.
Carrington; but I warn you, you are speaking to a person who has no
faith in any profession of disinterested regard.â
As she spoke, Miss Brewer leaned back in her chair, folded her hands
before her, and assumed an utterly impassible expression of
countenance. No less promising recipient of a confidential scheme could
have been seen: but Victor Carrington was not in the least discouraged.
He replied, in a cheerful, deferential, and yet business-like tone:
âI am quite aware of that, Miss Brewer; and for my part, I should not
feel the respect I do feel for you if I believed you so deficient in
sense and experience as to take any other view. I donât offer myself to
you in the absurd disguise of a preux chevalier, anxious to espouse
the unprofitable cause of two unprotected women in an equivocal
position, and in circumstances rapidly tending to desperation.â
Here Victor Carrington glanced at his companion; he wanted to see if
the shot had told. But Miss Brewer cared no more for the almost open
insult, than she had cared for the implied interest conveyed in the
exordium of his discourse. She sat silent and motionless. He continued:
âI have an object to gain, which I am resolved to achieve. Two ways to
the attainment of this object are open to me; the one injurious, in
fact destructive, to you and Madame Durski, the other eminently
beneficial. I am interested in you. I particularly like Madame Durski,
though I am not one of the legion of her professed admirers.â
Miss Brewer shook her head sadly. That legion was much reduced in its
numbers of late.
âTherefore,â continued Carrington, without seeming to observe the
gesture, âI prefer to adopt the latter course, and further your
interests in securing my own. I suppose you can at least understand and
credit such very plain motives, so very plainly expressed, Miss
Brewer?â
âYes,â she said, âthat may be true; it does not seem unlikely; we shall
see.â
âYou certainly shall. My explanation will not, I hope, be unduly
tedious, but it is indispensable that it should be full. You know, Miss
Brewer, that Sir Reginald Eversleigh and I are intimate friends?â
Miss Brewer smiledâa pale, prolonged, unpleasant smile, and then
replied, speaking very deliberately:
âI know nothing of the kind, Mr. Carrington. I know you are much
together, and have an air of familiar acquaintance, which is the true
interpretation of friendship, I take it, between men of the worldâof
your world in particular.â
The hard and determined expression of her manner would have discouraged
and deterred most men. It did not discourage or deter Victor
Carrington.
âPut what interpretation you please upon my words,â he said, âbut
recognize the facts. There is a strict alliance, if you prefer that
phrase, between me and Sir Reginald Eversleigh, and his present
intimacy, with his seeming devotion to Madame Durski, prevents him from
carrying out the terms of that alliance to my satisfaction. I am
therefore resolved to break off that intimacy. Do you comprehend me so
far?â
âYes, I comprehend you so far,â answered Miss Brewer, âperfectly.â
âConsidering Madame Durskiâs feelings for Sir Reginaldâfeelings of
which, I assure you, I consider him, even according to my own
unpretending standard, entirely unworthyâthis intimacy cannot be
broken off without pain to her, but it might be destroyed without any
profit, nay, with ruinous loss. Now, I cannot spare her the pain; that
is necessary, indispensable, both for her good, andâwhich I donât
pretend not to regard more urgentlyâmy own. But I can make the pain
eminently profitable to her, with your assistanceâin fact, so
profitable as to secure the peace and prosperity of her whole future
life.â
He paused, and Miss Brewer looked steadily at him, but she did not
speak.
âReginald Eversleigh owes me money, Miss Brewer, and I cannot afford to
allow him to remain in my debt. I donât mean that he has borrowed money
from me, for I never had any to lend, and, having any, should never
have lent it.â He saw how the tone he was taking suited the womanâs
perverted mind, and pursued it. âBut I have done him certain services
for which he undertook to pay me money, and I want money. He has none,
and the only means by which he can procure it is a rich marriage. Such
a marriage is within his reach; one of the richest heiresses in London
would have him for the askingâshe is an ironmongerâs daughter, and
pines to be My Ladyâbut he hesitates, and loses his time in visits to
Madame Durski, which are only doing them both harm. Doing her harm,
because they are deceiving her, encouraging a delusion; and doing him
harm, because they are wasting his time, and incurring the risk of his
being âblown uponâ to the ironmonger. Vulgar people of the kind, you
know, my dear Miss Brewer, give ugly names, and attach undue importance
to intimacies of this kind, andâandâin short, it is on the cards that
Madame Durski may spoil Sir Reginaldâs game. Well, as that game is also
mine, you will find no difficulty in understanding that I do not intend
Madame Durski shall spoil it.â
âYes, I understand that,â said Miss Brewer, as plainly as before; âbut
I donât understand how Paulina is to be served in the affair, and I
donât understand what my part is to be in it.â
âI am coming to that,â he said. âYou cannot be unaware of the
impression which Madame Durski has made upon Sir Reginaldâs cousin,
Douglas Dale.â
âI know he did admire her,â said Miss Brewer, âbut he has not been here
since his brotherâs death. He is a rich man now.â
âYes, he isâbut that will make no change in him in certain respects.
