Imprisonment7 began to tell upon him. He knew that he idled and moped. After what he had known of the influences of imprisonment within the four small walls of the very room he occupied, this consciousness made him afraid of himself. Shrinking from the observation of other men, and shrinking from his own, he began to change very sensibly. Anybody might see that the shadow of the wall was dark upon him.
One day when he might have been some ten or twelve weeks in jail, and when he had been trying to read and had not been able to release even the imaginary people of the book from the Marshalsea, a footstep stopped at his door, and a hand tapped at it. He arose and opened it, and an agreeable voice accosted8 him with ‘How do you do, Mr Clennam? I hope I am not unwelcome in calling to see you.’
It was the sprightly9 young Barnacle, Ferdinand. He looked very good-natured and prepossessing, though overpoweringly gay and free, in contrast with the squalid prison.
‘You are surprised to see me, Mr Clennam,’ he said, taking the seat which Clennam offered him.
‘I must confess to being much surprised.’
‘Not disagreeably, I hope?’
‘By no means.’
‘Thank you. Frankly,’ said the engaging young Barnacle, ‘I have been excessively sorry to hear that you were under the necessity of a temporary retirement10 here, and I hope (of course as between two private gentlemen) that our place has had nothing to do with it?’
‘Your office?’
‘Our Circumlocution11 place.’
‘I cannot charge any part of my reverses upon that remarkable12 establishment.’
‘Upon my life,’ said the vivacious13 young Barnacle, ‘I am heartily14 glad to know it. It is quite a relief to me to hear you say it. I should have so exceedingly regretted our place having had anything to do with your difficulties.’
‘That’s right,’ said Ferdinand. ‘I am very happy to hear it. I was rather afraid in my own mind that we might have helped to floor you, because there is no doubt that it is our misfortune to do that kind of thing now and then. We don’t want to do it; but if men will be gravelled, why—we can’t help it.’
‘Without giving an unqualified assent16 to what you say,’ returned Arthur, gloomily, ‘I am much obliged to you for your interest in me.’
‘No, but really! Our place is,’ said the easy young Barnacle, ‘the most inoffensive place possible. You’ll say we are a humbug17. I won’t say we are not; but all that sort of thing is intended to be, and must be. Don’t you see?’
‘I do not,’ said Clennam.
‘You don’t regard it from the right point of view. It is the point of view that is the essential thing. Regard our place from the point of view that we only ask you to leave us alone, and we are as capital a Department as you’ll find anywhere.’
‘Is your place there to be left alone?’ asked Clennam.
‘You exactly hit it,’ returned Ferdinand. ‘It is there with the express intention that everything shall be left alone. That is what it means. That is what it’s for. No doubt there’s a certain form to be kept up that it’s for something else, but it’s only a form. Why, good Heaven, we are nothing but forms! Think what a lot of our forms you have gone through. And you have never got any nearer to an end?’
‘Never,’ said Clennam.
‘Look at it from the right point of view, and there you have us—official and effectual. It’s like a limited game of cricket. A field of outsiders are always going in to bowl at the Public Service, and we block the balls.’
Clennam asked what became of the bowlers18? The airy young Barnacle replied that they grew tired, got dead beat, got lamed19, got their backs broken, died off, gave it up, went in for other games.
‘And this occasions me to congratulate myself again,’ he pursued, ‘on the circumstance that our place has had nothing to do with your temporary retirement. It very easily might have had a hand in it; because it is undeniable that we are sometimes a most unlucky place, in our effects upon people who will not leave us alone. Mr Clennam, I am quite unreserved with you. As between yourself and myself, I know I may be. I was so, when I first saw you making the mistake of not leaving us alone; because I perceived that you were inexperienced and sanguine20, and had—I hope you’ll not object to my saying—some simplicity21?’
‘Not at all.’
‘Some simplicity. Therefore I felt what a pity it was, and I went out of my way to hint to you (which really was not official, but I never am official when I can help it) something to the effect that if I were you, I wouldn’t bother myself. However, you did bother yourself, and you have since bothered yourself. Now, don’t do it any more.’
‘I am not likely to have the opportunity,’ said Clennam.
‘Oh yes, you are! You’ll leave here. Everybody leaves here. There are no ends of ways of leaving here. Now, don’t come back to us. That entreaty22 is the second object of my call. Pray, don’t come back to us. Upon my honour,’ said Ferdinand in a very friendly and confiding23 way, ‘I shall be greatly vexed24 if you don’t take warning by the past and keep away from us.’
‘And the invention?’ said Clennam.
‘My good fellow,’ returned Ferdinand, ‘if you’ll excuse the freedom of that form of address, nobody wants to know of the invention, and nobody cares twopence-halfpenny about it.’
‘Nobody in the Office, that is to say?’
‘Nor out of it. Everybody is ready to dislike and ridicule25 any invention. You have no idea how many people want to be left alone. You have no idea how the Genius of the country (overlook the Parliamentary nature of the phrase, and don’t be bored by it) tends to being left alone. Believe me, Mr Clennam,’ said the sprightly young Barnacle in his pleasantest manner, ‘our place is not a wicked Giant to be charged at full tilt26; but only a windmill showing you, as it grinds immense quantities of chaff27, which way the country wind blows.’
‘Oh! Don’t say so!’ returned Ferdinand. ‘It’s all right. We must have humbug, we all like humbug, we couldn’t get on without humbug. A little humbug, and a groove30, and everything goes on admirably, if you leave it alone.’
