A very little encouragement would set that worthy woman to talk volubly and pour out all within her.And one day when Mrs.Rawdon had gone out to drive (as Mr.Fiche, his lordship's confidential servant, easily learned at the livery stables where the Crawleys kept their carriage and horses, or rather, where the livery-man kept a carriage and horses for Mr.and Mrs.Crawley)--my lord dropped in upon the Curzon Street house--asked Briggs for a cup of coffee--told her that he had good accounts of the little boy at school--and in five minutes found out from her that Mrs.Rawdon had given her nothing except a black silk gown, for which Miss Briggs was immensely grateful.
He laughed within himself at this artless story.For the truth is, our dear friend Rebecca had given him a most circumstantial narration of Briggs's delight at receiving her money--eleven hundred and twenty-five pounds--and in what securities she had invested it; and what a pang Becky herself felt in being obliged to pay away such a delightful sum of money."Who knows," the dear woman may have thought within herself, "perhaps he may give me a little more?" My lord, however, made no such proposal to the little schemer--very likely thinking that he had been sufficiently generous already.
He had the curiosity, then, to ask Miss Briggs about the state of her private affairs--and she told his lordship candidly what her position was--how Miss Crawley had left her a legacy--how her relatives had had part of it --how Colonel Crawley had put out another portion, for which she had the best security and interest--and how Mr.and Mrs.Rawdon had kindly busied themselves with Sir Pitt, who was to dispose of the remainder most advantageously for her, when he had time.My lord asked how much the Colonel had already invested for her, and Miss Briggs at once and truly told him that the sum was six hundred and odd pounds.
But as soon as she had told her story, the voluble Briggs repented of her frankness and besought my lord not to tell Mr.Crawley of the confessions which she had made."The Colonel was so kind--Mr.Crawley might be offended and pay back the money, for which she could get no such good interest anywhere else." Lord Steyne, laughing, promised he never would divulge their conversation, and when he and Miss Briggs parted he laughed still more.
"What an accomplished little devil it is!" thought he.
"What a splendid actress and manager! She had almost got a second supply out of me the other day; with her coaxing ways.She beats all the women I have ever seen in the course of all my well-spent life.They are babies compared to her.I am a greenhorn myself, and a fool in her hands--an old fool.She is unsurpassable in lies."His lordship's admiration for Becky rose immeasurably at this proof of her cleverness.Getting the money was nothing--but getting double the sum she wanted, and paying nobody--it was a magnificent stroke.And Crawley, my lord thought--Crawley is not such a fool as he looks and seems.He has managed the matter cleverly enough on his side.Nobody would ever have supposed from his face and demeanour that he knew anything about this money business; and yet he put her up to it, and has spent the money, no doubt.In this opinion my lord, we know, was mistaken, but it influenced a good deal his behaviour towards Colonel Crawley, whom he began to treat with even less than that semblance of respect which he had formerly shown towards that gentleman.It never entered into the head of Mrs.
Crawley's patron that the little lady might be making a purse for herself; and, perhaps, if the truth must be told, he judged of Colonel Crawley by his experience of other husbands, whom he had known in the course of the long and well-spent life which had made him acquainted with a great deal of the weakness of mankind.My lord had bought so many men during his life that he was surely to be pardoned for supposing that he had found the price of this one.
He taxed Becky upon the point on the very first occasion when he met her alone, and he complimented her, good-humouredly, on her cleverness in getting more than the money which she required.Becky was only a little taken aback.It was not the habit of this dear creature to tell falsehoods, except when necessity compelled, but in these great emergencies it was her practice to lie very freely; and in an instant she was ready with another neat plausible circumstantial story which she administered to her patron.The previous statement which she had made to him was a falsehood--a wicked falsehood--she owned it.But who had made her tell it? "Ah, my Lord,"she said, "you don't know all I have to suffer and bear in silence; you see me gay and happy before you--you little know what I have to endure when there is no protector near me.It was my husband, by threats and the most savage treatment, forced me to ask for that sum about which I deceived you.It was he who, foreseeing that questions might be asked regarding the disposal of the money, forced me to account for it as Idid.He took the money.He told me he had paid Miss Briggs; I did not want, I did not dare to doubt him.
Pardon the wrong which a desperate man is forced to commit, and pity a miserable, miserable woman." She burst into tears as she spoke.Persecuted virtue never looked more bewitchingly wretched.
