有声名著之双城记
CHAPTER XIIThe Fellow of Delicacy
MR. STRYVER having made up his mind to that magnanimousbestowal of good fortune on the Doctor's daughter, resolved tomake her happiness known to her before he left town for theLong Vacation. After some mental debating of the point, hecame to the conclusion that it would be as well to get all thepreliminaries done with, and they could then arrange at theirleisure whether he should give her his hand a week or twobefore Michaelmas Term, or in the little Christmas vacationbetween it and Hilary.
As to the strength of his case, he had not a doubt about it,but clearly saw his way to' the verdict. Argued with the juryon substantial worldly grounds--the only grounds ever worthtaking into account--it was a plain case, and had not a weakspot in it. He called himself for the plaintiff, there was nogetting over his evidence, the counsel for the defendant threwup his brief, and the jury did not even turn to consider.
After trying it, Stryver, C. J., was satisfied that no plainercase could be.
Accordingly, Mr. Stryver inaugurated the Long Vacation with aformal proposal to take Miss Manette to Vauxhall Gardens; thatfailing, to Ranelagh; that unaccountably failing too, itbehoved him to present himself in Soho, and there declare hisnoble mind.
Towards Soho, therefore, Mr. Steer shouldered his way fromthe Temple, while the bloom of the Long Vacation's infancy wasstill upon it. Anybody who had seen him projecting himselfinto Soho while he was yet on Saint Dunstan's side of TempleBar, bursting in his full-blown way along the pavement, to thejostlement of all weaker people, might have seen how safe andstrong he was.
His way taking him past Tellson's, and he both banking atTellson's and knowing Mr. Lorry as the intimate friend of theManettes, it entered Mr. Stryver's mind to enter the bank, andreveal to Mr. Lorry the brightness of the Soho horizon. So, hepushed open the door with the weak rattle in its throat,stumbled down the two steps, got past the two ancientcashiers, and shouldered himself into the musty back closetwhere Mr. Lorry sat at great books ruled for figures, withperpendicular iron bars to his window as if that were ruledfor figures too, and everything under the clouds were a sum.
`Halloa!' said Mr. Stryver. `How do you do? I hope you arewell!'
It was Stryver's grand peculiarity that he always seemed toobig for any place, or space. He was so much too big forTellson's, that old clerks in distant corners looked up withlooks of remonstrance, as though he squeezed them against thewall. The House itself, magnificently reading the paper quitein the far-off perspective, lowered displeased, as if theStryver head had been butted into its responsible waistcoat.
The discreet Mr. Lorry said, in a sample tone of the voice hewould recommend under the circumstances, `How do you do, Mr.
Stryver? How do you do, sir?' and shook hands. There was apeculiarity in his manner of shaking hands, always to be seenin any clerk at Tellson's who shook hands with a customer whenthe House pervaded the air. He shook in a self-abnegating way,as one who shook for Tellson and Co.
`Can I do anything for you, Mr. Stryver?' asked Mr. Lorry, inhis business character.
`Why, no, thank you; this is a private visit to yourself, Mr.
Lorry; I have come for a private word.'
`Oh indeed!' said Mr. Lorry, bending down his ear, while hiseye strayed to the House afar off.
`I am going,' said Mr. Stryver, leaning his armsconfidentially on the desk: whereupon, although it was a largedouble one, there appeared to be not half desk enough for him:
`I am going to make an offer of myself in marriage to youragreeable little friend, Miss Manette, Mr. Lorry.'
Oh dear me!' cried Mr. Lorry, rubbing his chin, and lookingat his visitor dubiously.
`Oh dear me, sir?' repeated Stryver, drawing back.
`Oh dear you, sir? What may your meaning be, Mr. Lorry?'
`My meaning,' answered the man of business, `is, of course,friendly and appreciative, and that it does you the greatestcredit, and--in short, my meaning is everything you coulddesire. But--really, you know, Mr. Stryver ---' Mr. Lorrypaused, and shook his head at him in the oddest manner, as ifhe were compelled against his will to add, internally, `youknow there really is so much too much of you!'
`Well!' said Stryver, slapping the desk with his contentioushand, opening his eyes wider, and taking a long breath, `if Iunderstand you, Mr. Lorry, I'll be hanged!'
Mr. Lorry adjusted his little wig at both ears as a meanstowards that end, and bit the feather of a pen.