With this hopeful confession31 of his faith as the head of the rising Barnacles who were born of woman, to be followed under a variety of watchwords which they utterly32 repudiated33 and disbelieved, Ferdinand rose. Nothing could be more agreeable than his frank and courteous34 bearing, or adapted with a more gentlemanly instinct to the circumstances of his visit.
‘Is it fair to ask,’ he said, as Clennam gave him his hand with a real feeling of thankfulness for his candour and good-humour, ‘whether it is true that our late lamented35 Merdle is the cause of this passing inconvenience?’
‘I am one of the many he has ruined. Yes.’
‘He must have been an exceedingly clever fellow,’ said Ferdinand Barnacle.
‘A consummate37 rascal38, of course,’ said Ferdinand, ‘but remarkably39 clever! One cannot help admiring the fellow. Must have been such a master of humbug. Knew people so well—got over them so completely—did so much with them!’
In his easy way, he was really moved to genuine admiration40.
‘I hope,’ said Arthur, ‘that he and his dupes may be a warning to people not to have so much done with them again.’
‘My dear Mr Clennam,’ returned Ferdinand, laughing, ‘have you really such a verdant41 hope? The next man who has as large a capacity and as genuine a taste for swindling, will succeed as well. Pardon me, but I think you really have no idea how the human bees will swarm42 to the beating of any old tin kettle; in that fact lies the complete manual of governing them. When they can be got to believe that the kettle is made of the precious metals, in that fact lies the whole power of men like our late lamented. No doubt there are here and there,’ said Ferdinand politely, ‘exceptional cases, where people have been taken in for what appeared to them to be much better reasons; and I need not go far to find such a case; but they don’t invalidate the rule. Good day! I hope that when I have the pleasure of seeing you, next, this passing cloud will have given place to sunshine. Don’t come a step beyond the door. I know the way out perfectly43. Good day!’
With those words, the best and brightest of the Barnacles went down-stairs, hummed his way through the Lodge44, mounted his horse in the front court-yard, and rode off to keep an appointment with his noble kinsman45, who wanted a little coaching before he could triumphantly46 answer certain infidel Snobs48 who were going to question the Nobs about their statesmanship.
He must have passed Mr Rugg on his way out, for, a minute or two afterwards, that ruddy-headed gentleman shone in at the door, like an elderly Phoebus.
‘How do you do to-day, sir?’ said Mr Rugg. ‘Is there any little thing I can do for you to-day, sir?’
‘No, I thank you.’
Mr Rugg’s enjoyment49 of embarrassed affairs was like a housekeeper’s enjoyment in pickling and preserving, or a washerwoman’s enjoyment of a heavy wash, or a dustman’s enjoyment of an overflowing50 dust-bin, or any other professional enjoyment of a mess in the way of business.
‘I still look round, from time to time, sir,’ said Mr Rugg, cheerfully, ‘to see whether any lingering Detainers are accumulating at the gate. They have fallen in pretty thick, sir; as thick as we could have expected.’
He remarked upon the circumstance as if it were matter of congratulation: rubbing his hands briskly, and rolling his head a little.
‘As thick,’ repeated Mr Rugg, ‘as we could reasonably have expected. Quite a shower-bath of ‘em. I don’t often intrude51 upon you now, when I look round, because I know you are not inclined for company, and that if you wished to see me, you would leave word in the Lodge. But I am here pretty well every day, sir. Would this be an unseasonable time, sir,’ asked Mr Rugg, coaxingly52, ‘for me to offer an observation?’
‘As seasonable a time as any other.’
‘Hum! Public opinion, sir,’ said Mr Rugg, ‘has been busy with you.’
‘I don’t doubt it.’
‘Might it not be advisable, sir,’ said Mr Rugg, more coaxingly yet, ‘now to make, at last and after all, a trifling53 concession54 to public opinion? We all do it in one way or another. The fact is, we must do it.’
‘I cannot set myself right with it, Mr Rugg, and have no business to expect that I ever shall.’
‘Don’t say that, sir, don’t say that. The cost of being moved to the Bench is almost insignificant55, and if the general feeling is strong that you ought to be there, why—really—’
‘I thought you had settled, Mr Rugg,’ said Arthur, ‘that my determination to remain here was a matter of taste.’
‘Well, sir, well! But is it good taste, is it good taste? That’s the Question.’ Mr Rugg was so soothingly56 persuasive57 as to be quite pathetic. ‘I was almost going to say, is it good feeling? This is an extensive affair of yours; and your remaining here where a man can come for a pound or two, is remarked upon as not in keeping. It is not in keeping. I can’t tell you, sir, in how many quarters I heard it mentioned. I heard comments made upon it last night in a Parlour frequented by what I should call, if I did not look in there now and then myself, the best legal company—I heard, there, comments on it that I was sorry to hear. They hurt me on your account. Again, only this morning at breakfast. My daughter (but a woman, you’ll say: yet still with a feeling for these things, and even with some little personal experience, as the plaintiff in Rugg and Bawkins) was expressing her great surprise; her great surprise. Now under these circumstances, and considering that none of us can quite set ourselves above public opinion, wouldn’t a trifling concession to that opinion be—Come, sir,’ said Rugg, ‘I will put it on the lowest ground of argument, and say, Amiable58?’
Arthur’s thoughts had once more wandered away to Little Dorrit, and the question remained unanswered.
