CHAPTER XXXIX

IN THE DOMAIN OF TAILORDOM

There was peace in Mr. Goren's shop. Badgered Ministers, bankrupt

merchants, diplomatists with a headache--any of our modern grandees under

difficulties, might have envied that peace over which Mr. Goren presided:

and he was an enviable man. He loved his craft, he believed that he had

not succeeded the millions of antecedent tailors in vain; and, excepting

that trifling coquetry with shirt-fronts, viz., the red crosses, which a

shrewd rival had very soon eclipsed by representing nymphs triangularly

posed, he devoted himself to his business from morning to night; as rigid

in demanding respect from those beneath him, as he was profuse in

lavishing it on his patrons. His public boast was, that he owed no man a

farthing; his secret comfort, that he possessed two thousand pounds in

the Funds. But Mr. Goren did not stop here. Behind these external

characteristics he nursed a passion. Evan was astonished and pleased to

find in him an enthusiastic fern-collector. Not that Mr. Harrington

shared the passion, but the sight of these brown roots spread out,

ticketed, on the stained paper, after supper, when the shutters were up

and the house defended from the hostile outer world; the old man poring

over them, and naming this and that spot where, during his solitary

Saturday afternoon and Sunday excursions, he had lighted on the rare

samples exhibited this contrast of the quiet evening with the sordid day

humanized Mr. Goren to him. He began to see a spirit in the rigid

tradesman not so utterly dissimilar to his own, and he fancied that he,

too, had a taste for ferns. Round Beckley how they abounded!

He told Mr. Goren so, and Mr. Goren said:

'Some day we'll jog down there together, as the saying goes.'

Mr. Goren spoke of it as an ordinary event, likely to happen in the days

to come: not as an incident the mere mention of which, as being probable,

stopped the breath and made the pulses leap.

For now Evan's education taught him to feel that he was at his lowest

degree. Never now could Rose stoop to him. He carried the shop on his

back. She saw the brand of it on his forehead. Well! and what was Rose to

him, beyond a blissful memory, a star that he had once touched? Self-love

kept him strong by day, but in the darkness of night came his misery;

wakening from tender dreams, he would find his heart sinking under a

horrible pressure, and then the fair fresh face of Rose swam over him;

the hours of Beckley were revived; with intolerable anguish he saw that

she was blameless--that he alone was to blame. Yet worse was it when his

closed eyelids refused to conjure up the sorrowful lovely nightmare, and

he lay like one in a trance, entombed-wretched Pagan! feeling all that

had been blindly; when the Past lay beside him like a corpse that he had

slain.

These nightly torments helped him to brave what the morning brought.

Insensibly also, as Time hardened his sufferings, Evan asked himself what

the shame of his position consisted in. He grew stiff-necked. His Pagan

virtues stood up one by one to support him. Andrew, courageously evading

the interdict that forbade him to visit Evan, would meet him by

appointment at City taverns, and flatly offered him a place in the

Brewery. Evan declined it, on the pretext that, having received Old Tom's

money for the year, he must at least work out that term according to the

conditions. Andrew fumed and sneered at Tailordom. Evan said that there

was peace in Mr. Goren's shop. His sharp senses discerned in Andrew's

sneer a certain sincerity, and he revolted against it. Mr John Raikes,

too, burlesqued Society so well, that he had the satisfaction of laughing

at his enemy occasionally. The latter gentleman was still a pensioner,

flying about town with the Countess de Saldar, in deadly fear lest that

fascinating lady should discover the seat of his fortune; happy,

notwithstanding. In the mirror of Evan's little world, he beheld the

great one from which he was banished.

Now the dusk of a winter's afternoon was closing over London, when a

carriage drew up in front of Mr. Goren's shop, out of which, to Mr.

Goren's chagrin, a lady stepped, with her veil down. The lady entered,

and said that she wished to speak to Mr. Harrington. Mr. Goren made way

for her to his pupil; and was amazed to see her fall into his arms, and

hardly gratified to hear her say: 'Pardon me, darling, for coming to you

in this place.'

Evan asked permission to occupy the parlour.

