CHAPTER VIII
Ay! mark the matron well--and laugh not, Harry, At her old steeple-hat and velvet guard-- I've call'd her like the ear of Dionysius; I mean that ear-form'd vault, built o'er his dungeon, To catch the groans and discontented murmurs Of his poor bondsmen--Even so doth Martha Drink up, for her own purpose, all that passes, Or is supposed to pass, in this wide city-- She can retail it too, if that her profit Shall call on her to do so; and retail it For your advantage, so that you can make Your profit jump with hers. The Conspiracy.
We must now introduce to the reader's acquaintance another character,busy and important far beyond her ostensible situation in society--ina word, Dame Ursula Suddlechop, wife of Benjamin Suddlechop, the mostrenowned barber in all Fleet Street. This dame had her own particularmerits, the principal part of which was (if her own report could betrusted) an infinite desire to be of service to her fellow-creatures.Leaving to her thin half-starved partner the boast of having the mostdexterous snap with his fingers of any shaver in London, and the careof a shop where starved apprentices flayed the faces of those whowere boobies enough to trust them, the dame drove a separate and morelucrative trade, which yet had so many odd turns and windings, that itseemed in many respects to contradict itself.
Its highest and most important duties were of a very secret andconfidential nature, and Dame Ursula Suddlechop was never known tobetray any transaction intrusted to her, unless she had either beenindifferently paid for her service, or that some one found it convenientto give her a double douceur to make her disgorge the secret; andthese contingencies happened in so few cases, that her character fortrustiness remained as unimpeached as that for honesty and benevolence.
In fact, she was a most admirable matron, and could be useful to theimpassioned and the frail in the rise, progress, and consequences oftheir passion. She could contrive an interview for lovers who could showproper reasons for meeting privately; she could relieve the frail fairone of the burden of a guilty passion, and perhaps establish the hopefuloffspring of unlicensed love as the heir of some family whose love waslawful, but where an heir had not followed the union. More than this shecould do, and had been concerned in deeper and dearer secrets. She hadbeen a pupil of Mrs. Turner, and learned from her the secret of makingthe yellow starch, and, it may be, two or three other secrets of moreconsequence, though perhaps none that went to the criminal extent ofthose whereof her mistress was accused. But all that was deep and darkin her real character was covered by the show of outward mirth andgood-humour, the hearty laugh and buxom jest with which the dame knewwell how to conciliate the elder part of her neighbours, and the manypetty arts by which she could recommend herself to the younger, thoseespecially of her own sex.
Dame Ursula was, in appearance, scarce past forty, and her full, butnot overgrown form, and still comely features, although her person wasplumped out, and her face somewhat coloured by good cheer, had a joyousexpression of gaiety and good-humour, which set off the remains ofbeauty in the wane. Marriages, births, and christenings were seldomthought to be performed with sufficient ceremony, for a considerabledistance round her abode, unless Dame Ursley, as they called her, waspresent. She could contrive all sorts of pastimes, games, and jests,which might amuse the large companies which the hospitality of ourancestors assembled together on such occasions, so that her presence wasliterally considered as indispensable in the families of all citizens ofordinary rank, at such joyous periods. So much also was she supposed toknow of life and its labyrinths, that she was the willing confidantof half the loving couples in the vicinity, most of whom used tocommunicate their secrets to, and receive their counsel from, DameUrsley. The rich rewarded her services with rings, owches, or goldpieces, which she liked still better; and she very generously gaveher assistance to the poor, on the same mixed principles as youngpractitioners in medicine assist them, partly from compassion, andpartly to keep her hand in use.
