Captain Clavering, who was sitting with his hat in his two hands between his knees, stared at the little foreigner. He had heard before of women poisoning their husbands, but never had heard a woman advocate the system as expedient. Nor had he often heard a woman advocate any system with the vehemence which Madame Gordeloup now displayed on this matter, and with an allusion which was so very pointed to the special position of his own sister-in-law. Did Lady Ongar agree with her? He felt as though he should like to know his Julia’s opinions on that matter.
“Sophie, Captain Clavering will think you are in earnest,” said the countess, laughing.
“So I am—in earnest. It is all wrong. You boil all the water out of de pot before you put the gigot into it. So the gigot is no good, is tough and dry, and you shut it up in an old house in the country. Then, to make matters pretty, you talk about de fields and de daisies. I know. ‘Thank you,’ I should say. ‘De fields and de daisies are so nice and so good! Suppose you go down, my love, and walk in de fields, and pick de daisies, and send them up to me by de railway!’ Yes, that is what I would say.”
Captain Clavering was now quite in the dark, and began to regard the little woman as a lunatic. When she spoke of the pot and the gigot he vainly endeavoured to follow her; and now that she had got among the daisies he was more at a loss than ever. Fruit, vegetables, and cut flowers came up, he knew, to London regularly from Clavering, when the family was in town;—but no daisies. In France it must, he supposed, be different. He was aware, however, of his ignorance, and said nothing.
“No one ever did try to shut you up, Sophie!”
“No, indeed; M. Gordeloup knew better. What would he do if I were shut up? And no one will ever shut you up, my dear. If I were you, I would give no one a chance.”
“Don’t say that,” said the captain, almost passionately; “don’t say that.”
“Ha, ha! but I do say it. Why should a woman who has got everything marry again? If she wants de fields and de daisies she has got them of her own—yes, of her own. If she wants de town, she has got that too. Jewels—she can go and buy them. Coaches—there they are. Parties—one, two, three, every night, as many as she please. Gentlemen who will be her humble slaves; such a plenty—all London. Or, if she want to be alone, no one can come near her. Why should she marry? No.”
“But she might be in love with somebody,” said the captain, in a surprised but humble tone.
“Love! Bah! Be in love, so that she may be shut up in an old barrack with de powders!” The way in which that word barrack was pronounced, and the middle letters sounded, almost lifted the captain off his seat. “Love is very pretty at seventeen, when the imagination is telling a parcel of lies, and when life is one dream. To like people—oh, yes; to be very fond of your friends—oh, yes; to be most attached—as I am to my Julie,”—here she got hold of Lady Ongar’s hand—“it is the salt of life! But what you call love, booing and cooing, with rhymes and verses about de moon, it is to go back to pap and panade, and what you call bibs. No; if a woman wants a house, and de something to live on, let her marry a husband; or if a man want to have children, let him marry a wife. But to be shut up in a country house, when everything you have got of your own—I say it is bad.”
Captain Clavering was heartily sorry that he had mentioned the fact of his sister-in-law being left at home at Clavering Park. It was most unfortunate. How could he make it understood that if he were married he would not think of shutting his wife up at Ongar Park? “Lady Clavering, you know, does come to London generally,” he said.
“Bah!” exclaimed the little Franco-Pole.
“And as for me, I never should be happy, if I were married, unless I had my wife with me everywhere,” said Captain Clavering.
“Bah-ah-ah!” ejaculated the lady.
Captain Clavering could not endure this any longer. He felt that the manner of the lady was, to say the least of it, unpleasant, and he perceived that he was doing no good to his own cause. So he rose from his chair and muttered some words with the intention of showing his purpose of departure.
“Goodbye, Captain Clavering,” said Lady Ongar. “My love to my sister when you see her.”
Archie shook hands with her and then made his bow to Madame Gordeloup.
“Au revoir, my friend,” she said, “and you remember all I say. It is not good for de wife to be all alone in the country, while de husband walk about in the town and make an eye to every lady he see.” Archie would not trust himself to renew the argument, but bowing again, made his way off.
“He was come for one admirer,” said Sophie, as soon as the door was closed.
“An admirer of whom?”
“Not of me;—oh, no; I was not in danger at all.”
“Of me? Captain Clavering! Sophie, you get your head full of the strangest nonsense.”
“Ah; very well. You see. What will you give me if I am right? Will you bet? Why had he got on his new gloves, and had his head all smelling with stuff from de hairdresser? Does he come always perfumed like that? Does he wear shiny little boots to walk about in de morning, and make an eye always? Perhaps yes.”
“I never saw
