The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope (best fiction novels of all time .TXT) 📕

“I’m all right, Mr. Montague;⁠—I am. Mrs. Pipkin is my aunt, or, leastways, my mother’s brother’s widow, though grandfather never would speak to her. She’s quite respectable, and has five children, and lets lodgings. There’s a lady here now, and has gone away with her just for one night down to Southend. They’ll be back this evening, and I’ve the children to mind, with the servant girl. I’m quite respectable here, Mr. Montague, and nobody need be a bit afraid about me.”

“Mrs. Hurtle has gone down to Southend?”

“Yes, Mr. Montague; she wasn’t quite well, and wanted a breath of air, she said. And aunt didn’t like she should go alone, as Mrs. Hurtle is such a stranger. And Mrs. Hurtle said as she didn’t mind paying for two, and so they’ve gone, and the baby with them. Mrs. Pipkin said as the baby shouldn’t be no trouble. And Mrs. Hurtle⁠—she’s most as fond of the baby as aunt. Do you know Mrs. Hurtle, sir?”

“Yes; she’s a friend of mine.”

“Oh; I didn’t know. I did know as there was some friend as was expected and as didn’t come. Be I to say, sir, as you was here?”

Paul thought it might be as well to shift the subject and to ask Ruby a few questions about herself while he made up his mind what message he would leave for Mrs. Hurtle. “I’m afraid they are very unhappy about you down at Bungay, Miss Ruggles.”

“Then they’ve got to be unhappy; that’s all about it, Mr. Montague. Grandfather is that provoking as a young woman can’t live with him, nor yet I won’t try never again. He lugged me all about the room by my hair, Mr. Montague. How is a young woman to put up with that? And I did everything for him⁠—that careful that no one won’t do it again;⁠—did his linen, and his victuals, and even cleaned his boots of a Sunday, ’cause he was that mean he wouldn’t have anybody about the place only me and the girl who had to milk the cows. There wasn’t nobody to do anything, only me. And then he went to drag me about by the hairs of my head. You won’t see me again at Sheep’s Acre, Mr. Montague;⁠—nor yet won’t the Squire.”

“But I thought there was somebody else was to give you a home.”

“John Crumb! Oh, yes, there’s John Crumb. There’s plenty of people to give me a home, Mr. Montague.”

“You were to have been married to John Crumb, I thought.”

“Ladies is to change their minds if they like it, Mr. Montague. I’m sure you’ve heard that before. Grandfather made me say I’d have him⁠—but I never cared that for him.”

“I’m afraid, Miss Ruggles, you won’t find a better man up here in London.”

“I didn’t come here to look for a man, Mr. Montague; I can tell you that. They has to look for me, if they want me. But I am looked after; and that by one as John Crumb ain’t fit to touch.” That told the whole story. Paul when he heard the little boast was quite sure that Roger’s fear about Felix was well founded. And as for John Crumb’s fitness to touch Sir Felix, Paul felt that the Bungay mealman might have an opinion of his own on that matter. “But there’s Betsy a crying upstairs, and I promised not to leave them children for one minute.”

“I will tell the Squire that I saw you, Miss Ruggles.”

“What does the Squire want o’ me? I ain’t nothing to the Squire⁠—except that I respects him. You can tell if you please, Mr. Montague, of course. I’m a coming, my darling.”

Paul made his way into Mrs. Hurtle’s sitting-room and wrote a note for her in pencil. He had come, he said, immediately on his return from Liverpool, and was sorry to find that she was away for the day. When should he call again? If she would make an appointment he would attend to it. He felt as he wrote this that he might very safely have himself made an appointment for the morrow; but he cheated himself into half believing that the suggestion he now made was the more gracious and civil. At any rate it would certainly give him another day. Mrs. Hurtle would not return till late in the evening, and as the following day was Sunday there would be no delivery by post. When the note was finished he left it on the table, and called to Ruby to tell her that he was going. “Mr. Montague,” she said in a confidential whisper, as she tripped down the stairs, “I don’t see why you need be saying anything about me, you know.”

“Mr. Carbury is up in town looking after you.”

“What ’m I to Mr. Carbury?”

“Your grandfather is very anxious about you.”

“Not a bit of it, Mr. Montague. Grandfather knows very well where I am. There! Grandfather doesn’t want me back, and I ain’t a going. Why should the Squire bother himself about me? I don’t bother myself about him.”

“He’s afraid, Miss Ruggles, that you are trusting yourself to a young man who is not trustworthy.”

“I can mind myself very well, Mr. Montague.”

“Tell me this. Have you seen Sir Felix Carbury since you’ve been in town?” Ruby, whose blushes came very easily, now flushed up to her forehead. “You may be sure that he means no good to you. What can come of an intimacy between you and such a one as he?”

“I don’t see why I shouldn’t have my friend, Mr. Montague, as well as you. Howsomever, if you’ll not tell, I’ll be ever so much obliged.”

“But I must tell Mr. Carbury.”

“Then I ain’t obliged to you one bit,” said Ruby, shutting the door.

Paul as he walked away could not help thinking of the justice of Ruby’s reproach to him. What business had he to take upon himself to be a mentor to anyone in regard to an affair of love;⁠—he, who had engaged himself to marry Mrs. Hurtle, and who the evening before had for the first time declared his love to Hetta Carbury?

In regard to Mrs. Hurtle