`D--n it all, sir!' said Stryver, staring at him, `am I noteligible?'
`Oh dear yes! Yes. Oh yes, you're eligible!' said Mr. Lorry.
`If you say eligible, you are eligible.'
`Am I not prosperous?' asked Stryver.
`Oh! if you come to prosperous, you are prosperous,' said Mr.
Lorry.
`And advancing?'
`If you come to advancing, you know,' said Mr. Lorry,delighted to be able to make another admission, `nobody candoubt that.'
`Then what on earth is your meaning, Mr. Lorry?' demandedStryver, perceptibly crestfallen. #p#副标题#e#`Well! I Were you going there now?' asked Mr. Lorry.
`Straight!' said Stryver, with a plump of his fist on thedesk. `Then I think I wouldn't, if I was you.'
`Why?' said Stryver. `Now, I'll put you in a corner,'
forensically shaking a forefinger at him. `You are a man ofbusiness and bound to have a reason. State your reason.
Why wouldn't you go?'
`Because,' said Mr. Lorry, `I wouldn't go on such an objectwithout having some cause to believe that I should succeed.'
`D--n ME!' cried Stryver, `but this beats everything.'
Mr. Lorry glanced at the distant House, and glanced at theangry Stryver.
`Here's a man of business--a man of years--a man ofexperience--in a Bank,' said Stryver; `and having summed upthree leading reasons for complete success, he says there's noreason at all! Says it with his head on!' Mr. Stryver remarkedupon tile peculiarity as if it would have been infinitely lessremarkable if he had said it with his head off.
`When I speak of success, I speak of success with the younglady; and when I speak of causes and reasons to make successprobable, I speak of causes and reasons that will tell as suchwith the young lady. The young lady, my good sir,' said Mr.
Lorry, mildly tapping the Stryver arm, `the young lady. Theyoung lady goes before all.'
`Then you mean to tell me, Mr. Lorry,' said Stryver, squaringhis elbows, `that it is your deliberate opinion that the younglady at present in question is a mincing Fool?'
`Not exactly so. I mean to tell you, Mr. Stryver,' said Mr.
Lorry, reddening, `that I will hear no disrespectful word Ofthat young lady from any lips; and that if I knew any man--which I hope I do not--whose taste was so coarse, and whosetemper was so overbearing, that he could not restrain himselffrom speaking disrespectfully of that young lady at this desk,not even Tellson's should prevent my giving him a piece of mymind.'
The necessity of being angry in a suppressed tone had put Mr.
Stryver's blood-vessels into a dangerous state when it was histurn to be angry; Mr. Lorry's veins, methodical as theircourses could usually be, were in no better state now it washis turn.
`That is what I mean to tell you, sir,' said Mr. Lorry. `Praylet there be no mistake about it.'
Mr. Stryver sucked tile end of a ruler for a little while andthen stood hitting a tune out of his teeth with it, which'
probably gave him the toothache. He broke the awkward silenceby saying:
`This is something new to me, Mr. Lorry. You deliberatelyadvise me not to go up to Soho and offer myself--myself,Stryver of the King's Bench bar?'
`Do you ask me for my advice, Mr. Stryver?'
`Yes, I do.'
`Very good. Then I give it, and you have repeated itcorrectly.'
`And all I can say of it is,' laughed Stryver with a vexedlaugh, `that this--ha, ha!--beats everything past, present,and to come.'
`Now understand me,' pursued Mr. Lorry. `As a man ofbusiness, I am not justified in saying anything about thismatter, for, as a man of business, I know nothing of it. But,as an old fellow, who has carried Miss Manette in his arms,who is the trusted friend of Miss Manette and of her fathertoo, and who has a great affection for them both, I havespoken. The confidence is not of my seeking, recollect. Now,you think I may not be right?'
`Not I!' said Stryver, whistling. `I can't undertake to findthird parties in common sense; I can only find it for myself Isuppose sense in certain quarters; you suppose mincing bread-and-butter nonsense. It's new to me, but you are right, I daresay.'
`What I suppose, Mr. Stryver, I claim to characterise formyself And understand me, sir,' said Mr. Lorry, quicklyflushing again, `I will not--not even at Tellson's--have itcharacterised for me by any gentleman breathing.'
`There! I beg your pardon!' said Stryver.
