Middlemarch, Page 68

  CHAPTER LXVIII.

  "What suit of grace hath Virtue to put on If Vice shall wear as good, and do as well? If Wrong, if Craft, if Indiscretion Act as fair parts with ends as laudable? Which all this mighty volume of events The world, the universal map of deeds, Strongly controls, and proves from all descents, That the directest course still best succeeds. For should not grave and learn'd Experience That looks with the eyes of all the world beside, And with all ages holds intelligence, Go safer than Deceit without a guide! --DANIEL: Musophilus.

  That change of plan and shifting of interest which Bulstrode stated orbetrayed in his conversation with Lydgate, had been determined in himby some severe experience which he had gone through since the epoch ofMr. Larcher's sale, when Raffles had recognized Will Ladislaw, and whenthe banker had in vain attempted an act of restitution which might moveDivine Providence to arrest painful consequences.

  His certainty that Raffles, unless he were dead, would return toMiddlemarch before long, had been justified. On Christmas Eve he hadreappeared at The Shrubs. Bulstrode was at home to receive him, andhinder his communication with the rest of the family, but he could notaltogether hinder the circumstances of the visit from compromisinghimself and alarming his wife. Raffles proved more unmanageable thanhe had shown himself to be in his former appearances, his chronic stateof mental restlessness, the growing effect of habitual intemperance,quickly shaking off every impression from what was said to him. Heinsisted on staying in the house, and Bulstrode, weighing two sets ofevils, felt that this was at least not a worse alternative than hisgoing into the town. He kept him in his own room for the evening andsaw him to bed, Raffles all the while amusing himself with theannoyance he was causing this decent and highly prosperousfellow-sinner, an amusement which he facetiously expressed as sympathywith his friend's pleasure in entertaining a man who had beenserviceable to him, and who had not had all his earnings. There was acunning calculation under this noisy joking--a cool resolve to extractsomething the handsomer from Bulstrode as payment for release from thisnew application of torture. But his cunning had a little overcast itsmark.

  Bulstrode was indeed more tortured than the coarse fibre of Rafflescould enable him to imagine. He had told his wife that he was simplytaking care of this wretched creature, the victim of vice, who mightotherwise injure himself; he implied, without the direct form offalsehood, that there was a family tie which bound him to this care,and that there were signs of mental alienation in Raffles which urgedcaution. He would himself drive the unfortunate being away the nextmorning. In these hints he felt that he was supplying Mrs. Bulstrodewith precautionary information for his daughters and servants, andaccounting for his allowing no one but himself to enter the room evenwith food and drink. But he sat in an agony of fear lest Rafflesshould be overheard in his loud and plain references to past facts--lestMrs. Bulstrode should be even tempted to listen at the door. Howcould he hinder her, how betray his terror by opening the door todetect her? She was a woman of honest direct habits, and little likelyto take so low a course in order to arrive at painful knowledge; butfear was stronger than the calculation of probabilities.

  In this way Raffles had pushed the torture too far, and produced aneffect which had not been in his plan. By showing himself hopelesslyunmanageable he had made Bulstrode feel that a strong defiance was theonly resource left. After taking Raffles to bed that night the bankerordered his closed carriage to be ready at half-past seven the nextmorning. At six o'clock he had already been long dressed, and hadspent some of his wretchedness in prayer, pleading his motives foraverting the worst evil if in anything he had used falsity and spokenwhat was not true before God. For Bulstrode shrank from a direct liewith an intensity disproportionate to the number of his more indirectmisdeeds. But many of these misdeeds were like the subtle muscularmovements which are not taken account of in the consciousness, thoughthey bring about the end that we fix our mind on and desire. And it isonly what we are vividly conscious of that we can vividly imagine to beseen by Omniscience.

  Bulstrode carried his candle to the bedside of Raffles, who wasapparently in a painful dream. He stood silent, hoping that thepresence of the light would serve to waken the sleeper gradually andgently, for he feared some noise as the consequence of a too suddenawakening. He had watched for a couple of minutes or more theshudderings and pantings which seemed likely to end in waking, whenRaffles, with a long half-stifled moan, started up and stared round himin terror, trembling and gasping. But he made no further noise, andBulstrode, setting down the candle, awaited his recovery.

  It was a quarter of an hour later before Bulstrode, with a coldperemptoriness of manner which he had not before shown, said, "I cameto call you thus early, Mr. Raffles, because I have ordered thecarriage to be ready at half-past seven, and intend myself to conductyou as far as Ilsely, where you can either take the railway or await acoach." Raffles was about to speak, but Bulstrode anticipated himimperiously with the words, "Be silent, sir, and hear what I have tosay. I shall supply you with money now, and I will furnish you with areasonable sum from time to time, on your application to me by letter;but if you choose to present yourself here again, if you return toMiddlemarch, if you use your tongue in a manner injurious to me, youwill have to live on such fruits as your malice can bring you, withouthelp from me. Nobody will pay you well for blasting my name: I knowthe worst you can do against me, and I shall brave it if you dare tothrust yourself upon me again. Get up, sir, and do as I order you,without noise, or I will send for a policeman to take you off mypremises, and you may carry your stories into every pothouse in thetown, but you shall have no sixpence from me to pay your expensesthere."