'My place,' said Mr. Goren, with humble severity, over his spectacles,

'is very poor. Such as it is, it is at the lady's service.'

Alone with her, Evan was about to ease his own feelings by remarking to

the effect that Mr. Goren was human like the rest of us, but Caroline

cried, with unwonted vivacity:

'Yes, yes, I know; but I thought only of you. I have such news for you!

You will and must pardon my coming--that's my first thought, sensitive

darling that you are!' She kissed him fondly. 'Juliana Bonner is in town,

staying with us!'

'Is that your news?' asked Evan, pressing her against his breast.

'No, dear love--but still! You have no idea what her fortune--Mrs. Bonner

has died and left her--but I mustn't tell you. Oh, my darling! how she

admires you! She--she could recompense you; if you would! We will put

that by, for the present. Dear! the Duke has begged you, through me, to

accept--I think it 's to be a sort of bailiff to his estates--I don't

know rightly. It's a very honourable post, that gentlemen take: and the

income you are to have, Evan, will be near a thousand a year. Now, what

do I deserve for my news?'

She put up her mouth for another kiss, out of breath.

'True?' looked Evan's eyes.

'True!' she said, smiling, and feasting on his bewilderment.

After the bubbling in his brain had a little subsided, Evan breathed as a

man on whom fresh air is blown. Were not these tidings of release? His

ridiculous pride must nevertheless inquire whether Caroline had been

begging this for him.

'No, dear--indeed!' Caroline asserted with more than natural vehemence.

'It's something that you yourself have done that has pleased him. I don't

know what. Only he says, he believes you are a man to be trusted with the

keys of anything--and so you are. You are to call on him to-morrow. Will

you?'

While Evan was replying, her face became white. She had heard the Major's

voice in the shop. His military step advanced, and Caroline, exclaiming,

'Don't let me see him!' bustled to a door. Evan nodded, and she slipped

through. The next moment he was facing the stiff marine.

'Well, young man,' the Major commenced, and, seating himself, added, 'be

seated. I want to talk to you seriously, sir. You didn't think fit to

wait till I had done with the Directors today. You're devilishly out in

your discipline, whatever you are at two and two. I suppose there's no

fear of being intruded on here? None of your acquaintances likely to be

introducing themselves to me?'

'There is not one that I would introduce to you,' said Evan.

The Major nodded a brief recognition of the compliment, and then,

throwing his back against the chair, fired out: 'Come, sir, is this your

doing?'

In military phrase, Evan now changed front. His first thought had been

that the Major had come for his wife. He perceived that he himself was

the special object of his visitation.

'I must ask you what you allude to,' he answered.

'You are not at your office, but you will speak to me as if there was

some distinction between us,' said the Major. 'My having married your

sister does not reduce me to the ranks, I hope.'

The Major drummed his knuckles on the table, after this impressive

delivery.

'Hem!' he resumed. 'Now, sir, understand, before you speak a word, that I

can see through any number of infernal lies. I see that you're prepared

for prevarication. By George! it shall come out of you, if I get it by

main force. The Duke compelled me to give you that appointment in my

Company. Now, sir, did you, or did you not, go to him and deliberately

state to him that you believed the affairs of the Company to be in a bad

condition--infamously handled, likely to involve his honour as a

gentleman? I ask you, sir, did you do this, or did you not do it?'

Evan waited till the sharp rattle of the Major's close had quieted.

'If I am to answer the wording of your statement, I may say that I did

not.'

'Very good; very good; that will do. Are you aware that the Duke has sent

in his resignation as a Director of our Company?'

'I hear of it first from you.'

'Confound your familiarity!' cried the irritable officer, rising. 'Am I

always to be told that I married your sister? Address me, sir, as becomes

your duty.'

Evan heard the words 'beggarly tailor' mumbled 'out of the gutters,' and

'cursed connection.' He stood in the attitude of attention, while the

Major continued:

'Now, young man, listen to these facts. You came to me this day last

week, and complained that you did not comprehend some of our transactions

and affairs. I explained them to your damned stupidity. You went away.

