The Evil Genius. Уилки Коллинз

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СКАЧАТЬ be a fool,” he said; “James is in London—James is staying in my house. What do you think of that?”

      Mrs. Westerfield’s bold gray eyes expressed eager curiosity and interest. “You don’t mean that he is going to be barman here again?”

      “No such luck, my dear; he is a gentleman at large, who patronizes my house.”

      Mrs. Westerfield went on with her questions.

      “Has he left America for good?”

      “Not he! James Bellbridge is going back to New York, to open a saloon (as they call it) in partnership with another man. He’s in England, he says, on business. It’s my belief that he wants money for this new venture on bad security. They’re smart people in New York. His only chance of getting his bills discounted is to humbug his relations, down in the country.”

      “When does he go to the country?”

      “He’s there now.”

      “When does he come back?”

      “You’re determined to see him, it appears. He comes back to-morrow.”

      “Is he married?”

      “Aha! now we’re coming to the point. Make your mind easy. Plenty of women have set the trap for him, but he has not walked into it yet. Shall I give him your love?”

      “Yes,” she said, coolly. “As much love as you please.”

      “Meaning marriage?” the landlord inquired.

      “And money,” Mrs. Westerfield added.

      “Lord Le Basque’s money.”

      “Lord Le Basque’s money may go to the Devil!”

      “Hullo! Your language reminds me of the time when you were a barmaid. You don’t mean to say you have had a fortune left you?”

      “I do! Will you give a message to James?”

      “I’ll do anything for a lady with a fortune.”

      “Tell him to come and drink tea with his old sweetheart tomorrow, at six o’clock.”

      “He won’t do it.”

      “He will.”

      With that difference of opinion, they parted.

      6.—The Brute.

      To-morrow came—and Mrs. Westerfield’s faithful James justified her confidence in him.

      “Oh, Jemmy, how glad I am to see you! You dear, dear fellow. I’m yours at last.”

      “That depends, my lady, on whether I want you. Let go of my neck.”

      The man who entered this protest against imprisonment in the arms of a fine woman, was one of the human beings who are grown to perfection on English soil. He had the fat face, the pink complexion, the hard blue eyes, the scanty yellow hair, the smile with no meaning in it, the tremendous neck and shoulders, the mighty fists and feet, which are seen in complete combination in England only. Men of this breed possess a nervous system without being aware of it; suffer affliction without feeling it; exercise courage without a sense of danger; marry without love; eat and drink without limit; and sink (big as they are), when disease attacks them, without an effort to live.

      Mrs. Westerfield released her guest’s bull-neck at the word of command. It was impossible not to submit to him—he was so brutal. Impossible not to admire him—he was so big.

      “Have you no love left for me?” was all she ventured to say.

      He took the reproof good-humoredly. “Love?” he repeated. “Come! I like that—after throwing me over for a man with a handle to his name. Which am I to call you: ‘Mrs?’ or ‘My Lady’?”

      “Call me your own. What is there to laugh at, Jemmy? You used to be fond of me; you would never have gone to America, when I married Westerfield, if I hadn’t been dear to you. Oh, if I’m sure of anything, I’m sure of that! You wouldn’t bear malice, dear, if you only knew how cruelly I have been disappointed.”

      He suddenly showed an interest in what she was saying: the brute became cheery and confidential. “So he made you a bad husband, did he? Up with his fist and knocked you down, I daresay, if the truth was known?”

      “You’re all in the wrong, dear. He would have been a good husband if I had cared about him. I never cared about anybody but you. It wasn’t Westerfield who tempted me to say Yes.”

      “That’s a lie.”

      “No, indeed it isn’t.”

      “Then why did you marry him?”

      “When I married him, Jemmy, there was a prospect—oh, how could I resist it? Think of being one of the Le Basques! Held in honor, to the end of my life, by that noble family, whether my husband lived or died!”

      To the barman’s ears, this sounded like sheer nonsense. His experience in the public-house suggested an explanation. “I say, my girl, have you been drinking?”

      Mrs. Westerfield’s first impulse led her to rise and point indignantly to the door. He had only to look at her—and she sat down again a tamed woman. “You don’t understand how the chance tempted me,” she answered, gently.

      “What chance do you mean?”

      “The chance, dear, of being a lord’s mother.”

      He was still puzzled, but he lowered his tone. The true-born Briton bowed by instinct before the woman who had jilted him, when she presented herself in the character of a lord’s mother. “How do you make that out, Maria?” he asked politely.

      She drew her chair nearer to him, when he called her by her Christian name for the first time.

      “When Westerfield was courting me,” she said, “his brother (my lord) was a bachelor. A lady—if one can call such a creature a lady!—was living under his protection. He told Westerfield he was very fond of her, and he hated the idea of getting married. ‘If your wife’s first child turns out to be a son,’ he said, ‘there is an heir to the title and estates, and I may go on as I am now.’ We were married a month afterward—and when my first child was born it was a girl. I leave you to judge what the disappointment was! My lord (persuaded, as I suspect, by the woman I mentioned just now) ran the risk of waiting another year, and a year afterward, rather than be married. Through all that time, I had no other child or prospect of a child. His lordship was fairly driven into taking a wife. Ah, how I hate her! Their first child was a boy—a big, bouncing, healthy brute of a boy! And six months afterward, my poor little fellow was born. Only think of it! And tell me, Jemmy, don’t I deserve to be a happy woman, after suffering such a dreadful disappointment as that? Is it true that you’re going back to America?”

      “Quite true.”

      “Take me back with you.”

      “With СКАЧАТЬ