Dame Ursley's reputation in the city was the greater that her practicehad extended beyond Temple Bar, and that she had acquaintances, nay,patrons and patronesses, among the quality, whose rank, as their memberswere much fewer, and the prospect of approaching the courtly sphere muchmore difficult, bore a degree of consequence unknown to the present day,when the toe of the citizen presses so close on the courtier's heel.Dame Ursley maintained her intercourse with this superior rank ofcustomers, partly by driving a small trade in perfumes, essences,pomades, head-gears from France, dishes or ornaments from China, thenalready beginning to be fashionable; not to mention drugs of variousdescriptions, chiefly for the use of the ladies, and partly by otherservices, more or less connected with the esoteric branches of herprofession heretofore alluded to.
Possessing such and so many various modes of thriving, Dame Ursleywas nevertheless so poor, that she might probably have mended her owncircumstances, as well as her husband's, if she had renounced them all,and set herself quietly down to the care of her own household, and toassist Benjamin in the concerns of his trade. But Ursula was luxuriousand genial in her habits, and could no more have endured the stintedeconomy of Benjamin's board, than she could have reconciled herself tothe bald chat of his conversation.
It was on the evening of the day on which Lord Nigel Olifaunt dined withthe wealthy goldsmith, that we must introduce Ursula Suddlechop uponthe stage. She had that morning made a long tour to Westminster, wasfatigued, and had assumed a certain large elbow-chair, rendered smoothby frequent use, placed on one side of her chimney, in which there waslit a small but bright fire. Here she observed, betwixt sleeping andwaking, the simmering of a pot of well-spiced ale, on the brown surfaceof which bobbed a small crab-apple, sufficiently roasted, while a littlemulatto girl watched, still more attentively, the process of dressinga veal sweetbread, in a silver stewpan which occupied the other sideof the chimney. With these viands, doubtless, Dame Ursula proposedconcluding the well spent day, of which she reckoned the labour over,and the rest at her own command. She was deceived, however; for justas the ale, or, to speak technically, the lamb's-wool, was fitted fordrinking, and the little dingy maiden intimated that the sweetbread wasready to be eaten, the thin cracked voice of Benjamin was heard from thebottom of the stairs.
"Why, Dame Ursley--why, wife, I say--why, dame--why, love, you arewanted more than a strop for a blunt razor--why, dame--"
"I would some one would draw a razor across thy windpipe, thou bawlingass!" said the dame to herself, in the first moment of irritationagainst her clamorous helpmate; and then called aloud,--"Why, what isthe matter, Master Suddlechop? I am just going to slip into bed; I havebeen daggled to and fro the whole day."
"Nay, sweetheart, it is not me," said the patient Benjamin, "but theScots laundry-maid from neighbour Ramsay's, who must speak with youincontinent."
At the word sweetheart, Dame Ursley cast a wistful look at the messwhich was stewed to a second in the stewpan, and then replied, witha sigh,--"Bid Scots Jenny come up, Master Suddlechop. I shall be veryhappy to hear what she has to say;" then added in a lower tone, "and Ihope she will go to the devil in the flame of a tar-barrel, like many aScots witch before her!"
The Scots laundress entered accordingly, and having heard nothing of thelast kind wish of Dame Suddlechop, made her reverence with considerablerespect, and said, her young mistress had returned home unwell, andwished to see her neighbour, Dame Ursley, directly.
"And why will it not do to-morrow, Jenny, my good woman?" said DameUrsley; "for I have been as far as Whitehall to-day already, and I amwell-nigh worn off my feet, my good woman."
"Aweel!" answered Jenny, with great composure, "and if that sae be sae,I maun take the langer tramp mysell, and maun gae down the waterside forauld Mother Redcap, at the Hungerford Stairs, that deals in comfortingyoung creatures, e'en as you do yoursell, hinny; for ane o' ye the bairnmaun see before she sleeps, and that's a' that I ken on't."
