Complete Novels of Maria Edgeworth

by Maria Edgeworth

  “She will throw him into jail, I am sure she will — we shall be worse off a thousand times than ever we were in our worst days. The work that is in the loom, by which he hoped to get so much, is all for her, and it will be left upon our hands now; and how are we to pay the woman of this house for the lodgings? —— Oh! I see it all coming upon us at once,” continued the poor woman, wringing her hands. “If that Colonel Pembroke would but let us have our own! — But there I’ve been all the morning hunting him out, and at last, when I did see him, he only swore, and said we were all a family of duns, or some such nonsense. And then he called after me from the top of his fine stairs, just to say, that he had ordered Close the tailor to pay us; and when I went to him there was no satisfaction to be got from him — his shop was full of customers, and he hustled me away, giving me for answer, that when Colonel Pembroke paid him, he would pay us, and no sooner. Ah! these purse-proud tradesfolk, and these sparks of fashion, what do they know of all we suffer? What do they care for us? — It is not for charity I ask any of them — only for what my own husband has justly earned, and hardly toiled for too; and this I cannot get out of their hands. If I could, we might defy this wicked woman — but now we are laid under her feet, and she will trample us to death.”

  In the midst of these lamentations, Anne’s father came in: when he learned the cause of them, he stood for a moment in silence; then snatched from his daughter’s hand the bundle of clothes, which she had prepared to return to Mrs. Carver.

  “Give them to me; I will go to this woman myself,” cried he with indignation: “Anne shall never more set her foot within those doors.”

  “Dear father,” cried Anne, stopping him as he went out of the door, “perhaps it is all a mistake: do pray inquire from somebody else before you speak to Mrs. Carver — she looks so good, she has been so kind to me, I cannot believe that she is wicked. Do pray inquire of a great many people before you knock at the door.”

  He promised that he would do all his daughter desired.

  With most impatient anxiety they waited for his return: the time of his absence appeared insupportably long, and they formed new fears and new conjectures every instant. Every time they heard a footstep upon the stairs, they ran out to see who it was: sometimes it was the landlady — sometimes the lodgers or their visitors — at last came the person they longed to see; but the moment they beheld him, all their fears were confirmed. He was pale as death, and his lips trembled with convulsive motion. He walked directly up to his loom, and without speaking one syllable, began to cut the unfinished work out of it.

  “What are you about, my dear?” cried his wife. “Consider what you are about — this work of yours is the only dependence we have in the world.”

  “You have nothing in this world to depend upon, I tell you,” cried he, continuing to cut out the web with a hurried hand—”you must not depend on me — you must not depend on my work — I shall never throw this shuttle more whilst I live — think of me as if I was dead — to-morrow I shall be dead to you — I shall be in a jail, and there must lie till carried out in my coffin. Here, take this work just as it is to our landlady — she met me on the stairs, and said she must have her rent directly — that will pay her — I’ll pay all I can. As for the loom, that’s only hired — the silk I bought to-day will pay the hire — I’ll pay all my debts to the uttermost farthing, as far as I am able — but the ten guineas to that wicked woman I cannot pay — so I must rot in a jail. Don’t cry, Anne, don’t cry so, my good girl — you’ll break my heart, wife, if you take on so. Why! have not we one comfort, that let us go out of this world when we may, or how we may, we shall go out of it honest, having no one’s ruin to answer for, having done our duty to God and man, as far as we are able? — My child,” continued he, catching Anne in his arms, “I have you safe, and I thank God for it!”

  When this poor man had thus in an incoherent manner given vent to his first feelings, he became somewhat more composed, and was able to relate all that had passed between him and Mrs. Carver. The inquiries which he made before he saw her sufficiently confirmed the orange-woman’s story; and when he returned the presents which Anne had unfortunately received, Mrs. Carver, with all the audacity of a woman hardened in guilt, avowed her purpose and her profession — declared that whatever ignorance and innocence Anne or her parents might now find it convenient to affect, she was “confident they had all the time perfectly understood what she was about, and that she would not be cheated at last by a parcel of swindling hypocrites.” With horrid imprecations she then swore, that if Anne was kept from her she would have vengeance — and that her vengeance should know no bounds. The event showed that these were not empty threats — the very next day she sent two bailiffs to arrest Anne’s father. They met him in the street, as he was going to pay the last farthing he had to the baker. The wretched man in vain endeavoured to move the ear of justice by relating the simple truth. Mrs. Carver was rich — her victim was poor. He was committed to jail; and he entered his prison with the firm belief, that there he must drag out the remainder of his days.

  One faint hope remained in his wife’s heart — she imagined that if she could but prevail upon Colonel Pembroke’s servants, either to obtain for her a sight of their master, or if they would carry to him a letter containing an exact account of her distress, he would immediately pay the fourteen pounds which had been so long due. With this money she could obtain her husband’s liberty, and she fancied all might yet be well. Her son, who could write a very legible hand, wrote the petition. “Ah, mother!” said he, “don’t hope that Colonel Pembroke will read it — he will tear it to pieces, as he did one that I carried him before.”

  “I can but try,” said she; “I cannot believe that any gentleman is so cruel, and so unjust — he must and will pay us when he knows the whole truth.”

