NEVER did two human creatures get to their feet with more alacrity than the lawyer and myself.We had locked and barred the main gates of the citadel; but unhappily we had left open the bath-room sally-port; and here we found the voice of the hostile trumpets sounding from within, and all our defences taken in reverse.I took but the time to whisper Mr.Romaine in the ear: 'Here is another tableau for you!' at which he looked at me a moment with a kind of pathos, as who should say, 'Don't hit a man when he's down.' Then I transferred my eyes to my enemy.
He had his hat on, a little on one side: it was a very tall hat, raked extremely, and had a narrow curling brim.His hair was all curled out in masses like an Italian mountebank - a most unpardonable fashion.He sported a huge tippeted overcoat of frieze, such as watchmen wear, only the inside was lined with costly furs, and he kept it half open to display the exquisite linen, the many-coloured waistcoat, and the profuse jewellery of watch-chains and brooches underneath.The leg and the ankle were turned to a miracle.It is out of the question that I should deny the resemblance altogether, since it has been remarked by so many different persons whom I cannot reasonably accuse of a conspiracy.
As a matter of fact, I saw little of it and confessed to nothing.
Certainly he was what some might call handsome, of a pictorial, exuberant style of beauty, all attitude, profile, and impudence: a man whom I could see in fancy parade on the grand stand at a race-
meeting or swagger in Piccadilly, staring down the women, and stared at himself with admiration by the coal-porters.Of his frame of mind at that moment his face offered a lively if an unconscious picture.He was lividly pale, and his lip was caught up in a smile that could almost be called a snarl, of a sheer, arid malignity that appalled me and yet put me on my mettle for the encounter.He looked me up and down, then bowed and took off his hat to me.
'My cousin, I presume?' he said.
'I understand I have that honour,' I replied.
'The honour is mine,' said he, and his voice shook as he said it.
'I should make you welcome, I believe,' said I.
'Why?' he inquired.'This poor house has been my home for longer than I care to claim.That you should already take upon yourself the duties of host here is to be at unnecessary pains.Believe me, that part would be more becomingly mine.And, by the way, I must not fail to offer you my little compliment.It is a gratifying surprise to meet you in the dress of a gentleman, and to see' -
with a circular look upon the scattered bills - 'that your necessities have already been so liberally relieved.'
I bowed with a smile that was perhaps no less hateful than his own.
'There are so many necessities in this world,' said I.'Charity has to choose.One gets relieved, and some other, no less indigent, perhaps indebted, must go wanting.'
'Malice is an engaging trait,' said he.
'And envy, I think?' was my reply.
He must have felt that he was not getting wholly the better of this passage at arms; perhaps even feared that he should lose command of his temper, which he reined in throughout the interview as with a red-hot curb, for he flung away from me at the word, and addressed the lawyer with insulting arrogance.
'Mr.Romaine,' he said, 'since when have you presumed to give orders in this house?'
'I am not prepared to admit that I have given any,' replied Romaine; 'certainly none that did not fall in the sphere of my responsibilities.'
'By whose orders, then, am I denied entrance to my uncle's room?'
said my cousin.
'By the doctor's, sir,' replied Romaine; 'and I think even you will admit his faculty to give them.'
'Have a care, sir,' cried Alain.'Do not be puffed up with your position.It is none so secure, Master Attorney.I should not wonder in the least if you were struck off the rolls for this night's work, and the next I should see of you were when I flung you alms at a pothouse door to mend your ragged elbows.The doctor's orders? But I believe I am not mistaken! You have to-
night transacted business with the Count; and this needy young gentleman has enjoyed the privilege of still another interview, in which (as I am pleased to see) his dignity has not prevented his doing very well for himself.I wonder that you should care to prevaricate with me so idly.'
'I will confess so much,' said Mr.Romaine, 'if you call it prevarication.The order in question emanated from the Count himself.He does not wish to see you.'
'For which I must take the word of Mr.Daniel Romaine?' asked Alain.
'In default of any better,' said Romaine.
There was an instantaneous convulsion in my cousin's face, and I distinctly heard him gnash his teeth at this reply; but, to my surprise, he resumed in tones of almost good humour:
'Come, Mr.Romaine, do not let us be petty!' He drew in a chair and sat down.'Understand you have stolen a march upon me.You have introduced your soldier of Napoleon, and (how, I cannot conceive) he has been apparently accepted with favour.I ask no better proof than the funds with which I find him literally surrounded - I presume in consequence of some extravagance of joy at the first sight of so much money.The odds are so far in your favour, but the match is not yet won.Questions will arise of undue influence, of sequestration, and the like: I have my witnesses ready.I tell it you cynically, for you cannot profit by the knowledge; and, if the worst come to the worst, I have good hopes of recovering my own and of ruining you.'
'You do what you please,' answered Romaine; 'but I give it you for a piece of good advice, you had best do nothing in the matter.You will only make yourself ridiculous; you will only squander money, of which you have none too much, and reap public mortification.'