So saying, the old emissary, without farther entreaty, turned on herheel, and was about to retreat, when
Dame Ursley exclaimed,--"No, no--ifthe sweet child, your mistress, has any necessary occasion for goodadvice and kind tendance, you need not go to Mother Redcap, Janet. Shemay do very well for skippers' wives, chandlers' daughters, and suchlike; but nobody shall wait on pretty Mistress Margaret, the daughter ofhis most Sacred Majesty's horologer, excepting and saving myself. Andso I will but take my chopins and my cloak, and put on my muffler,and cross the street to neighbour Ramsay's in an instant. But tell meyourself, good Jenny, are you not something tired of your young lady'sfrolics and change of mind twenty times a-day?"
"In troth, not I," said the patient drudge, "unless it may be when sheis a wee fashious about washing her laces; but I have been herkeeper since she was a bairn, neighbour Suddlechop, and that makes adifference."
"Ay," said Dame Ursley, still busied putting on additional defencesagainst the night air; "and you know for certain that she has twohundred pounds a-year in good land, at her own free disposal?"
"Left by her grandmother, heaven rest her soul!" said the Scotswoman;"and to a daintier lassie she could not have bequeathed it."
"Very true, very true, mistress; for, with all her little whims, I havealways said Mistress Margaret Ramsay was the prettiest girl in the ward;and, Jenny, I warrant the poor child has had no supper?"
Jenny could not say but it was the case, for, her master being out, thetwa 'prentice lads had gone out after shutting shop, to fetch them home,and she and the other maid had gone out to Sandy MacGivan's, to see afriend frae Scotland.
"As was very natural, Mrs. Janet," said Dame Ursley, who found herinterest in assenting to all sorts of propositions from all sorts ofpersons.
"And so the fire went out, too,"--said Jenny.
"Which was the most natural of the whole," said Dame Suddlechop; "andso, to cut the matter short, Jenny, I'll carry over the little bit ofsupper that I was going to eat. For dinner I have tasted none, and itmay be my young pretty Mistress Marget will eat a morsel with me; forit is mere emptiness, Mistress Jenny, that often puts these fanciesof illness into young folk's heads." So saying, she put the silverposset-cup with the ale into Jenny's hands and assuming her mantle withthe alacrity of one determined to sacrifice inclination to duty, shehid the stewpan under its folds, and commanded Wilsa, the little mulattogirl, to light them across the street.
"Whither away, so late?" said the barber, whom they passed seated withhis starveling boys round a mess of stockfish and parsnips, in the shopbelow.
"If I were to tell you, Gaffer," said the dame, with most contemptuouscoolness, "I do not think you could do my errand, so I will e'en keep itto myself." Benjamin was too much accustomed to his wife's independentmode of conduct, to pursue his inquiry farther; nor did the dame tarryfor farther question, but marched out at the door, telling the eldest ofthe boys "to sit up till her return, and look to the house the whilst."
The night was dark and rainy, and although the distance betwixt the twoshops was short, it allowed Dame Ursley leisure enough, while she strodealong with high-tucked petticoats, to embitter it by the followinggrumbling reflections--"I wonder what I have done, that I must needstrudge at every old beldam's bidding, and every young minx's maggot!I have been marched from Temple Bar to Whitechapel, on the matter of apinmaker's wife having pricked her fingers--marry, her husband that madethe weapon might have salved the wound.--And here is this fantastic ape,pretty Mistress Marget, forsooth--such a beauty as I could make of aDutch doll, and as fantastic, and humorous, and conceited, as if shewere a duchess. I have seen her in the same day as changeful as amarmozet and as stubborn as a mule. I should like to know whetherher little conceited noddle, or her father's old crazy calculatingjolter-pate, breeds most whimsies. But then there's that two hundredpounds a-year in dirty land, and the father is held a close chuff,though a fanciful--he is our landlord besides, and she has begged alate day from him for our rent; so, God help me, I must becomfortable--besides, the little capricious devil is my only key to getat Master George Heriot's secret, and it concerns my character to findthat out; and so, ANDIAMOS, as the lingua franca hath it."
