CHAPTER THE FORTIETH
Traces of Nugent
"MADAME PRATOLUNGO!"
"Herr Grosse?"
He put his handkerchief back into his pocket, and turned round to me fromthe window with his face composed again, and his tea-caddy snuff-box inhis hand.
"Now you have seen for your own self," he said, with an emphatic rap onthe box, "do you dare tell that sweet girls which of them it is that hasgone his ways and left her for ever?"
It is not easy to find a limit to the obstinacy of women--when men expectthem to acknowledge themselves to have been wrong. After what I had seen,I no more dared tell her than he did. I was only too obstinate toacknowledge it to him--just yet.
"Mind this!" he went on. "Whether you shake her with frights, or whetheryou heat her with rages, or whether you wound her with griefs--it allgoes straight the same to those weak new eyes of hers. They are so weakand so new, that I must ask once more for my beds here to-night, for tosee to-morrow if I have not already tried them too much. Now, for thelast time of asking, have you got the abominable courage in you to tellher the truth?"
He had found my limit at last. I was obliged to own (heartily as Idisliked doing it) that there was, for the present, no choice left butmercifully to conceal the truth. Having gone this length I next attemptedto consult him as to the safest manner in which I could account toLucilla for Oscar's absence. He refused (as a man) to recognize theslightest necessity for giving me (as a woman) any advice on a questionof evasions and excuses. "I have not lived all my years in the world,without learning something," he said. "When it comes to walking uponeggshells and telling fips, the womens have nothing to learn from themens.--Will you take a little stroll-walk with me in the garden? I haveone odder thing to say to you: and I am hungry and thirsty bothtogedder--for This."
He produced "This," in the form of his pipe. We left the room at once forour stroll in the garden.
Having solaced himself with his first mouthful of tobacco-smoke, hestartled me by announcing that he meant to remove Lucilla forthwith fromDimchurch to the sea-side. In doing this, he was actuated by twomotives--first, the medical motive of strengthening her constitution:second, the personal motive of preserving her from making painfuldiscoveries by placing her out of reach of the gossip of the rectory andthe village. Grosse had the lowest opinion of Mr. Finch and hishousehold. His dislike and distrust of the rector, in particular, knew nobounds: he characterized the Pope of Dimchurch as an Ape with a longtongue, and a man-and-monkey capacity for doing mischief. Ramsgate wasthe watering-place which he had fixed on. It was at a safe distance fromDimchurch; and it was near enough to London to enable him to visitLucilla frequently. The one thing needed was my co-operation in the newplan. If I was at liberty to take charge of Lucilla, he would speak tothe Ape with the long tongue; and we might start for Ramsgate before theend of the week.
Was there anything to prevent me from carrying out the arrangementproposed?
There was nothing to prevent me. My one other anxiety apart fromLucilla--anxiety about good Papa--had now, for some time, been happilyset at rest. Letter after letter from my sisters in France, brought mealways the same cheering news. My evergreen parent had at last discoveredthat he was no longer in the first bloom of his youth. He had resigned tohis juniors, with pathetic expressions of regret, the making of love andthe fighting of duels. Ravaged by past passions, this dear innocent hadnow found a refuge from swords, pistols, and the sex, in collectingbutterflies and playing on the guitar. I was free wholly to devote myselfto Lucilla; and I honestly rejoiced in the prospect before me. Alone withher, and away from the rectory (where there was always danger off gossipreaching her ears) I could rely on myself to protect her from harm in thepresent, and to preserve her for Oscar in the future. With all my heart Iagreed to the arrangements as Grosse proposed them. When we parted in thegarden, he went round to the rector's side of the house to announce (inhis medical capacity) the decision at which he had arrived--while I, onmy side, went back to Lucilla to make the best excuses that I couldinvent for Oscar, and to prepare her for our speedy removal fromDimchurch.