  Bulstrode had rarely in his life spoken with such nervous energy: hehad been deliberating on this speech and its probable effects through alarge part of the night; and though he did not trust to its ultimatelysaving him from any return of Raffles, he had concluded that it was thebest throw he could make. It succeeded in enforcing submission fromthe jaded man this morning: his empoisoned system at this momentquailed before Bulstrode's cold, resolute bearing, and he was taken offquietly in the carriage before the family breakfast time. The servantsimagined him to be a poor relation, and were not surprised that astrict man like their master, who held his head high in the world,should be ashamed of such a cousin and want to get rid of him. Thebanker's drive of ten miles with his hated companion was a drearybeginning of the Christmas day; but at the end of the drive, Raffleshad recovered his spirits, and parted in a contentment for which therewas the good reason that the banker had given him a hundred pounds.Various motives urged Bulstrode to this open-handedness, but he did nothimself inquire closely into all of them. As he had stood watchingRaffles in his uneasy sleep, it had certainly entered his mind that theman had been much shattered since the first gift of two hundred pounds.

  He had taken care to repeat the incisive statement of his resolve notto be played on any more; and had tried to penetrate Raffles with thefact that he had shown the risks of bribing him to be quite equal tothe risks of defying him. But when, freed from his repulsive presence,Bulstrode returned to his quiet home, he brought with him no confidencethat he had secured more than a respite. It was as if he had had aloathsome dream, and could not shake off its images with their hatefulkindred of sensations--as if on all the pleasant surroundings of hislife a dangerous reptile had left his slimy traces.

  Who can know how much of his most inward life is made up of thethoughts he believes other men to have about him, until that fabric ofopinion is threatened with ruin?

  Bulstrode was only the more conscious that there was a deposit ofuneasy presentiment in his wife's mind, because she carefully avoidedany allusion to it. He had been used every day to taste the flavor ofsupremacy and the tribute of complete deference: and the certainty thathe was watched or measured with a hidden suspicion of his having somediscreditable secret, made his voice totter wh
en he was speaking toedification. Foreseeing, to men of Bulstrode's anxious temperament, isoften worse than seeing; and his imagination continually heightened theanguish of an imminent disgrace. Yes, imminent; for if his defiance ofRaffles did not keep the man away--and though he prayed for this resulthe hardly hoped for it--the disgrace was certain. In vain he said tohimself that, if permitted, it would be a divine visitation, achastisement, a preparation; he recoiled from the imagined burning; andhe judged that it must be more for the Divine glory that he shouldescape dishonor. That recoil had at last urged him to makepreparations for quitting Middlemarch. If evil truth must be reportedof him, he would then be at a less scorching distance from the contemptof his old neighbors; and in a new scene, where his life would not havegathered the same wide sensibility, the tormentor, if he pursued him,would be less formidable. To leave the place finally would, he knew,be extremely painful to his wife, and on other grounds he would havepreferred to stay where he had struck root. Hence he made hispreparations at first in a conditional way, wishing to leave on allsides an opening for his return after brief absence, if any favorableintervention of Providence should dissipate his fears. He waspreparing to transfer his management of the Bank, and to give up anyactive control of other commercial affairs in the neighborhood, on theground of his failing health, but without excluding his futureresumption of such work. The measure would cause him some addedexpense and some diminution of income beyond what he had alreadyundergone from the general depression of trade; and the Hospitalpresented itself as a principal object of outlay on which he couldfairly economize.

  This was the experience which had determined his conversation withLydgate. But at this time his arrangements had most of them gone nofarther than a stage at which he could recall them if they proved to beunnecessary. He continually deferred the final steps; in the midst ofhis fears, like many a man who is in danger of shipwreck or of beingdashed from his carriage by runaway horses, he had a clingingimpression that something would happen to hinder the worst, and that tospoil his life by a late transplantation might be over-hasty--especiallysince it was difficult to account satisfactorily to his wife for theproject of their indefinite exile from the only place where she wouldlike to live.

  Among the affairs Bulstrode had to care for, was the management of thefarm at Stone Court in case of his absence; and on this as well as onall other matters connected with any houses and land he possessed in orabout Middlemarch, he had consulted Caleb Garth. Like every one elsewho had business of that sort, he wanted to get the agent who was moreanxious for his employer's interests than his own. With regard toStone Court, since Bulstrode wished to retain his hold on the stock,and to have an arrangement by which he himself could, if he chose,resume his favorite recreation of superintendence, Caleb had advisedhim not to trust to a mere bailiff, but to let the land, stock, andimplements yearly, and take a proportionate share of the proceeds.

