_ Chapter IX - The conclusion of Mrs. Bennet's history.
"When I became sensible," cries Mrs. Bennet, "of the injury I had done
my husband, I threw myself at his feet, and embracing his knees, while
I bathed them with my tears, I begged a patient hearing, declaring, if
he was not satisfied with what I should say, I would become a willing
victim of his resentment, I said, and I said truly, that, if I owed my
death that instant to his hands, I should have no other terrour but of
the fatal consequence which it might produce to himself.
"He seemed a little pacified, and bid me say whatever I pleased.
"I then gave him a faithful relation of all that had happened. He
heard me with great attention, and at the conclusion cried, with a
deep sigh--'O Molly! I believe it all.--You must have been betrayed as
you tell me; you could not be guilty of such baseness, such cruelty,
such ingratitude.' He then--O! it is impossible to describe his
behaviour--he exprest such kindness, such tenderness, such concern for
the manner in which he had used me--I cannot dwell on this scene--I
shall relapse--you must excuse me."
Amelia begged her to omit anything which so affected her; and she
proceeded thus: "My husband, who was more convinced than I was of Mrs.
Ellison's guilt, declared he would not sleep that night in her house.
He then went out to see for a lodging; he gave me all the money he
had, and left me to pay her bill, and put up the cloaths, telling me,
if I had not money enough, I might leave the cloaths as a pledge; but
he vowed he could not answer for himself if he saw the face of Mrs.
Ellison.
"Words cannot scarce express the behaviour of that artful woman, it
was so kind and so generous. She said, she did not blame my husband's
resentment, nor could she expect any other, but that he and all the
world should censure her--that she hated her house almost as much as
we did, and detested her cousin, if possible, more. In fine, she said
I might leave my cloaths there that evening, but that she would send
them to us the next morning; that she scorned the thought of detaining
them; and as for the paultry debt, we might pay her whenever we
pleased; for, to do her justice, with all her vices, she hath some
good in her."
"Some good in her, indeed!" cried Amelia, with great indignation.
"We were scarce settled in our new lodgings," continued Mrs. Bennet,
"when my husband began to complain of a pain in his inside. He told me
he feared he had done himself some injury in his rage, and burst
something within him. As to the odious--I cannot bear the thought, the
great skill of his surgeon soon entirely cured him; but his other
complaint, instead of yielding to any application, grew still worse
and worse, nor ever ended till it brought him to his grave.
"O Mrs. Booth! could I have been certain that I had occasioned this,
however innocently I had occasioned it, I could never have survived
it; but the surgeon who opened him after his death assured me that he
died of what they called a polypus in his heart, and that nothing
which had happened on account of me was in the least the occasion of
it.
"I have, however, related the affair truly to you. The first complaint
I ever heard of the kind was within a day or two after we left Mrs.
Ellison's; and this complaint remained till his death, which might
induce him perhaps to attribute his death to another cause; but the
surgeon, who is a man of the highest eminence, hath always declared
the contrary to me, with the most positive certainty; and this opinion
hath been my only comfort.
"When my husband died, which was about ten weeks after we quitted Mrs.
Ellison's, of whom I had then a different opinion from what I have
now, I was left in the most wretched condition imaginable. I believe,
madam, she shewed you my letter. Indeed, she did everything for me at
that time which I could have expected from the best of friends, She
supplied me with money from her own pocket, by which means I was
preserved from a distress in which I must have otherwise inevitably
perished.
"Her kindness to me in this season of distress prevailed on me to
return again to her house. Why, indeed, should I have refused an offer
so very convenient for me to accept, and which seemed so generous in
her to make? Here I lived a very retired life with my little babe,
seeing no company but Mrs. Ellison herself for a full quarter of a
year. At last Mrs. Ellison brought me a parchment from my lord, in
which he had settled upon me, at her instance, as she told me, and as
I believe it was, an annuity of one hundred and fifty pounds a-year.
This was, I think, the very first time she had mentioned his hateful
name to me since my return to her house. And she now prevailed upon
me, though I assure you not without some difficulty, to suffer him to
execute the deed in my presence.
"I will not describe our interview--I am not able to describe it, and
I have often wondered how I found spirits to support it. This I will
say for him, that, if he was not a real penitent, no man alive could
act the part better.
"Beside resentment, I had another motive of my backwardness to agree
to such a meeting; and this was--fear. I apprehended, and surely not
without reason, that the annuity was rather meant as a bribe than a
recompence, and that further designs were laid against my innocence;
but in this I found myself happily deceived; for neither then, nor at
any time since, have I ever had the least solicitation of that kind.
Nor, indeed, have I seen the least occasion to think my lord had any
such desires.
"Good heavens! what are these men? what is this appetite which must
have novelty and resistance for its provocatives, and which is
delighted with us no longer than while we may be considered in the
light of enemies?"
"I thank you, madam," cries Amelia, "for relieving me from my fears on
your account; I trembled at the consequence of this second
acquaintance with such a man, and in such a situation."
"I assure you, madam, I was in no danger," returned Mrs. Bennet; "for,
besides that I think I could have pretty well relied on my own
resolution, I have heard since, at St Edmundsbury, from an intimate
acquaintance of my lord's, who was an entire stranger to my affairs,
that the highest degree of inconstancy is his character; and that few
of his numberless mistresses have ever received a second visit from
him.
"Well, madam," continued she, "I think I have little more to trouble
you with; unless I should relate to you my long ill state of health,
from which I am lately, I thank Heaven, recovered; or unless I should
mention to you the most grievous accident that ever befel me, the loss
of my poor dear Charley." Here she made a full stop, and the tears ran
down into her bosom.
Amelia was silent a few minutes, while she gave the lady time to vent
her passion; after which she began to pour forth a vast profusion of
acknowledgments for the trouble she had taken in relating her history,
but chiefly for the motive which had induced her to it, and for the
kind warning which she had given her by the little note which Mrs.
Bennet had sent her that morning.
"Yes, madam," cries Mrs. Bennet, "I am convinced, by what I have
lately seen, that you are the destined sacrifice to this wicked lord;
and that Mrs. Ellison, whom I no longer doubt to have been the
instrument of my ruin, intended to betray you in the same manner. The
day I met my lord in your apartment I began to entertain some
suspicions, and I took Mrs. Ellison very roundly to task upon them;
her behaviour, notwithstanding many asseverations to the contrary,
convinced me I was right; and I intended, more than once, to speak to
you, but could not; till last night the mention of the masquerade
determined me to delay it no longer. I therefore sent you that note
this morning, and am glad you so luckily discovered the writer, as it
hath given me this opportunity of easing my mind, and of honestly
shewing you how unworthy I am of your friendship, at the same time
that I so earnestly desire it." _