‘As to myself, sir,’ said Mr Rugg, hoping that his eloquence59 had reduced him to a state of indecision, ‘it is a principle of mine not to consider myself when a client’s inclinations60 are in the scale. But, knowing your considerate character and general wish to oblige, I will repeat that I should prefer your being in the Bench. Your case has made a noise; it is a creditable case to be professionally concerned in; I should feel on a better standing61 with my connection, if you went to the Bench. Don’t let that influence you, sir. I merely state the fact.’
So errant had the prisoner’s attention already grown in solitude62 and dejection, and so accustomed had it become to commune with only one silent figure within the ever-frowning walls, that Clennam had to shake off a kind of stupor63 before he could look at Mr Rugg, recall the thread of his talk, and hurriedly say, ‘I am unchanged, and unchangeable, in my decision. Pray, let it be; let it be!’ Mr Rugg, without concealing64 that he was nettled65 and mortified66, replied:
‘Oh! Beyond a doubt, sir. I have travelled out of the record, sir, I am aware, in putting the point to you. But really, when I hear it remarked in several companies, and in very good company, that however worthy67 of a foreigner, it is not worthy of the spirit of an Englishman to remain in the Marshalsea when the glorious liberties of his island home admit of his removal to the Bench, I thought I would depart from the narrow professional line marked out to me, and mention it. Personally,’ said Mr Rugg, ‘I have no opinion on the topic.’
‘That’s well,’ returned Arthur.
‘Oh! None at all, sir!’ said Mr Rugg. ‘If I had, I should have been unwilling68, some minutes ago, to see a client of mine visited in this place by a gentleman of a high family riding a saddle-horse. But it was not my business. If I had, I might have wished to be now empowered to mention to another gentleman, a gentleman of military exterior69 at present waiting in the Lodge, that my client had never intended to remain here, and was on the eve of removal to a superior abode70. But my course as a professional machine is clear; I have nothing to do with it. Is it your good pleasure to see the gentleman, sir?’
‘Who is waiting to see me, did you say?’
‘I did take that unprofessional liberty, sir. Hearing that I was your professional adviser71, he declined to interpose before my very limited function was performed. Happily,’ said Mr Rugg, with sarcasm72, ‘I did not so far travel out of the record as to ask the gentleman for his name.’
‘I suppose I have no resource but to see him,’ sighed Clennam, wearily.
‘Then it is your good pleasure, sir?’ retorted Rugg. ‘Am I honoured by your instructions to mention as much to the gentleman, as I pass out? I am? Thank you, sir. I take my leave.’ His leave he took accordingly, in dudgeon.
The gentleman of military exterior had so imperfectly awakened73 Clennam’s curiosity, in the existing state of his mind, that a half-forgetfulness of such a visitor’s having been referred to, was already creeping over it as a part of the sombre veil which almost always dimmed it now, when a heavy footstep on the stairs aroused him. It appeared to ascend75 them, not very promptly76 or spontaneously, yet with a display of stride and clatter77 meant to be insulting. As it paused for a moment on the landing outside his door, he could not recall his association with the peculiarity78 of its sound, though he thought he had one. Only a moment was given him for consideration. His door was immediately swung open by a thump79, and in the doorway80 stood the missing Blandois, the cause of many anxieties.
‘Salve, fellow jail-bird!’ said he. ‘You want me, it seems. Here I am!’
Before Arthur could speak to him in his indignant wonder, Cavalletto followed him into the room. Mr Pancks followed Cavalletto. Neither of the two had been there since its present occupant had had possession of it. Mr Pancks, breathing hard, sidled near the window, put his hat on the ground, stirred his hair up with both hands, and folded his arms, like a man who had come to a pause in a hard day’s work. Mr Baptist, never taking his eyes from his dreaded81 chum of old, softly sat down on the floor with his back against the door and one of his ankles in each hand: resuming the attitude (except that it was now expressive82 of unwinking watchfulness) in which he had sat before the same man in the deeper shade of another prison, one hot morning at Marseilles.
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‘I have it on the witnessing of these two madmen,’ said Monsieur Blandois, otherwise Lagnier, otherwise Rigaud, ‘that you want me, brother-bird. Here I am!’
Glancing round contemptuously at the bedstead, which was turned up by day, he leaned his back against it as a resting-place, without removing his hat from his head, and stood defiantly83 lounging with his hands in his pockets.
‘You villain84 of ill-omen!’ said Arthur. ‘You have purposely cast a dreadful suspicion upon my mother’s house. Why have you done it? What prompted you to the devilish invention?’
Monsieur Rigaud, after frowning at him for a moment, laughed. ‘Hear this noble gentleman! Listen, all the world, to this creature of Virtue85! But take care, take care. It is possible, my friend, that your ardour is a little compromising. Holy Blue! It is possible.’
‘Signore!’ interposed Cavalletto, also addressing Arthur: ‘for to commence, hear me! I received your instructions to find him, Rigaud; is it not?’
‘It is the truth.’
‘I go, consequentementally,’—it would have given Mrs Plornish great concern if she could have been persuaded that his occasional lengthening86 of an adverb in this way, was the chief fault of his English,—‘first among my countrymen. I ask them what news in Londra, of foreigners arrived. Then I go among the French. Then I go among the Germans. They all tell me. The great part of us know well the other, and they all tell me. But!—no person can tell me nothing of him, Rigaud. Fifteen times,’ said Cavalletto, thrice throwing out his left hand with all its fingers spread, and doing it so rapidly that the sense of sight could hardly follow the action, ‘I ask of him in every place where go the foreigners; and fifteen times,’ repeating the same swift performance, ‘they know nothing. But!—’
At this significant Italian rest on the word ‘But,’ his backhanded shake of his right forefinger87 came into play; a very little, and very cautiously.
