“No sir, sure I ha’ not coom for nowt o’ th’ kind.”
Mr. Bounderby seemed agreeably surprised, notwithstanding his previous strong conviction. “Very well,” he returned, “You’re a steady Hand, and I was not mistaken. Now, let me hear what it’s all about. As it’s not that, let me hear what it is. What have you got to say? Out with it lad!”
Stephen happened to glance towards Mrs. Sparsit. “I can go, Mr. Bounderby, if you wish it,” said that self-sacrificing lady, making a feint of taking her foot out of the stirrup.
Mr. Bounderby stayed her, by holding a mouthful of chop in suspension before swallowing it, and putting out his left hand. Then, withdrawing his hand, and swallowing his mouthful of chop, he said to Stephen:
“Now you know, this good lady is a born lady, a high lady. You are not to suppose because she keeps my house for me, that she hasn’t been very high up the tree – ah, up at the top of the tree! Now, if you have got anything to say that can’t be said before a born lady, this lady will leave the room. If what you have got to say can be said before a born lady, this lady will stay where she is.”
“Sir, I hope I never had nowt to say, not fitten for a born lady to year, sin’ I were born mysen,” was the reply, accompanied with a slight flush.
“Very well,” said Mr. Bounderby, pushing away his plate, and leaning back. “Fire away!”
“I ha’ coom,” Stephen began, raising his eyes from the floor, after a moment’s consideration, “to ask yo yor advice. I need’t overmuch. I were married on Eas’r Monday nineteen year sin, long and dree. She were a young lass – pretty enow – wi’ good accounts of herseln. Well! She went bad – soon. Not along of me. Gonnows I were not a unkind husband to her.”
“I have heard all this before,” said Mr. Bounderby. “She took to drinking, left off working, sold the furniture, pawned the clothes, and played old Gooseberry.”
“I were patient wi’ her.”
(“The more fool you, I think,” said Mr. Bounderby, in confidence to his wine-glass.)
“I were very patient wi’ her. I tried to wean her fra’t ower and ower agen. I tried this, I tried that, I tried t’other. I ha’ gone home, many’s the time, and found all vanished as I had in the world, and her without a sense left to bless herseln lying on bare ground. I ha’ dun’t not once, not twice – twenty time!”
Every line in his face deepened as he said it, and put in its affecting evidence of the suffering he had undergone.
“From bad to worse, from worse to worsen. She left me. She disgraced herseln everyways, bitter and bad. She coom back, she coom back, she coom back. What could I do t’ hinder her? I ha’ walked the streets nights long, ere ever I’d go home. I ha’ gone t’ th’ brigg, minded to fling myseln ower, and ha’ no more on’t. I ha’ bore that much, that I were owd when I were young.”
Mrs. Sparsit easily ambling along with her netting-needles, raised the Coriolanian eyebrows and shook her head, as much as to say, “The great know trouble as well as the small. Please to turn your humble eye in My direction.”
“I ha’ paid her to keep awa’ fra’ me. These five year I ha’ paid her. I ha’ gotten decent fewtrils about me agen. I ha’ lived hard and sad, but not ashamed and fearfo’ a’ the minnits o’ my life. Last night, I went home. There she lay upon my har-stone! There she is!”
In the strength of his misfortune, and the energy of his distress, he fired for the moment like a proud man. In another moment, he stood as he had stood all the time – his usual stoop upon him; his pondering face addressed to Mr. Bounderby, with a curious expression on it, half shrewd, half perplexed, as if his mind were set upon unravelling something very difficult; his hat held tight in his left hand, which rested on his hip; his right arm, with a rugged propriety and force of action, very earnestly emphasising what he said: not least so when it always paused, a little bent, but not withdrawn, as he paused.