No one who has not experienced it can imagine the nervous
disgust and horror which such a spectacle as we had been forced
in part to witness leaves upon the mind of a young person of
my peculiar temperament.
It affected ever after my involuntary estimate of the principal
actors in it. An exhibition of such thorough inferiority, accompanied
by such a shock to the feminine sense of elegance, is not
forgotten by any woman. Captain Oakley had been severely
beaten by a smaller man. It was pitiable, but also undignified; and Milly's anxieties about his teeth and nose, though in a certain sense horrible, had also a painful suspicion of the absurd.
People say, on the other hand, that superior prowess, even
in such barbarous contests, inspires in our sex an interest akin
to admiration. I can positively say in my case it was quite the
reverse. Dudley Ruthyn stood lower than ever in my estimation; for though I feared him more, it was by reason of these brutal and cold-blooded associations.
After this I lived in constant apprehension of being summoned
to my uncle's room, and being called on for an explanation
of my meeting with Captain Oakley, which, notwithstanding
my perfect innocence, looked suspicious, but no such inquisition
resulted. Perhaps he did not suspect me; or, perhaps, he thought, not in his haste, all women are liars, and did not care to hear what I might say. I rather lean to the latter interpretation.
The exchequer just now, I suppose, by some means, was
replenished, for next morning Dudley set off upon one of his
fashionable excursions, as poor Milly thought them, to Wolverhampton. And the same day Dr. Bryerly arrived.
Milly and I, from my room window, saw him step from his
vehicle to the court-yard.
A lean man, with sandy hair and whiskers, was in the chaise
with him. Dr. Bryerly descended in the unchangeable black suit
that always looked new and never fitted him.
The Doctor looked careworn, and older, I thought, by several
years, than when I last saw him. He was not shown up to
my uncle's room; on the contrary, Milly, who was more actively
curious than I, ascertained that our tremulous butler informed
him that my uncle was not sufficiently well for an interview. Whereupon Dr. Bryerly had pencilled a note, the reply to which was a message from Uncle Silas, saying that he would be happy to see him in five minutes.
As Milly and I were conjecturing what it might mean, and
before the five minutes had expired, Mary Quince entered.
'Wyat bid me tell you, Miss, your uncle wants you this minute.'
When I entered his room, Uncle Silas was seated at the table, with his desk before him. He looked up. Could anything be more dignified, suffering, and venerable?
'I sent for you, dear,' he said very gently, extending his thin, white hand, and taking mine, which he held affectionately while he spoke, 'because I desire to have no secrets, and wish you thoroughly to know all that concerns your own interests while subject to my guardianship; and I am happy to think, my beloved niece, that you requite my candour. Oh, here is the gentleman. Sit down, dear.'
Doctor Bryerly was advancing, as it seemed, to shake hands
with Uncle Silas, who, however, rose with a severe and haughty
air, not the least over-acted, and made him a slow, ceremonious
bow. I wondered how the homely Doctor could confront so tranquilly
that astounding statue of hauteur.
A faint and weary smile, rather sad than comtemptuous, was the only
sign he showed of feeling his repulse.
'How do you do, Miss?' he said, extending his hand, and
greeting me after his ungallant fashion, as if it were an afterthought.
'I think I may as well take a chair, sir,' said Doctor Bryerly, sitting down serenely, near the table, and crossing his ungainly legs.
My uncle bowed.
'You understand the nature of the business, sir. Do you wish
Miss Ruthyn to remain?' asked Doctor Bryerly.
'I sent for her, sir,' replied my uncle, in a very gentle and
sarcastic
tone, a smile on his thin lips, and his strangely-contorted
eyebrows raised for a moment contemptuously. 'This gentleman, my dear Maud, thinks proper to insinuate that I am robbing you. It surprises me a little, and, no doubt, you—I've nothing to conceal, and wished you to be present while he favours me more particularly with his views. I'm right, I think, in describing it as robbery, sir?'