‘But!—After a long time when I have not been able to find that he is here in Londra, some one tells me of a soldier with white hair—hey?—not hair like this that he carries—white—who lives retired88 secrettementally, in a certain place. But!—’ with another rest upon the word, ‘who sometimes in the after-dinner, walks, and smokes. It is necessary, as they say in Italy (and as they know, poor people), to have patience. I have patience. I ask where is this certain place. One. believes it is here, one believes it is there. Eh well! It is not here, it is not there. I wait patientissamentally. At last I find it. Then I watch; then I hide, until he walks and smokes. He is a soldier with grey hair—But!—’ a very decided89 rest indeed, and a very vigorous play from side to side of the back-handed forefinger—‘he is also this man that you see.’
It was noticeable, that, in his old habit of submission90 to one who had been at the trouble of asserting superiority over him, he even then bestowed91 upon Rigaud a confused bend of his head, after thus pointing him out.
‘Eh well, Signore!’ he cried in conclusion, addressing Arthur again. ‘I waited for a good opportunity. I writed some words to Signor Panco,’ an air of novelty came over Mr Pancks with this designation, ‘to come and help. I showed him, Rigaud, at his window, to Signor Panco, who was often the spy in the day. I slept at night near the door of the house. At last we entered, only this to-day, and now you see him! As he would not come up in presence of the illustrious Advocate,’ such was Mr Baptist’s honourable92 mention of Mr Rugg, ‘we waited down below there, together, and Signor Panco guarded the street.’
At the close of this recital93, Arthur turned his eyes upon the impudent94 and wicked face. As it met his, the nose came down over the moustache and the moustache went up under the nose. When nose and moustache had settled into their places again, Monsieur Rigaud loudly snapped his fingers half-a-dozen times; bending forward to jerk the snaps at Arthur, as if they were palpable missiles which he jerked into his face.
‘Now, Philosopher!’ said Rigaud. ‘What do you want with me?’
‘I want to know,’ returned Arthur, without disguising his abhorrence95, ‘how you dare direct a suspicion of murder against my mother’s house?’
‘Dare!’ cried Rigaud. ‘Ho, ho! Hear him! Dare? Is it dare? By Heaven, my small boy, but you are a little imprudent!’
‘I want that suspicion to be cleared away,’ said Arthur. ‘You shall be taken there, and be publicly seen. I want to know, moreover, what business you had there when I had a burning desire to fling you down-stairs. Don’t frown at me, man! I have seen enough of you to know that you are a bully96 and coward. I need no revival97 of my spirits from the effects of this wretched place to tell you so plain a fact, and one that you know so well.’
White to the lips, Rigaud stroked his moustache, muttering, ‘By Heaven, my small boy, but you are a little compromising of my lady, your respectable mother’—and seemed for a minute undecided how to act. His indecision was soon gone. He sat himself down with a threatening swagger, and said:
‘Give me a bottle of wine. You can buy wine here. Send one of your madmen to get me a bottle of wine. I won’t talk to you without wine. Come! Yes or no?’
‘Fetch him what he wants, Cavalletto,’ said Arthur, scornfully, producing the money.
‘Contraband99 beast,’ added Rigaud, ‘bring Port wine! I’ll drink nothing but Porto-Porto.’
The contraband beast, however, assuring all present, with his significant finger, that he peremptorily100 declined to leave his post at the door, Signor Panco offered his services. He soon returned with the bottle of wine: which, according to the custom of the place, originating in a scarcity101 of corkscrews among the Collegians (in common with a scarcity of much else), was already opened for use.
‘Madman! A large glass,’ said Rigaud.
Signor Panco put a tumbler before him; not without a visible conflict of feeling on the question of throwing it at his head.
‘Haha!’ boasted Rigaud. ‘Once a gentleman, and always a gentleman. A gentleman from the beginning, and a gentleman to the end. What the Devil! A gentleman must be waited on, I hope? It’s a part of my character to be waited on!’
He half filled the tumbler as he said it, and drank off the contents when he had done saying it.
‘Hah!’ smacking102 his lips. ‘Not a very old prisoner that! I judge by your looks, brave sir, that imprisonment will subdue103 your blood much sooner than it softens104 this hot wine. You are mellowing—losing body and colour already. I salute105 you!’
He tossed off another half glass: holding it up both before and afterwards, so as to display his small, white hand.
‘To business,’ he then continued. ‘To conversation. You have shown yourself more free of speech than body, sir.’
‘I have used the freedom of telling you what you know yourself to be. You know yourself, as we all know you, to be far worse than that.’
‘Add, always a gentleman, and it’s no matter. Except in that regard, we are all alike. For example: you couldn’t for your life be a gentleman; I couldn’t for my life be otherwise. How great the difference! Let us go on. Words, sir, never influence the course of the cards, or the course of the dice106. Do you know that? You do? I also play a game, and words are without power over it.’
Now that he was confronted with Cavalletto, and knew that his story was known—whatever thin disguise he had worn, he dropped; and faced it out, with a bare face, as the infamous107 wretch98 he was.