  Colonel Pembroke was dressing in a hurry, to go to a great dinner at the Crown and Anchor tavern. One of Pembroke’s gay companions had called, and was in the room waiting for him. It was at this inauspicious time that Mrs. White arrived. Her petition the servant at first absolutely refused to take from her hands; but at last a young lad, whom the colonel had lately brought from the country, and who had either more natural feeling, or less acquired power of equivocating, than his fellows, consented to carry up the petition, when he should, as he expected, be called by his master to report the state of a favourite horse that was sick. While his master’s hair was dressing, the lad was summoned; and when the health of the horse had been anxiously inquired into, the lad with country awkwardness scratched his head, and laid the petition before his master, saying—”Sir, there’s a poor woman below waiting for an answer; and if so be what she says is true, as I take it to be, ’tis enough to break one’s heart.”

  “Your heart, my lad, is not seasoned to London yet, I perceive,” said Colonel Pembroke, smiling; “why, your heart will be broke a thousand times over by every beggar you meet.”

  “No, no; I be too much of a man for that,” replied the groom, wiping his eyes hastily with the back of his hand—”not such a noodle as that comes to, neither — beggars are beggars, and so to be treated — but this woman, sir, is no common beggar, not she; nor is she begging any ways — only to be paid her bill — so I brought it, as I was coming up.”

  “Then, sir, as you are going down, you may take it down again, if you please,” cried Colonel Pembroke; “and in future, sir, I recommend it to you to look after your horses, and to trust me to look after my own affairs.”

  The groom retreated; and his master gave the poor woman’s petition, without reading it, to the hair-dresser, who was looking for a piece of paper to try the heat of his irons.

  “I should be pestered with bills and petitions from morning till night, if I did not frighten these fellows out of the trick of bringing them to me,” continued Colonel Pembroke, turning to his companion. “That blockhead of a groom is but just come to town; he does not yet know how to drive away a dun — but he’ll learn. T
hey say that the American dogs did not know how to bark, till they learnt it from their civilized betters.”

  Colonel Pembroke habitually drove away reflection, and silenced the whispers of conscience, by noisy declamation, or sallies of wit.

  At the bottom of the singed paper, which the hair-dresser left on the table, the name of White was sufficiently visible. “White!” exclaimed Colonel Pembroke, “as I hope to live and breathe, these Whites have been this half-year the torment of my life.” He started up, rang the bell, and gave immediate orders to his servant, that these Whites should never more be let in, and that no more of their bills and petitions in any form whatever should be brought to him. “I’ll punish them for their insolence — I won’t pay them one farthing this twelvemonth: and if the woman is not gone, pray tell her so — I bid Close the tailor pay them: if he has not, it is no fault of mine. Let me not hear a syllable more about it — I’ll part with the first of you who dares to disobey me.”

  “The woman is gone, I believe, sir,” said the footman; “it was not I let her in, and I refused to bring up the letter.”

  “You did right. Let me hear no more about the matter. We shall be late at the Crown and Anchor. I beg your pardon, my dear friend, for detaining you so long.”

  Whilst the colonel went to his jovial meeting, where he was the life and spirit of the company, the poor woman returned in despair to the prison where her husband was confined.

  We forbear to describe the horrible situation to which this family were soon reduced. Beyond a certain point, the human heart cannot feel compassion.

  One day, as Anne was returning from the prison, where she had been with her father, she was met by a porter, who put a letter into her hands, then turned down a narrow lane, and was out of sight before she could inquire from whom he came. When she read the letter, however, she could not be in doubt — it came from Mrs. Carver, and contained these words: —

  “You can gain nothing by your present obstinacy — you are the cause of your father’s lying in jail, and of your mother’s being as she is, nearly starved to death. You can relieve them from misery worse than death, and place them in ease and comfort for the remainder of their days. Be assured, they do not speak sincerley to you, when they pretend not to wish that your compliance should put an end to their present sufferings. It is you that are cruel to them — it is you that are cruel to yourself, and can blame nobody else. You might live all your days in a house as good as mine, and have a plentiful table served from one year’s end to another, with all the dainties of the season, and you might be dressed as elegantly as the most elegant lady in London (which, by-the-bye, your beauty deserves), and you would have servants of your own, and a carriage of your own, and nothing to do all day long but take your pleasure. And after all, what is asked of you? — only to make a person happy, whom half the town would envy you, that would make it a study to gratify you in every wish of your heart. The person alluded to you have seen, and more than once, when you have been talking to me of work in my parlour. He is a very rich and generous gentleman. If you come to Chiswell-street about six this evening, you will find all I say true — if not, you and yours must take the consequences.”

  Coarse as the eloquence of this letter may appear, Anne could not read it without emotion: it raised in her heart a violent contest. Virtue, with poverty and famine, were on one side — and vice, with affluence, love, and every worldly pleasure, on the other.