Thus pondering, she moved forward with hasty strides until she arrivedat the watchmaker's habitation. The attendant admitted them by means ofa pass-key. Onward glided Dame Ursula, now in glimmer and now in gloom,not like the lovely Lady Cristabelle through Gothic sculpture andancient armour, but creeping and stumbling amongst relics of oldmachines, and models of new inventions in various branches ofmechanics with which wrecks of useless ingenuity, either in a brokenor half-finished shape, the apartment of the fanciful though ingeniousmechanist was continually lumbered.
At length they attained, by a very narrow staircase, pretty MistressMargaret's apartment, where she, the cynosure of the eyes of every boldyoung bachelor in Fleet Street, sat in a posture which hovered betweenthe discontented and the disconsolate. For her pretty back and shoulderswere rounded into a curve, her round and dimpled chin reposed in thehollow of her little palm, while the fingers were folded over her mouth;her elbow rested on a table, and her eyes seemed fixed upon the dyingcharcoal, which was expiring in a small grate. She scarce turned herhead when Dame Ursula entered, and when the presence of that estimablematron was more precisely announced in words by the old Scotswoman,Mistress Margaret, without changing her posture, muttered some sort ofanswer that was wholly unintelligible.
"Go your ways down to the kitchen with Wilsa, good Mistress Jenny," saidDame Ursula, who was used to all sorts of freaks, on the part of herpatients or clients, whichever they might be termed; "put the stewpanand the porringer by the fireside, and go down below--I must speak to mypretty love, Mistress Margaret, by myself--and there is not a bachelorbetwixt this and Bow but will envy me the privilege."
The attendants retired as directed, and Dame Ursula, having availedherself of the embers of charcoal, to place her stewpan to the bestadvantage, drew herself as close as she could to her patient, and beganin a low, soothing, and confidential tone of voice, to inquire whatailed her pretty flower of neighbours.
"Nothing, dame," said Margaret somewhat pettishly, and changing herposture so as rather to turn her back upon the kind inquirer.
"Nothing, lady-bird!" answered Dame Suddlechop; "and do you use to sendfor your friends out of bed at this hour for nothing?"
"It was not I who sent for you, dame," replied the malecontent maiden.
"And who was it, then?" said Ursula; "for if I had not been sent for, Ihad not been here at this time of night, I promise you!"
"It was the old Scotch fool Jenny, who did it out of her own head, Isuppose," said Margaret; "for she has been stunning me these two hoursabout you and Mother Redcap."
"Me and Mother Redcap!" said Dame Ursula, "an old fool indeed, thatcouples folk up so.--But come, come, my sweet little neighbour, Jennyis no such fool after all; she knows young folks want more and betteradvice than her own, and she knows, too, where to find it for them; soyou must take heart of grace, my pretty maiden, and tell me what you aremoping about, and then let Dame Ursula alone for finding out a cure."
"Nay, an ye be so wise, Mother Ursula," replied the girl, "you may guesswhat I ail without my telling you."
"Ay, ay, child," answered the complaisant matron, "no one can playbetter than I at the good old game of What is my thought like? Now I'llwarrant that little head of yours is running on a new head-tire, a foothigher than those our city dames wear--or you are all for a tripto Islington or Ware, and your father is cross and will notconsent--or----"
"Or you are an old fool, Dame Suddlechop," said Margaret, peevishly,"and must needs trouble yourself about matters you know nothing of."
"Fool as much as you will, mistress," said Dame Ursula, offended in herturn, "but not so very many years older than yourself, mistress."
"Oh! we are angry, are we?" said the beauty; "and pray, Madam Ursula,how come you, that are not so many years older than me, to talk aboutsuch nonsense to me, who am so many years younger, and who yet have toomuch sense to care about head-gears and Islington?"
/>
"Well, well, young mistress," said the sage counsellor, rising, "Iperceive I can be of no use here; and methinks, since you know your ownmatters so much better than other people do, you might dispense withdisturbing folks at midnight to ask their advice."