‘No, my son,’ he resumed, with a snap of his fingers. ‘I play my game to the end in spite of words; and Death of my Body and Death of my Soul! I’ll win it. You want to know why I played this little trick that you have interrupted? Know then that I had, and that I have—do you understand me? have—a commodity to sell to my lady your respectable mother. I described my precious commodity, and fixed108 my price. Touching109 the bargain, your admirable mother was a little too calm, too stolid110, too immovable and statue-like. In fine, your admirable mother vexed me. To make variety in my position, and to amuse myself—what! a gentleman must be amused at somebody’s expense!—I conceived the happy idea of disappearing. An idea, see you, that your characteristic mother and my Flintwinch would have been well enough pleased to execute. Ah! Bah, bah, bah, don’t look as from high to low at me! I repeat it. Well enough pleased, excessively enchanted111, and with all their hearts ravished. How strongly will you have it?’
He threw out the lees of his glass on the ground, so that they nearly spattered Cavalletto. This seemed to draw his attention to him anew. He set down his glass and said:
‘I’ll not fill it. What! I am born to be served. Come then, you Cavalletto, and fill!’
The little man looked at Clennam, whose eyes were occupied with Rigaud, and, seeing no prohibition112, got up from the ground, and poured out from the bottle into the glass. The blending, as he did so, of his old submission with a sense of something humorous; the striving of that with a certain smouldering ferocity, which might have flashed fire in an instant (as the born gentleman seemed to think, for he had a wary113 eye upon him); and the easy yielding of all to a good-natured, careless, predominant propensity114 to sit down on the ground again: formed a very remarkable combination of character.
‘This happy idea, brave sir,’ Rigaud resumed after drinking, ‘was a happy idea for several reasons. It amused me, it worried your dear mama and my Flintwinch, it caused you agonies (my terms for a lesson in politeness towards a gentleman), and it suggested to all the amiable persons interested that your entirely115 devoted116 is a man to fear. By Heaven, he is a man to fear! Beyond this; it might have restored her wit to my lady your mother—might, under the pressing little suspicion your wisdom has recognised, have persuaded her at last to announce, covertly117, in the journals, that the difficulties of a certain contract would be removed by the appearance of a certain important party to it. Perhaps yes, perhaps no. But that, you have interrupted. Now, what is it you say? What is it you want?’
Never had Clennam felt more acutely that he was a prisoner in bonds, than when he saw this man before him, and could not accompany him to his mother’s house. All the undiscernible difficulties and dangers he had ever feared were closing in, when he could not stir hand or foot.
‘Perhaps, my friend, philosopher, man of virtue, Imbecile, what you will; perhaps,’ said Rigaud, pausing in his drink to look out of his glass with his horrible smile, ‘you would have done better to leave me alone?’
‘No! At least,’ said Clennam, ‘you are known to be alive and unharmed. At least you cannot escape from these two witnesses; and they can produce you before any public authorities, or before hundreds of people!’
‘But will not produce me before one,’ said Rigaud, snapping his fingers again with an air of triumphant47 menace. ‘To the Devil with your witnesses! To the Devil with your produced! To the Devil with yourself! What! Do I know what I know, for that? Have I my commodity on sale, for that? Bah, poor debtor118! You have interrupted my little project. Let it pass. How then? What remains119? To you, nothing; to me, all. Produce me! Is that what you want? I will produce myself, only too quickly. Contrabandist120! Give me pen, ink, and paper.’
Cavalletto got up again as before, and laid them before him in his former manner. Rigaud, after some villainous thinking and smiling, wrote, and read aloud, as follows:
‘To MRS CLENNAM.
‘Wait answer.
‘Prison of the Marshalsea. ‘At the apartment of your son.
‘Dear Madam, ‘I am in despair to be informed to-day by our prisoner here (who has had the goodness to employ spies to seek me, living for politic121 reasons in retirement), that you have had fears for my safety.
‘Reassure yourself, dear madam. I am well, I am strong and constant.
‘With the greatest impatience122 I should fly to your house, but that I foresee it to be possible, under the circumstances, that you will not yet have quite definitively123 arranged the little proposition I have had the honour to submit to you. I name one week from this day, for a last final visit on my part; when you will unconditionally124 accept it or reject it, with its train of consequences.
‘I suppress my ardour to embrace you and achieve this interesting business, in order that you may have leisure to adjust its details to our perfect mutual125 satisfaction.
‘In the meanwhile, it is not too much to propose (our prisoner having deranged126 my housekeeping), that my expenses of lodging127 and nourishment128 at an hotel shall be paid by you.
‘Receive, dear madam, the assurance of my highest and most distinguished129 consideration,
RIGAUD BLANDOIS.
‘A thousand friendships to that dear Flintwinch.
‘I kiss the hands of Madame F.’
When he had finished this epistle, Rigaud folded it and tossed it with a flourish at Clennam’s feet. ‘Hola you! Apropos130 of producing, let somebody produce that at its address, and produce the answer here.’
‘Cavalletto,’ said Arthur. ‘Will you take this fellow’s letter?’
But, Cavalletto’s significant finger again expressing that his post was at the door to keep watch over Rigaud, now he had found him with so much trouble, and that the duty of his post was to sit on the floor backed up by the door, looking at Rigaud and holding his own ankles,—Signor Panco once more volunteered. His services being accepted, Cavalletto suffered the door to open barely wide enough to admit of his squeezing himself out, and immediately shut it on him.
‘Touch me with a finger, touch me with an epithet131, question my superiority as I sit here drinking my wine at my pleasure,’ said Rigaud, ‘and I follow the letter and cancel my week’s grace. You wanted me? You have got me! How do you like me?’