  Those who have been bred up in the lap of luxury; whom the breath of heaven has never visited too roughly; whose minds from their earliest infancy have been guarded even with more care than their persons; who in the dangerous season of youth are surrounded by all that the solicitude of experienced friends, and all that polished society, can devise for their security; are not perhaps competent to judge of the temptations by which beauty in the lower classes of life may be assailed. They who have never seen a father in prison, or a mother perishing for want of the absolute necessaries of life — they who have never themselves known the cravings of famine, cannot form an adequate idea of this poor girl’s feelings, and of the temptation to which she was now exposed. She wept — she hesitated — and “the woman that deliberates is lost.” Perhaps those who are the most truly virtuous of her sex will be the most disposed to feel for this poor creature, who was literally half famished before her good resolutions were conquered. At last she yielded to necessity. At the appointed hour she was in Mrs. Carver’s house. This woman received her with triumph — she supplied Anne immediately with food, and then hastened to deck out her victim in the most attractive manner. The girl was quite passive in her hand. She promised, though scarcely knowing that she uttered the words, to obey the instructions that were given to her, and she suffered herself without struggle, or apparent emotion, to be led to destruction. She appeared quite insensible — but at last she was roused from this state of stupefaction, by the voice of a person with whom she found herself alone. The stranger, who was a young and gay gentleman, pleasing both in his person and manners, attempted by every possible means to render himself agreeable to her, to raise her spirits, and calm her apprehensions. By degrees his manner changed from levity to tenderness. He represented to her, that he was not a brutal wretch, who could be gratified by any triumph in which the affections of the heart have no share; and he assured her, that in any connexion which she might be prevailed upon to form with him, she should be treated with honour and delicacy.

  Touched by his manner of speaking, and overpowered by the sense of her own situation, Anne could not reply one single word to all he said — but burst into an agony of tears, and sinking on her knees before him, exclaimed, “Save me! save me from myself! — Restore me to my parents, before they have reason to hate me.”

  The gentleman seemed to be somewhat in doubt whether this was acting or nature: but he raised Anne from the ground, and placed her upon a seat beside him. “Am I to understand, then, that I have been deceived, and that our present meeting is against your own consent?”

  “No, I cannot say that — oh, how I wish that I could! — I did wrong, very wrong, to come here — but I repent — I was half-starved — I have a father in jail — I thought I could set him free with the money —— but I will not pretend to be better than I am — I believe I thought that, beside relieving my father, I should live all my days without ever more knowing what distress is — and I thought I should be happy — but now I have changed my mind — I never could be happy with a bad conscience — I know — by what I have felt this last hour.”

  Her voice failed; and she sobbed for some moments without being able to speak. The gentleman, who now was convinced that she was quite artless and thoroughly in earnest, was struck with compassion; but his compassion was not unmixed with other feelings, and he had hopes that, by treating her with tenderness, he should in time make it her wish to live with him as his mistress. He was anxious to hear what her former way of life had been; and she related, at his request, the circumstances by which she and her parents had been reduced to such distress. His countenance presently showed how much he was interested in her story — he grew red and pale — he started from his seat, and walked up and down the room in great agitation, till at last, when she mentioned the name of Colonel Pembroke, he stopped short, and exclaimed, “I am the man — I am Colonel Pembroke — I am that unjust, unfeeling wretch! How often, in the bitterness of your hearts, you must have cursed me!”

  “Oh, no — my father, when he was at the worst, never cursed you; and I am sure he will have reason to bless you now, if you send his daughter back again to him, such as she was when she left him.”

  “That shall be done,” said Colonel Pembroke; “and in doing so, I make some sacrifice, and have some merit. It is time I should make some reparation for the evils I have occasioned,” continued he, taking a handful of guineas from his pocket: “but first let me pay my just debts.”

  “My poor father!” exclaimed Anne; “to-morrow he will be out of prison.”


  “I will go with you to the prison, where your father is confined — I will force myself to behold all the evils I have occasioned.”

  Colonel Pembroke went to the prison; and he was so much struck by the scene, that he not only relieved the misery of this family, but in two months afterwards his debts were paid, his race-horses sold, and all his expenses regulated, so as to render him ever afterwards truly independent. He no longer spent his days, like many young men of fashion, either in DREADING or in DAMNING DUNS.

  Edgeworthstown, 1802.

  MANOEUVRING.

  CHAPTER I.

  “And gave her words, where oily Flatt’ry lays The pleasing colours of the art of praise.” — PARNELL.

  NOTE FROM MRS. BEAUMONT TO MISS WALSINGHAM.

  “I am more grieved than I can express, my dearest Miss Walsingham, by a cruel contre-temps, which must prevent my indulging myself in the long-promised and long-expected pleasure of being at your fête de famille on Tuesday, to celebrate your dear father’s birthday. I trust, however, to your conciliating goodness, my kind young friend, to represent my distress properly to Mr. Walsingham. Make him sensible, I conjure you, that my heart is with you all, and assure him that this is no common apology. Indeed, I never employ such artifices with my friends: to them, and to you in particular, my dear, I always speak with perfect frankness and candour. Amelia, with whom, entre nous, you are more a favourite than ever, is so much vexed and mortified by this disappointment, that I see I shall not be restored to favour till I can fix a day for going to you: yet when that may be, circumstances, which I should not feel myself quite justified in mentioning, will not permit me to decide.