"Why, now you are angry, mother," said Margaret, detaining her; "thiscomes of your coming out at eventide without eating your supper--Inever heard you utter a cross word after you had finished your littlemorsel.--Here, Janet, a trencher and salt for Dame Ursula;--and whathave you in that porringer, dame?--Filthy clammy ale, as I wouldlive--Let Janet fling it out of the window, or keep it for my father'smorning draught; and she shall bring you the pottle of sack that was setready for him--good man, he will never find out the difference, for alewill wash down his dusty calculations quite as well as wine."
"Truly, sweetheart, I am of your opinion," said Dame Ursula, whosetemporary displeasure vanished at once before these preparations forgood cheer; and so, settling herself on the great easy-chair, witha three-legged table before her, she began to dispatch, with goodappetite, the little delicate dish which she had prepared for herself.She did not, however, fail in the duties of civility, and earnestly, butin vain, pressed Mistress Margaret to partake her dainties. The damseldeclined the invitation.
"At least pledge me in a glass of sack," said Dame Ursula; "I have heardmy grandame say, that before the gospellers came in, the old Catholicfather confessors and their penitents always had a cup of sack togetherbefore confession; and you are my penitent."
"I shall drink no sack, I am sure," said Margaret; "and I told youbefore, that if you cannot find out what ails me, I shall never have theheart to tell it."
So saying, she turned away from Dame Ursula once more, and resumed hermusing posture, with her hand on her elbow, and her back, at least oneshoulder, turned towards her confidant.
"Nay, then," said Dame Ursula, "I must exert my skill in goodearnest.--You must give me this pretty hand, and I will tell you bypalmistry, as well as any gipsy of them all, what foot it is you haltupon."
"As if I halted on any foot at all," said Margaret, somethingscornfully, but yielding her left hand to Ursula, and continuing at thesame time her averted position.
"I see brave lines here," said Ursula, "and not ill to readneither--pleasure and wealth, and merry nights and late mornings to myBeauty, and such an equipage as shall shake Whitehall. O, have I touchedyou there?--and smile you now, my pretty one?--for why should not he beLord Mayor, and go to Court in his gilded caroch, as others have donebefore him?"
"Lord Mayor? pshaw!" replied Margaret.
"And why pshaw at my Lord Mayor, sweetheart? or perhaps you pshaw at myprophecy; but there is a cross in every one's line of life as well asin yours, darling. And what though I see a 'prentice's flat cap in thispretty palm, yet there is a sparking black eye under it, hath not itsmatch in the Ward of Farringdon-Without."
"Whom do you mean, dame?" said Margaret coldly.
"Whom should I mean," said Dame Ursula, "but the prince of 'prentices,and king of good company, Jenkin Vincent?"
"Out, woman--Jenkin Vincent?--a clown--a Cockney!" exclaimed theindignant damsel.
"Ay, sets the wind in that quarter, Beauty!" quoth the dame; "why, ithas changed something since we spoke together last, for then I wouldhave sworn it blew fairer for poor Jin Vin; and the poor lad dotes onyou too, and would rather see your eyes than the first glimpse of thesun on the great holiday on May-day."
"I would my eyes had the power of the sun to blind his, then," saidMargaret, "to teach the drudge his place."
"Nay," said Dame Ursula, "there be some who say that Frank Tunstallis as proper a lad as Jin Vin, and of surety he is third cousin toa knighthood, and come of a good house; and so mayhap you may be fornorthward ho!"
"Maybe I may"--answered Margaret, "but not with my father's 'prentice--Ithank you, Dame Ursula."
"Nay, then, the devil may guess your thoughts for me," said Dame Ursula;"this comes of trying to shoe a filly that is eternally wincing andshifting ground!"
"Hear me, then," said Margaret, "and mind what I say.--This day I dinedabroad--"
"I can tell you where," answered her counsellor,--"with your godfatherthe rich goldsmith--ay, you see I know something--nay, I could tell you,as I would, with whom, too."
