第173章

Crosbie had been preparing the exact words with which he assailed Mr Butterwell for the last quarter of an hour, before they were uttered.

There is always a difficulty in the choice, not only of the words with which money should be borrowed, but of the fashion after which they should be spoken. There is the slow deliberate manner, in using which the borrower attempts to carry the wished-for lender along with him by force of argument, and to prove that the desire to borrow shows no imprudence on his own part, and that a tendency to lend will show none on the part of the intended lender. It may be said that this mode fails oftener than any other. There is the piteous manner--the plea for commiseration. 'My dear fellow, unless you will see me through now, upon my word I shall be very badly off.' And this manner may be divided again into two. There is the plea piteous with a lie, and the plea piteous with a truth. 'You shall have it again in two months as sure as the sun rises.' That is generally the plea piteous with a lie. Or it may be as follows; 'It is only fair to say that I don't quite know when I can pay it back.' This is the plea piteous with a truth, and upon the whole Ithink that this is generally the most successful mode of borrowing. And there is the assured demand--which betokens a close intimacy. 'Old fellow, can you let me have thirty pounds? No? Just put your name, then, on the back of this, and I'll get it done in the City.' The worst of that manner is, that the bill so often does not get itself done in the City. Then there is the sudden attack--that being the manner to which Crosbie had recourse in the present instance. That there are other modes of borrowing by means of which youth becomes indebted to age, and love to respect, and ignorance to experience, is a matter of course. It will be understood that I am here speaking only of borrowing and lending between the Butterwells and Crosbies of the world. 'I have come to you in great distress,' said Crosbie. 'I wonder whether you can help me. Iwant you to lend me five hundred pounds.' Mr Butterwell, when he heard the words, dropped the paper which he was reading from his hand, and stared at Crosbie over his spectacles.

'Yes it is--a very large sum. Half that is what I want at once; but Ishall want the other half in a month.'

'I thought that you were always so much above the world in money matters. Gracious me;--nothing that I have heard for a long time has astonished me more. I don't know why, but I always thought you had your things so very snug.'

Crosbie was aware that he had made one very great step towards success.

The idea had been presented to Mr Butterwell's mind, and had not been instantly rejected as a scandalously iniquitous idea, as an idea to which no reception could be given for a moment. Crosbie had not been treated as the needy knife-grinder, and had ground to stand upon while he urged his request. 'I have been so pressed since my marriage,' he said, 'that it has been impossible for me to keep things straight.'

'But Lady Alexandrina--'

'Yes, of course; I know. I do not like to trouble you with my private affairs;--there is nothing, I think, so bad as washing one's dirty linen in public;--but the truth is, that I am only now free from the rapacity of the De Courcys. You would hardly believe me if I told you what I've had to pay. What do you think of two hundred and forty-five pounds for bringing her body over here, and burying it at De Courcy?'

'I'd have left it where it was.'

'And so would I. You don't suppose I ordered it to be done. Poor dear thing. If it could do her any good, God knows I would not begrudge it.

We had a bad time of it when we were together, but I would have spared nothing for her, alive or dead, that was reasonable. But to make me pay for bringing the body over here, when I never had a shilling with her!

By George, it was too bad. And that oaf John De Courcy--I had to pay his travelling bill too.'

'He didn't come to be buried;--did he?'

'It's too disgusting to talk of, Butterwell; it is indeed. And when Iasked for her money that was settled upon me--it was only two thousand pounds--they made me go to law, and it seems there was no two thousand pounds to settle. If I like, I can have another lawsuit with the sisters, when the mother is dead. Oh, Butterwell, I have made such a fool of myself. I have come to shipwreck! Oh, Butterwell, if you could but know it all.'

'Are you free from the De Courcys now?'

'I owe Gazebee, the man who married the other woman, over a thousand pounds. But I pay that off at two hundred a year, and he has a policy on my life.'

'What do you owe that for?'

'Don't ask me. Not that I mind telling you;--furniture, and the lease of a house, and his bill for the marriage settlement, d-- him.'

'God bless me. They seem to have been very hard upon you.'

'A man doesn't marry an earl's daughter for nothing, Butterwell. And then to think what I lost! It can't be helped now, you know. As a man makes his bed he must lie on it. I am sometimes so mad with myself when I think over it all--that I should like to blow my brains out.'

'You must not talk that way, Crosbie. I hate to hear a man talk like that.'

'I don't mean that I shall. I'm too much of a coward, I fancy.' A man who desires to soften another man's heart should always abuse himself.