‘You know,’ returned Clennam, with a bitter sense of his helplessness, ‘that when I sought you, I was not a prisoner.’
‘To the Devil with you and your prison,’ retorted Rigaud, leisurely132, as he took from his pocket a case containing the materials for making cigarettes, and employed his facile hands in folding a few for present use; ‘I care for neither of you. Contrabandist! A light.’
Again Cavalletto got up, and gave him what he wanted. There had been something dreadful in the noiseless skill of his cold, white hands, with the fingers lithely133 twisting about and twining one over another like serpents. Clennam could not prevent himself from shuddering134 inwardly, as if he had been looking on at a nest of those creatures.
‘Hola, Pig!’ cried Rigaud, with a noisy stimulating135 cry, as if Cavalletto were an Italian horse or mule136. ‘What! The infernal old jail was a respectable one to this. There was dignity in the bars and stones of that place. It was a prison for men. But this? Bah! A hospital for imbeciles!’
He smoked his cigarette out, with his ugly smile so fixed upon his face that he looked as though he were smoking with his drooping137 beak138 of a nose, rather than with his mouth; like a fancy in a weird139 picture. When he had lighted a second cigarette at the still burning end of the first, he said to Clennam:
‘One must pass the time in the madman’s absence. One must talk. One can’t drink strong wine all day long, or I would have another bottle. She’s handsome, sir. Though not exactly to my taste, still, by the Thunder and the Lightning! handsome. I felicitate you on your admiration.’
‘I neither know nor ask,’ said Clennam, ‘of whom you speak.’
‘Della bella Gowana, sir, as they say in Italy. Of the Gowan, the fair Gowan.’
‘Do you sell all your friends?’
Rigaud took his cigarette from his mouth, and eyed him with a momentary142 revelation of surprise. But he put it between his lips again, as he answered with coolness:
‘I sell anything that commands a price. How do your lawyers live, your politicians, your intriguers, your men of the Exchange? How do you live? How do you come here? Have you sold no friend? Lady of mine! I rather think, yes!’
Clennam turned away from him towards the window, and sat looking out at the wall.
‘Effectively, sir,’ said Rigaud, ‘Society sells itself and sells me: and I sell Society. I perceive you have acquaintance with another lady. Also handsome. A strong spirit. Let us see. How do they call her? Wade143.’
He received no answer, but could easily discern that he had hit the mark.
‘Yes,’ he went on, ‘that handsome lady and strong spirit addresses me in the street, and I am not insensible. I respond. That handsome lady and strong spirit does me the favour to remark, in full confidence, “I have my curiosity, and I have my chagrins144. You are not more than ordinarily honourable, perhaps?” I announce myself, “Madame, a gentleman from the birth, and a gentleman to the death; but not more than ordinarily honourable. I despise such a weak fantasy.” Thereupon she is pleased to compliment. “The difference between you and the rest is,” she answers, “that you say so.” For she knows Society. I accept her congratulations with gallantry and politeness. Politeness and little gallantries are inseparable from my character. She then makes a proposition, which is, in effect, that she has seen us much together; that it appears to her that I am for the passing time the cat of the house, the friend of the family; that her curiosity and her chagrins awaken74 the fancy to be acquainted with their movements, to know the manner of their life, how the fair Gowana is beloved, how the fair Gowana is cherished, and so on. She is not rich, but offers such and such little recompenses for the little cares and derangements of such services; and I graciously—to do everything graciously is a part of my character—consent to accept them. O yes! So goes the world. It is the mode.’
Though Clennam’s back was turned while he spoke146, and thenceforth to the end of the interview, he kept those glittering eyes of his that were too near together, upon him, and evidently saw in the very carriage of the head, as he passed with his braggart147 recklessness from clause to clause of what he said, that he was saying nothing which Clennam did not already know.
‘Whoof! The fair Gowana!’ he said, lighting148 a third cigarette with a sound as if his lightest breath could blow her away. ‘Charming, but imprudent! For it was not well of the fair Gowana to make mysteries of letters from old lovers, in her bedchamber on the mountain, that her husband might not see them. No, no. That was not well. Whoof! The Gowana was mistaken there.’
‘I earnestly hope,’ cried Arthur aloud, ‘that Pancks may not be long gone, for this man’s presence pollutes the room.’
‘Ah! But he’ll flourish here, and everywhere,’ said Rigaud, with an exulting149 look and snap of his fingers. ‘He always has; he always will!’ Stretching his body out on the only three chairs in the room besides that on which Clennam sat, he sang, smiting150 himself on the breast as the gallant145 personage of the song.
‘Who passes by this road so late?
Compagnon de la Majolaine!
Who passes by this road so late?
Always gay!
‘Sing the Refrain, pig! You could sing it once, in another jail. Sing it! Or, by every Saint who was stoned to death, I’ll be affronted151 and compromising; and then some people who are not dead yet, had better have been stoned along with them!’
Compagnon de la Majolaine!
Of all the king’s knights ‘tis the flower,
Always gay!’
Partly in his old habit of submission, partly because his not doing it might injure his benefactor153, and partly because he would as soon do it as anything else, Cavalletto took up the Refrain this time. Rigaud laughed, and fell to smoking with his eyes shut.