Douglas Dale is a fool, and will always remain so. Madame Durski has
completely captivated him, and I am perfectly certain he would marry
her to-morrow, if she could be brought to consent.â
âA striking proof that Mr. Douglas Dale deserves the character you have
given him, you would say, Mr. Carrington?â
âMadam, I am at the mercy of your perspicuity,â said Victor, with a
mock bow; âhowever, a truce to badinageâDouglas Dale is a rich man,
and very much in love with Madame Durski; but he is the last man in the
world to interfere with his cousin, by trying to win her affections, if
he believes her attached to Sir Reginald. He is a fool in some things,
as I have said before, and he is much more likely, if he thinks it a
case of mutual desperation, to contribute a thousand a year or so to
set the couple up in a modest competence, like a princely proprietor in
a play, than to advance his own claims. Now, this modest competence
business would not suit Sir Reginald, or Madame Durski, or me, but the
other arrangement would be a capital thing for us all.â
âHâm, you see she really loves your friend, Sir Reginald,â said Miss
Brewer.
âTush,â ejaculated Victor Carrington, contemptuously; âof course I know
she does, but what does it matter? She would be the most wretched of
women if Reginald married her, and he wonât,âafter all, thatâs the
great point, he wonât. Now Dale will, and will give her unlimited
control of his moneyâa very nice position, not so elevated as to
ensure an undesirable raking-up of her antecedents, and the means of
proving her gratitude to you, by providing for you comfortably for
life.â
âThat is all possible,â replied Miss Brewer, as calmly as before; âbut
what am I to do towards bringing about so desirable a state of
affairs.â
âYou have to use the influence which your position auprïżœs de Madame
Durski gives you. You can keep her situation constantly before her, you
can perpetually harp upon its exigenciesâthey are pressing, are they
not? Yesâthen make them more pressing. Expose her to the constant
worry and annoyance of poverty, make no effort to hide the
inconvenience of ruin. She is a bad manager, of courseâall women of
her sort are bad managers. Donât help herâmake the very worst of
everything. Then, you can take every opportunity of pointing out
Reginaldâs neglect, all his defalcations, the cruelty of his conduct to
her, the evidence of his never intending to marry her, the selfishness
which makes him indifferent to her troubles, and unwilling to help her.
Work on pride, on pique, on jealousy, on the love of comfort and
luxury, and the horror of poverty and privation, which are always
powerful in the minds of women like Madame Durski. Donât talk much to
her at first about Douglas Dale, especially until he has come to town
and has resumed his visiting here; but take care that her difficulties
press heavily upon her, and that she is kept in mind that help or hope
from Reginald there is none. I have no doubt whatever that Dale will
propose to her, if he does not see her infatuation for Reginald.â
âBut suppose Mr. Dale does not come here at all?â asked Miss Brewer;
âhe has broken through the habit now, and he may have thought it over,
and determined to keep away.â
âSuppose a moth flies away from a candle, Miss Brewer,â returned
Carrington, âand makes a refreshing excursion out of window into the
cool evening air! May we not calculate with tolerable certainty on his
return, and his incremation? The last thing in all this matter I should
think of doubting would be the readiness of Douglas Dale to tumble
head-foremost into any net we please to spread for him.â
A short pause ensuedâinterrupted by Miss Brewer, who said, âI suppose
this must all be done quicklyâon account of that wealthy Philistine,
the ironmonger?â
âOn account of my happening to want money very badly, Miss Brewer, and
Madame Durski finding herself in the same position. The more quickly
the better for all parties. And now, I have spoken very plainly to you
so far, let me speak still more plainly. It is manifestly for your
advantage that Madame
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