"Indeed!" said Margaret, turning suddenly round with an accent of strongsurprise, and colouring up to the eyes.
"With old Sir Mungo Malagrowther," said the oracular dame,--"he wastrimmed in my Benjamin's shop in his way to the city."
"Pshaw! the frightful old mouldy skeleton!" said the damsel.
"Indeed you say true, my dear," replied the confidant,--"it is a shameto him to be out of Saint Pancras's charnel-house, for I know noother place he is fit for, the foul-mouthed old railer. He said to myhusband--"
"Somewhat which signifies nothing to our purpose, I dare say,"interrupted Margaret. "I must speak, then.--There dined with us anobleman--"
"A nobleman! the maiden's mad!" said Dame Ursula.
"There dined with us, I say," continued Margaret, without regarding theinterruption, "a nobleman--a Scottish nobleman."
"Now Our Lady keep her!" said the confidant, "she is quitefrantic!--heard ever any one of a watchmaker's daughter falling in lovewith a nobleman--and a Scots nobleman, to make the matter complete,who are all as proud as Lucifer, and as poor as Job?--A Scots nobleman,quotha? I had lief you told me of a Jew pedlar. I would have you thinkhow all this is to end, pretty one, before you jump in the dark."
"That is nothing to you, Ursula--it is your assistance," said MistressMargaret, "and not your advice, that I am desirous to have, and you knowI can make it worth your while."
"O, it is not for the sake of lucre, Mistress Margaret," answeredthe obliging dame; "but truly I would have you listen to someadvice--bethink you of your own condition."
"My father's calling is mechanical," said Margaret, "but our blood isnot so. I have heard my father say that we are descended, at a distanceindeed, from the great Earls of Dalwolsey." [Footnote: The head of theancient and distinguished house of Ramsay, and to whom, as their chief,the individuals of that name look as their origin and source of gentry.Allan Ramsay, the pastoral poet, in the same manner, makes
"Dalhousie of an auld descent, My chief, my stoup, my ornament."]
"Ay, ay," said Dame Ursula; "even so--I never knew a Scot of you but wasdescended, as ye call it, from some great house or other; and a piteousdescent it often is--and as for the distance you speak of, it is sogreat as to put you out of sight of each other. Yet do not toss yourpretty head so scornfully, but tell me the name of this lordly northerngallant, and we will try what can be done in the matter."
"It is Lord Glenvarloch, whom they call Lord Nigel Olifaunt," saidMargaret in a low voice, and turning away to hide her blushes.
"Marry, Heaven forefend!" exclaimed Dame Suddlechop; "this is the verydevil, and something worse!"
"How mean you?" said the damsel, surprised at the vivacity of herexclamation.
"Why, know ye not," said the dame, "what powerful enemies he has atCourt? know ye not--But blisters on my tongue, it runs too fast for mywit--enough to say, that you had better make your bridal-bed under afalling house, than think of young Glenvarloch."
"He IS unfortunate then?" said Margaret; "I knew it--I divined it--therewas sorrow in his voice when he said even what was gay--there was atouch of misfortune in his melancholy smile--he had not thus clung to mythoughts had I seen him in all the mid-day glare of prosperity."
"Romances have cracked her brain!" said Dame Ursula; "she is a castawaygirl--utterly distraught--loves a Scots lord--and likes him the betterfor being unfortunate! Well, mistress, I am sorry this is a matter Icannot aid you in--it goes against my conscience, and it is an affairabove my condition, and beyond my management;--but I will keep yourcounsel."
"You will not be so base as to desert me, after having drawn my secretfrom me?" said Margaret, indignantly; "if you do, I know how to have m
yrevenge; and if you do not, I will reward you well. Remember the houseyour husband dwells in is my father's property."