`Granted. Thank you. Well, Mr. Stryver, I was about to say--it might be painful to you to find yourself mistaken, it mightbe painful to Doctor Manette to have the task of beingexplicit with you, it might be very painful to Miss Manette tohave the task of being explicit with you. You know the termsupon which I have the honour and happiness to stand with thefamily. If you please, committing you in no way, representingyou in no way, I will undertake to correct my advice by theexercise of a little new observation and judgment expresslybrought to bear upon it. If you should then be dissatisfiedwith it, you can but test its soundness for yourself; if, onthe other hand, you should be satisfied with it, and it shouldbe what it now is, it may spare all sides what is best spared.
What do you say?'
`How long would you keep me in town?' #p#副标题#e#`Oh! It is only a question of a few hours. I could go to Sohoin the evening, and come to your chambers afterwards.'
`Then I say yes,' said Stryver: `I won't go up there now, Iam not so hot upon it as that comes to; I say yes, and I shallexpect you to look in to-night. Good-morning.'
Then Mr. Stryver turned and burst out of the Bank, causingsuch a concussion of air on his passage through, that to standup against it bowing behind the two counters, required theutmost remaining strength of the two ancient clerks.
Those venerable and feeble persons were always seen by thepublic in the act of bowing, and were popularly believed, whenthey had bowed a customer out, still to keep on bowing in theempty office until they bowed another customer in.
The barrister was keen enough to divine that the banker wouldnot have gone so far in his expression of opinion on any lesssolid ground than moral certainty. Unprepared as he was forthe large pill he had to swallow, he got it down. `And now,'
said Mr. Stryver, shaking his forensic forefinger at theTemple in general, when it was down, `my way out of this, is,to put you all in the wrong.'
It was a bit of the art of an Old Bailey tactician, in whichhe found great relief. `You shall not put me in the wrong,young lady,' said Mr. Stryver; `I'll do that for you.'
Accordingly, when Mr. Lorry called that night as late as teno'clock, Mr. Stryver, among a quantity of books and paperslittered out for the purpose, seemed to have nothing less onhis mind than the subject of the morning. He even showedsurprise when he saw Mr. Lorry, and was altogether in anabsent and preoccupied state.
`Well!' said that good-natured emissary, after a full half-hour of bootless attempts to bring him round to the question.
`I have been to Soho.'
`To Soho?' repeated Mr. Stryver, coldly. `Oh, to be sure!
What am I thinking of!'
`And I have no doubt,' said Mr. Lorry, `that I was right inthe conversation we had. My opinion is confirmed, and Ireiterate my advice.'
`I assure you,' returned Mr. Stryver, in the friendliest way,`that I am sorry for it on your account, and sorry for it onthe poor father's account. I know this must always be a soresubject with the family; let us say no more about it.'
`I don't understand you,' said Mr Lorry.
`I dare say not,' rejoined Stryver, nodding his head in asmoothing and final way; no matter, no matter.'
`But it does matter,' Mr. Lorry urged.
`No it doesn't; I assure you it doesn't. Having supposed thatthere was sense where there is no sense, and a laudableambition where there is not a laudable ambition, I am well outof my mistake, and no harm is done. Young women have committedsimilar follies often before, and have repented them inpoverty and obscurity often before. In an unselfish aspect, Iam sorry that the thing is dropped, because it would have beena bad thing for me in a worldly point of view; in a selfishaspect, I am glad that the thing has dropped, because it wouldhave been a bad thing for me in a worldly point of view--it ishardly necessary to say I could have gained nothing by it.
There is no harm at all done. I have not proposed to the younglady, and, between ourselves, I am by no means certain, onreflection, that I ever should have committed myself to thatextent. Mr. Lorry, you cannot control the mincing vanities andgiddinesses of empty-headed girls; you must not expect to doit, or you will always he disappointed.
Now, pray say no more about it. I tell you, I regret it onaccount of others, but I am satisfied on my own account. And Iam really very much obliged to you for allowing me to soundyou, and for giving me your advice; you know the young ladybetter than I do; you were right, it never would have done.
Mr. Lorry was so taken aback, that he looked quite stupidlyat Mr. Stryver shouldering him towards the door, with anappearance of showering generosity, forbearance, and goodwill,on his erring head. 'Make the best of it, my dear sir,' saidStryver; `say no more about it; thank you again for allowingme to sound you; good-night!' Mr. Lorry was out in the night,before he knew where he was. Mr. Stryver was lying back on hissofa, winking at his Ceiling. |