  "May I trust to you to find me a tenant on these terms, Mr. Garth?"said Bulstrode. "And will you mention to me the yearly sum which wouldrepay you for managing these affairs which we have discussed together?"

  "I'll think about it," said Caleb, in his blunt way. "I'll see how Ican make it out."

  If it had not been that he had to consider Fred Vincy's future, Mr.Garth would not probably have been glad of any addition to his work, ofwhich his wife was always fearing an excess for him as he grew older.But on quitting Bulstrode after that conversation, a very alluring ideaoccurred to him about this said letting of Stone Court. What ifBulstrode would agree to his placing Fred Vincy there on theunderstanding that he, Caleb Garth, should be responsible for themanagement? It would be an excellent schooling for Fred; he might makea modest income there, and still have time left to get knowledge byhelping in other business. He mentioned his notion to Mrs. Garth withsuch evident delight that she could not bear to chill his pleasure byexpressing her constant fear of his undertaking too much.

  "The lad would be as happy as two," he said, throwing himself back inhis chair, and looking radiant, "if I could tell him it was allsettled. Think; Susan! His mind had been running on that place foryears before old Featherstone died. And it would be as pretty a turnof things as could be that he should hold the place in a goodindustrious way after all--by his taking to business. For it's likelyenough Bulstrode might let him go on, and gradually buy the stock. Hehasn't made up his mind, I can see, whether or not he shall settlesomewhere else as a lasting thing. I never was better pleased with anotion in my life. And then the children might be married by-and-by,Susan."

  "You will not give any hint of the plan to Fred, until you are surethat Bulstrode would agree to the plan?" said Mrs. Garth, in a tone ofgentle caution. "And as to marriage, Caleb, we old people need nothelp to hasten it."

  "Oh, I don't know," said Caleb, swinging his head aside. "Marriage isa taming thing. Fred would want less of my bit and bridle. However, Ishall say nothing till I know the ground I'm treading on. I shallspeak to Bulstrode again."

  He took his earliest opportunity of doing so. Bulstrode had anythingbut a warm interest in his nephew Fred Vincy, but he had a strong wishto secure Mr. Garth's services on many scattered points of business atwhich he was sure to be a considerable loser, if they were under lessconscientious management. On that ground he made no objection to Mr.Garth's proposal; and there was also another reason why he was notsorry to give a consent which was to benefit one of the Vincy family.It was that Mrs. Bulstrode, having heard of Lydgate's debts, had beenanxious to know whether her husband could not do something for poorRosamond, and had been much troubled on learning from him thatLydgate's affairs were not easily remediable, and that the wisest planwas to let them "take their course." Mrs. Bulstrode had then said forthe first time, "I think you are always a little hard towards myfamily, Nicholas. And I am sure I have no reason to deny any of myrelatives. Too worldly they may be, but no one ever had to say thatthey were not respectable."

  "My dear Harriet," said Mr. Bulstrode, wincing under his wife's eyes,which were filling with tears, "I have supplied your brother with agreat deal of capital. I cannot be expected to take care of hismarried children."

  That seemed to be true, and Mrs. Bulstrode's remonstrance subsided intopity for poor Rosamond, whose extravagant education she had alwaysforeseen the fruits of.

  But remembering that dialogue, Mr. Bulstrode felt that when he had totalk to his wife fully about his plan of quitting Middlemarch, heshould be glad to tell her that he had made an arrangement which mightbe for the good of her nephew Fred. At present he had merely mentionedto her that he thought of shutting up The Shrubs for a few months, andtaking a house on the Southern Coast.

  Hence Mr. Garth got the assurance he desired, namely, that in case ofBulstrode's departure from Middlemarch for an indefinite time, FredVincy should be allowed to have the tenancy of Stone Court on the termsproposed.

  Caleb was so elated with his hope of this "neat turn" being given tothings, that if his self-control had not been braced by a littleaffectionate wifely scolding, he would have betrayed everything toMary, wanting "to give the child comfort." However, he restrainedhimself, and kept in strict privacy from Fred certain visits which hewas making to Stone Court, in order to look more thoroughly into thestate of the land and stock, and take a preliminary estimate. He wascertainly more eager in these visits than the probable speed of eventsrequired him to be; but he was stimulated by a fatherly delight inoccupying his mind with this bit of probable happiness which he held instore like a hidden birthday gift for Fred and Mary.

  "But suppose the whole scheme should turn out to be a castle in theair?" said Mrs. Garth.

  "Well, well," replied Caleb; "the castle will tumble about nobody'shead."