Possibly another quarter of an hour elapsed before Mr Pancks’s step was heard upon the stairs, but the interval154 seemed to Clennam insupportably long. His step was attended by another step; and when Cavalletto opened the door, he admitted Mr Pancks and Mr Flintwinch. The latter was no sooner visible, than Rigaud rushed at him and embraced him boisterously155.
‘How do you find yourself, sir?’ said Mr Flintwinch, as soon as he could disengage himself, which he struggled to do with very little ceremony. ‘Thank you, no; I don’t want any more.’ This was in reference to another menace of attention from his recovered friend. ‘Well, Arthur. You remember what I said to you about sleeping dogs and missing ones. It’s come true, you see.’
He was as imperturbable156 as ever, to all appearance, and nodded his head in a moralising way as he looked round the room.
‘And this is the Marshalsea prison for debt!’ said Mr Flintwinch. ‘Hah! you have brought your pigs to a very indifferent market, Arthur.’
If Arthur had patience, Rigaud had not. He took his little Flintwinch, with fierce playfulness, by the two lapels of his coat, and cried:
‘To the Devil with the Market, to the Devil with the Pigs, and to the Devil with the Pig-Driver! Now! Give me the answer to my letter.’
‘If you can make it convenient to let go a moment, sir,’ returned Mr Flintwinch, ‘I’ll first hand Mr Arthur a little note that I have for him.’
He did so. It was in his mother’s maimed writing, on a slip of paper, and contained only these words:
‘I hope it is enough that you have ruined yourself. Rest contented157 without more ruin. Jeremiah Flintwinch is my messenger and representative. Your affectionate M. C.’
Clennam read this twice, in silence, and then tore it to pieces. Rigaud in the meanwhile stepped into a chair, and sat himself on the back with his feet upon the seat.
‘Now, Beau Flintwinch,’ he said, when he had closely watched the note to its destruction, ‘the answer to my letter?’
‘Mrs Clennam did not write, Mr Blandois, her hands being cramped158, and she thinking it as well to send it verbally by me.’ Mr Flintwinch screwed this out of himself, unwillingly159 and rustily160. ‘She sends her compliments, and says she doesn’t on the whole wish to term you unreasonable161, and that she agrees. But without prejudicing the appointment that stands for this day week.’
Monsieur Rigaud, after indulging in a fit of laughter, descended162 from his throne, saying, ‘Good! I go to seek an hotel!’ But, there his eyes encountered Cavalletto, who was still at his post.
‘Come, Pig,’ he added, ‘I have had you for a follower against my will; now, I’ll have you against yours. I tell you, my little reptiles163, I am born to be served. I demand the service of this contrabandist as my domestic until this day week.’
In answer to Cavalletto’s look of inquiry164, Clennam made him a sign to go; but he added aloud, ‘unless you are afraid of him.’ Cavalletto replied with a very emphatic165 finger-negative.‘No, master, I am not afraid of him, when I no more keep it secrettementally that he was once my comrade.’ Rigaud took no notice of either remark until he had lighted his last cigarette and was quite ready for walking.
‘Afraid of him,’ he said then, looking round upon them all. ‘Whoof! My children, my babies, my little dolls, you are all afraid of him. You give him his bottle of wine here; you give him meat, drink, and lodging there; you dare not touch him with a finger or an epithet. No. It is his character to triumph! Whoof!
‘Of all the king’s knights he’s the flower,
And he’s always gay!’
With this adaptation of the Refrain to himself, he stalked out of the room closely followed by Cavalletto, whom perhaps he had pressed into his service because he tolerably well knew it would not be easy to get rid of him. Mr Flintwinch, after scraping his chin, and looking about with caustic166 disparagement167 of the Pig-Market, nodded to Arthur, and followed. Mr Pancks, still penitent168 and depressed, followed too; after receiving with great attention a secret word or two of instructions from Arthur, and whispering back that he would see this affair out, and stand by it to the end. The prisoner, with the feeling that he was more despised, more scorned and repudiated, more helpless, altogether more miserable169 and fallen than before, was left alone again.