"I remember it but too well, Mistress Margaret," said Ursula, aftera moment's reflection, "and I would serve you in any thing in mycondition; but to meddle with such high matters--I shall never forgetpoor Mistress Turner, my honoured patroness, peace be with her!--she hadthe ill-luck to meddle in the matter of Somerset and Overbury, and sothe great earl and his lady slipt their necks out of the collar, andleft her and some half-dozen others to suffer in their stead. I shallnever forget the sight of her standing on the scaffold with the ruffround her pretty neck, all done up with the yellow starch which I had sooften helped her to make, and that was so soon to give place to a roughhempen cord. Such a sight, sweetheart, will make one loath to meddlewith matters that are too hot or heavy for their handling."
"Out, you fool!" answered Mistress Margaret; "am I one to speak to youabout such criminal practices as that wretch died for? All I desire ofyou is, to get me precise knowledge of what affair brings this youngnobleman to Court."
"And when you have his secret," said Ursula, "what will it avail you,sweetheart?--and yet I would do your errand, if you could do as much forme."
"And what is it you would have of me?" said Mistress Margaret.
"What you have been angry with me for asking before," answered DameUrsula. "I want to have some light about the story of your godfather'sghost, that is only seen at prayers."
"Not for the world," said Mistress Margaret, "will I be a spy on my kindgodfather's secrets--No, Ursula--that I will never pry into, which hedesires to keep hidden. But thou knowest that I have a fortune, of myown, which must at no distant day come under my own management--think ofsome other recompense."
"Ay, that I well know," said the counsellor--"it is that two hundredper year, with your father's indulgence, that makes you so wilful,sweetheart."
"It may be so,"--said Margaret Ramsay; "meanwhile, do you serve metruly, and here is a ring of value in pledge, that when my fortune is inmy own hand, I will redeem the token with fifty broad pieces of gold."
"Fifty broad pieces of gold!" repeated the dame; "and this ring,which is a right fair one, in token you fail not of your word!--Well,sweetheart, if I must put my throat in peril, I am sure I cannot risk itfor a friend more generous than you; and I would not think of more thanthe pleasure of serving you, only Benjamin gets more idle every day, andour family----"
"Say no more of it," said Margaret; "we understand each other. And now,tell me what you know of this young man's affairs, which made you sounwilling to meddle with them?"
"Of that I can say no great matter as yet," answered Dame Ursula; "onlyI know, the most powerful among his own countrymen are against him, andalso the most powerful at the Court here. But I will learn more of it;for it will be a dim print that I will not read for your sake, prettyMistress Margaret. Know you where this gallant dwells?"
"I heard by accident," said Margaret, as if ashamed of the minuteparticularity of her memory upon such an occasion,--"he lodges,I think--at one Christie's--if I mistake not--at Paul's Wharf--aship-chandler's."
"A proper lodging for a young baron!--Well, but cheer you up, MistressMargaret--If he has come up a caterpillar, like some of his countrymen,he may cast his slough like them, and come out a butterfly.--So I drinkgood-night, and sweet dreams to you, in another parting cup of sack;and you shall hear tidings of me within four-and-twenty hours. And, oncemore, I commend you to your pillow, my pearl of pearls, and Margueriteof Marguerites!"
So saying, she kissed the reluctant cheek of her young friend, orpatroness, and took her departure with the light and stealthy pace ofone accustomed to accommodate her footsteps to the purposes of dispatchand secrecy.
Margaret Ramsay looked after her for some time, in anxious silence. "Idid ill," she at length murmured, "to let her wring this out of me; butshe is artful, bold and serviceable--and I think faithful--or, if not,she will be true at least to her interest, and that I can command. Iwould I had not spoken, however--I have begun a hopeless work. For whathas he said to me, to warrant my meddling in his fortunes?--Nothing butwords of the most ordinary import--mere table-talk, and terms of course.Yet who knows"--she said, and then broke off, looking at the glass thewhile, which, as it reflected back a face of great beauty, probablysuggested to her mind a more favourable conclusion of the sentence thanshe cared to trust her tongue withal.