Three days after that, you had an interview with the Duke. Stop, sir!

What the devil do you mean by daring to speak while I am speaking? You

saw the Duke, I say. Now, what took place at that interview?'

The Major tried to tower over Evan powerfully, as he put this query. They

were of a common height, and to do so, he had to rise on his toes, so

that the effect was but momentary.

'I think I am not bound to reply,' said Evan.

'Very well, sir; that will do.' The Major's fingers were evidently

itching for an absent rattan. 'Confess it or not, you are dismissed from

your post. Do you hear? You are kicked in the street. A beggarly tailor

you were born, and a beggarly tailor you will die.'

'I must beg you to stop, now,' said Evan. 'I told you that I was not

bound to reply: but I will. If you will sit down, Major Strike, you shall

hear what you wish to know.'

This being presently complied with, though not before a glare of the

Major's eyes had shown his doubt whether it might not be construed into

insolence, Evan pursued:

'I came to you and informed you that I could not reconcile the

cash-accounts of the Company, and that certain of the later proceedings

appeared to me to jeopardize its prosperity. Your explanations did not

satisfy me. I admit that you enjoined me to be silent. But the Duke, as a

Director, had as strong a right to claim me as his servant, and when he

questioned me as to the position of the Company, I told him what I

thought, just as I had told you.'

'You told him we were jobbers and swindlers, sir!'

'The Duke inquired of me whether I would, under the circumstances, while

proceedings were going on which I did not approve of, take the

responsibility of allowing my name to remain--'

'Ha! ha! ha!' the Major burst out. This was too good a joke. The name of

a miserable young tailor!' Go on, sir, go on!' He swallowed his laughter

like oil on his rage.

'I have said sufficient.'

Jumping up, the Major swore by the Lord, that he had said sufficient.

'Now, look you here, young man.' He squared his finger before Evan,

eyeing him under a hard frown, 'You have been playing your game again, as

you did down at that place in Hampshire. I heard of it--deserved to be

shot, by heaven! You think you have got hold of the Duke, and you throw

me over. You imagine, I dare say, that I will allow my wife to be talked

about to further your interests--you self-seeking young dog! As long as

he lent the Company his name, I permitted a great many things. Do you

think me a blind idiot, sir? But now she must learn to be satisfied with

people who 've got no titles, or carriages, and who can't give hundred

guinea compliments. You're all of a piece-a set of . . .'

The Major paused, for half a word was on his mouth which had drawn

lightning to Evan's eyes.

Not to be baffled, he added: 'But look you, sir. I may be ruined. I dare

say the Company will go to the dogs--every ass will follow a Duke. But,

mark, this goes on no more. I will be no woman's tally. Mind, sir, I take

excellent care that you don't traffic in your sister!'

The Major delivered this culminating remark with a well-timed deflection

of his forefinger, and slightly turned aside when he had done.

You might have seen Evan's figure rocking, as he stood with his eyes

steadily levelled on his sister's husband.

The Major, who, whatever he was, was physically no coward, did not fail

to interpret the look, and challenge it.

Evan walked to the door, opened it, and said, between his teeth, 'You

must go at once.'

'Eh, sir, eh? what's this?' exclaimed the warrior but the door was open,

Mr. Goren was in the shop; the scandal of an assault in such a house, and

the consequent possibility of his matrimonial alliance becoming bruited

in the newspapers, held his arm after it had given an involuntary jerk.

He marched through with becoming dignity, and marched out into the

street; and if necks unelastic and heads erect may be taken as the sign

of a proud soul and of nobility of mind, my artist has the Major for his

model.

Evan displayed no such a presence. He returned to the little parlour,

shut and locked the door to the shop, and forgetting that one was near,

sat down, covered his eyes, and gave way to a fit of tearless sobbing.

With one foot in the room Caroline hung watching him. A pain that she had

never known wrung her nerves. His whole manhood seemed to be shaken, as

if by regular pulsations of intensest misery. She stood in awe of the

sight till her limbs failed her, and then staggering to him she fell on

her knees, clasping his, passionately kissing them.