Happiness and grief were both active in his mind, and partly to escape the confusion, as well as the guilt of joy at such a time, he deliberately reflected on the change in Mrs Williams. Diana, like many of her friends, had always been willing to back her judgment of a horse with a bet, and having staked a large sum at thirty-five to one on the animal that won the St Leger two years ago she found herself with several thousand to spare. Part of her stake had been made up of small amounts, like the cook’s half-guinea, rising to twenty-five for old Lady West whose husband, like Diana’s father, had been a cavalry officer, but most had been the five-guinea bets laid by tolerably well-to-do widow ladies in Bath who delighted in gambling – sums that the big, reliable London offices would not trouble with, while the small local men – sad riff-raff – could not be trusted. When she had paid all these happy creatures, she suggested that her aunt, at that time penniless and oh so meek, should take over the whole undertaking, but for a profit, being her own betting office – here was the connexion, ready at hand, and Diana would show her, how to keep a book. Just where the Hon Mrs Morris came in he could not recollect,but she added much to the respectability of the concern; while her servant, a tall man in a black coat who looked like a dissenting minister and who expected other servants to call him Mr Briggs, had been employed by a race-horse owner and was very well acquainted with the subject.
The two ladies’ conversation could never have recommended them anywhere, but they were accepted members of that world, and their respectability, combined with reliability, discretion and convenience, caused their undertaking to prosper. How Mrs Williams reconciled her occupation with her former rigid principles Jack could not tell: but the principles had never prevented her, in the days of her wealth, from making an eager search for investments that would give her a very high yield – an attorney who offered her a certain thirty-one per cent return had been her undoing – and perhaps it was all part of the same thing. At all events she now grew steadily richer, and steadily more unpleasant.
Jack was revolving this in his mind, an aphorism just out of reach, when he heard the sound of wheels on the drive, the opening and closing of carriage doors, steps on the gravel, more voices raised quite high, steps in the corridor, and Stephen opened the door of the room in which Jack’s bed had been set up. ‘Why, my poor Jack,’ he exclaimed, but in little more than a whisper, ‘how sorry I am to see you brought so low, my dear. Do your ears and eyes hurt you, now? Can you bear talking at all?’
‘To be sure I can, Stephen,’ said Jack, quite loud. ‘It is much better today; and I am so glad to see you. But as for my being brought low, it is only my head; my heart is
bounding about like a lamb. I had such a signal on Wednesday morning, brought up post-haste from the port-admiral, that valuable man. Such a signal . . . but tell me, how did your journey go? Was all well in town?’
‘Very well, I thank you. Sir Joseph asked me to bring a statue down for a friend at Weymouth, so I came back with Tom in the Ringle, picking Sarah and Emily up at Shelmerston and coming on by chaise. Tom came along with us, for orders. You can hear him roaring on the terrace. I mean to take the girls on to Barham to see Diana for a while, and then to carry them up to the Grapes, to live with Mrs Broad. But Jack, your house is in a strange turmoil, I find. Will I go and bid Tom bring up all standing?’
‘Never in life. I am sorry for the din – that screeching is Sophie from upstairs, I think, talking to him – but the fact of the matter is, the children have reported sick, the three of
’em, and with me laid up, the place is all ahoo. Would you like to hear about my signal, Stephen?’
‘If you, please.’
‘Well, I am to have Bellona, 74, with a broad pennant and Tom as captain under me; Terrible, another 74; and three frigates, one of which is sure to be the Pyramus; and perhaps half a dozen slops, for the cruise off Africa that Heneage Dundas told me of. Ain’t you amazed? I was, I promise you. I thought it was just one of those things people throw out, far too good to be true.’
‘I give you all the joy in the world of your command, my dear: long, long may it prosper.’
‘You will come with me, Stephen, will you not? It is mostly for putting down the slave-trade, you remember; and by the twenty-fifth of next month all should be assembled, manned and equipped.
‘I should be very happy. But now, my dear Commodore, I must go and look at your children. I promised poor distracted Sophie so to do while your medical man was there, so that we might lay our physical heads together. I also promised not to tire you. Then I must hurry on to Barham: if I am not there by dark Diana will think we have been overturned in some remote, ill-favoured ditch.’
Jack’s spirits fell at once. He hesitated, and said ‘It is quite a while since Sophie has seen her – some disagreement with Diana’s aunt, I believe. But Stephen, do not be disappointed if she is away. Nobody knew we were coming back, you know.’
Stephen smiled and said ‘Diana and I will come and see you on your feet in a few days’ time, I hope; but in the meanwhile I shall desire Dr Gowers to prescribe a little hellebore to calm the turbulence of your spirits and procure a healing equanimity. God bless, now.’
In the hall he found Tom Pullings, entirely alone, leaping and making antic gestures: on hearing Stephen he span round,showing a face of such laughing delight that the Devil himself could not have failed to smile. ‘Can I see the Captain now, do you think?’
he asked.
‘You may; but do not speak loud, do not agitate his mind.’ Pullings took his elbow in an iron grip and whispered ‘He is to hoist a broad pennant in Bellona, and he has named me to be captain under him – he has made me post! I am a post-captain! I never thought it could happen.’
Stephen shook his hand and said ‘I am so happy. At this rate, Tom, I shall live to congratulate you on your flag.’
‘Thank you, thank you, sir,’ called Tom after him as he hurried up the stairs. ‘I have never heard a sentiment so well expressed; nor with such elegance and wit, neither.’
‘Sophie, my love,’ said Stephen, kissing her on both cheeks, ‘you are in the most charming bloom, joy: but there is some degree of nervous tension, even a hint of febrility. I believe, Dr Gowers, that we might profitably exhibit a modest dose of hellebore for Mrs Aubrey as well as for the Commodore.’
‘The Commodore,’ murmured Sophie, squeezing his arm. They looked at the children, all struck dumb for the moment, and presently Stephen said ‘I quite agree with my colleague. This is an advanced state of the commencement of measles: look at the swollen, bloated appearance of poor Charlotte’s face.’
‘I am not Charlotte. I am Fanny; and my face is neither swollen nor bloated.’
‘Oh Fanny, for shame,’ cried her mother, in great distress, tears starting from her eyes.
‘So bloated and so swollen that the eruption cannot be long delayed: but I am sorry that it should be the measles, since I cannot bring my little girls up to see the invalids. Like many other black people they have no protection against the disease, and frequently succumb. And now, dear Sophie, I must go and collect them: do not move, I beg.’ And privately in her ear ‘I am so very happy about Jack.’
On the stairs he murmured to himself ‘Presently I shall see a little face that is neither swollen nor bloated; one that is incapable of such a gross reply.’
In the drawing-room he found no one but Mrs Williams, still simmering with ill-temper.
‘Where are Sarah and Emily?’ he asked.
‘The little niggers? I sent them to the kitchen, where they belong,’ said Mrs Williams. When I came in they neither curtseyed nor called me ma’am. And when I said
“Don’t you know you must not just say good day and no more as if you was addressing the cat and don’t you know you must curtsey to a gentlewoman?” they only looked at one another and shook their heads.’