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1
depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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2
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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3
tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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4
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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5
indictment
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| n.起诉；诉状 | |
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seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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7
imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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8
accosted
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| v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的过去式和过去分词 )；跟…搭讪；（乞丐等）上前向…乞讨；（妓女等）勾搭 | |
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9
sprightly
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| adj.愉快的，活泼的 | |
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10
retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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11
circumlocution
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| n. 绕圈子的话，迂回累赘的陈述 | |
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12
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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13
vivacious
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| adj.活泼的，快活的 | |
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14
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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15
absolved
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| 宣告…无罪，赦免…的罪行，宽恕…的罪行( absolve的过去式和过去分词 )； 不受责难，免除责任 [义务] ,开脱（罪责） | |
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16
assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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17
humbug
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| n.花招，谎话，欺骗 | |
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18
bowlers
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| n.（板球）投球手( bowler的名词复数 )；圆顶高帽 | |
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19
lamed
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| 希伯莱语第十二个字母 | |
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20
sanguine
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| adj.充满希望的，乐观的，血红色的 | |
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21
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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22
entreaty
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| n.恳求，哀求 | |
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23
confiding
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| adj.相信人的，易于相信的v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的现在分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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24
vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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25
ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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26
tilt
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| v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜 | |
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27
chaff
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| v.取笑，嘲笑；n.谷壳 | |
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28
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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29
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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30
groove
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| n.沟，槽；凹线，（刻出的）线条，习惯 | |
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31
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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32
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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33
repudiated
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| v.（正式地）否认( repudiate的过去式和过去分词 )；拒绝接受；拒绝与…往来；拒不履行（法律义务） | |
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34
courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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35
lamented
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| adj.被哀悼的，令人遗憾的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36
extol
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| v.赞美，颂扬 | |
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37
consummate
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| adj.完美的；v.成婚；使完美 [反]baffle | |
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38
rascal
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| n.流氓；不诚实的人 | |
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39
remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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40
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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41
verdant
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| adj.翠绿的，青翠的，生疏的，不老练的 | |
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42
swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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43
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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44
lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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45
kinsman
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| n.男亲属 | |
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46
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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47
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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48
snobs
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| （谄上傲下的）势利小人( snob的名词复数 )； 自高自大者，自命不凡者 | |
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49
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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50
overflowing
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| n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式 | |
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51
intrude
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| vi.闯入；侵入；打扰，侵扰 | |
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52
coaxingly
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| adv. 以巧言诱哄，以甘言哄骗 | |
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53
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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54
concession
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| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
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55
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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56
soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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57
persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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58
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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59
eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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60
inclinations
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| 倾向( inclination的名词复数 )； 倾斜； 爱好； 斜坡 | |
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61
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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62
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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63
stupor
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| v.昏迷；不省人事 | |
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64
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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65
nettled
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| v.拿荨麻打，拿荨麻刺（nettle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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66
mortified
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| v.使受辱( mortify的过去式和过去分词 )；伤害（人的感情）；克制；抑制（肉体、情感等） | |
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67
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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68
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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69
exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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70
abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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71
adviser
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| n.劝告者，顾问 | |
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72
sarcasm
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
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73
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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74
awaken
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| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
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75
ascend
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| vi.渐渐上升，升高；vt.攀登，登上 | |
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76
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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77
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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78
peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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79
thump
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| v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声 | |
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80
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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81
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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82
expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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83
defiantly
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| adv.挑战地，大胆对抗地 | |
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84
villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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85
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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86
lengthening
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的现在分词 )； 加长 | |
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87
forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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88
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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89
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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90
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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91
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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92
honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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93
recital
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| n.朗诵，独奏会，独唱会 | |
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94
impudent
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| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
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95
abhorrence
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| n.憎恶；可憎恶的事 | |
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96
bully
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| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
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97
revival
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| n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振 | |
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98
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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99
contraband
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| n.违禁品，走私品 | |
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100
peremptorily
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| adv.紧急地，不容分说地，专横地 | |
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101
scarcity
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| n.缺乏，不足，萧条 | |
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102
smacking
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| 活泼的，发出响声的，精力充沛的 | |
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103
subdue
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| vt.制服，使顺从，征服；抑制，克制 | |
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104
softens
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| （使）变软( soften的第三人称单数 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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105
salute
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| vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮 | |
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106
dice
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| n.骰子；vt.把（食物）切成小方块，冒险 | |
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107
infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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108
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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109
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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110
stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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111
enchanted
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| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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112
prohibition
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| n.禁止；禁令，禁律 | |
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113
wary
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| adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的 | |
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114
propensity
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| n.倾向；习性 | |
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115
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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116
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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117
covertly
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| adv.偷偷摸摸地 | |
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118
debtor
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| n.借方，债务人 | |
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119
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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120
contrabandist
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| n.走私者 | |
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121
politic
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| adj.有智虑的；精明的；v.从政 | |
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122
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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123
definitively
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| adv.决定性地，最后地 | |
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unconditionally
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| adv.无条件地 | |
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125
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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126
deranged
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| adj.疯狂的 | |
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127
lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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128
nourishment
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| n.食物，营养品；营养情况 | |
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129
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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apropos
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| adv.恰好地；adj.恰当的；关于 | |
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131
epithet
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| n.（用于褒贬人物等的）表述形容词，修饰语 | |
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leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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lithely
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| adv.柔软地，易变地 | |
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134
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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stimulating
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| adj.有启发性的，能激发人思考的 | |
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136
mule
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| n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人 | |
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137
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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138
beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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140
follower
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| n.跟随者；随员；门徒；信徒 | |
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141
insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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142
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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143
wade
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| v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉 | |
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144
chagrins
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| v.使懊恼，使懊丧，使悔恨( chagrin的第三人称单数 ) | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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146
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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147
braggart
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| n.吹牛者；adj.吹牛的，自夸的 | |
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148
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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149
exulting
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| vi. 欢欣鼓舞，狂喜 | |
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150
smiting
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的现在分词 ) | |
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151
affronted
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| adj.被侮辱的，被冒犯的v.勇敢地面对( affront的过去式和过去分词 )；相遇 | |
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152
knights
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| 骑士； （中古时代的）武士( knight的名词复数 )； 骑士； 爵士； （国际象棋中）马 | |
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153
benefactor
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| n. 恩人，行善的人，捐助人 | |
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154
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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155
boisterously
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| adv.喧闹地，吵闹地 | |
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156
imperturbable
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| adj.镇静的 | |
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157
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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158
cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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159
unwillingly
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| adv.不情愿地 | |
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160
rustily
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| 锈蚀地，声音沙哑地 | |
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161
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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162
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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163
reptiles
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| n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 ) | |
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164
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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165
emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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166
caustic
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| adj.刻薄的，腐蚀性的 | |
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167
disparagement
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| n.轻视，轻蔑 | |
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168
penitent
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| adj.后悔的；n.后悔者；忏悔者 | |
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169
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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