Authors: George W. M. Reynolds,James Malcolm Rymer
SCENES IN FASHIONABLE LIFE
Two months elapsed from the date of the preceding event.
It was now the commencement of March; and bleak winds had
succeeded the hoary snows of winter.
The scene changes to the house of Sir Rupert Harborough, in
Tavistock Square.
It was about one o'clock in the afternoon. The baronet was
pacing the drawing-room with uneven steps, while Lady Cecilia lounged upon the
sofa, turning over the pages of a new novel.
"Now this is most provoking, Cecilia," exclaimed
the baronet: "I never was so much in want of money in my life; and you
refuse to adopt the only means which —"
"Yes, Sir Rupert," interrupted the lady
impatiently; "I refuse to give you my diamonds to pledge again - and all
your arguments shall never persuade me to do so."
"Your heart is too good, Cecilia —"
"Oh! yes - you may try what coaxing will do; but I can
assure you that I am proof against both honied and bitter words. Neither will
serve your turn now."
"And yet, somehow or another, you have the command of
money, Cecilia," resumed the baronet, after a pause. "You paid all
the tradesmen's bills and servants' wages about two months ago: you found out -
though God only knows how - that Greenwood had the duplicate of your
diamonds;- you redeemed the ticket from him, and the jewels themselves
from V—'s; and from that moment you have never seemed embarrassed for a
five-pound note."
"All
that
is perfectly true, Sir
Rupert," said Lady Cecilia, blushing slightly, and yet smiling archly, -
and never did she seem more beautiful than when the glow of shame thus mantled
her cheek and poured a flood of light into those eyes that were so expressive
of a voluptuous and sensual mature.
"Well, then," continued the baronet, "if you
can thus obtain supplies for yourself, surely you can do something in the same
way for me."
"I have no ready money at present," said Lady
Cecilia; "and I have determined not to part with my jewels. There!"
"Perhaps you think that I am fool enough to me the dupe
of your miserable and flimsy artifice, Cecilia?" cried the baronet
impatiently: "but I can tell you that I have seen through them all
along."
"You!" ejaculated the lady, starting uneasily
while her heart palpitated violently, and she felt that her cheeks were
crimson.
"Yes - I, Lady Cecilia," answered the baronet.
"I am not quite such a fool as you take me for."
"My God, Sir Rupert! what - how - who -"
stammered the guilty wife, a cold tremor pervading every limb, although her
cheeks appeared to be on fire.
"There! you see that all my suspicions are
confirmed," cried the baronet; "your confusion proves it "
"You cannot say that - that - I have ever given you any
cause, Sir Rupert —"
"What? to doubt your word? Oh! no - I can't say that
you are in the habit of telling falsehoods generally; but —"
"Sir Rupert!"
"Nay - I will speak out! The fact is, you pretend to
have quarrelled with Lady Tremordyn; and it is all nonsense. Your mother supplies
you with as much money as you require - and that is the secret! "
"Oh! Sir Rupert - Sir Rupert!" exclaimed Lady
Cecilia, suddenly relieved from a most painful state of apprehension, and now
comprehending the error under which he was labouring.
"You cannot deny what I affirm, Cecilia. And now that I
bethink me, it is most probable that Greenwood himself told Lord Tremordyn
(with whom he was intimate at that time, although they have since quarrelled,
God only knows what about) of my having placed the duplicate of the diamonds in
his hands, and so your father arranged that matter with Greenwood. It is a
gross system of duplicity, Cecilia - a gross system; a pretended quarrel merely
to prevent me from visiting at the house of my father-in-law. But, by God! I
will stand it no longer!"
"What will you do, then?" demanded Lady Cecilia,
ironically.
"What will I do? I will go straight off to Lord and
Lady Tremordyn, and tell them my mind."
"And Lord and Lady Tremordyn will tell you theirs in return."
"And what can they say, madam, against me?"
"Nay - Sir Rupert, rather ask what they can say for
you."
"Oh! you wish to irritate me, madam - you are anxious
to quarrel with me," cried the baronet. - "Well - be it so! As for
your father and mother I will tell them that they do not act honourably, nor
even prudently, in allowing their
son-in-law to live by his wits and be compelled to raise money where he
can."
"And they will tell you in reply, that you did not act
honourably nor prudently to squander the large sum they gave you when you
married their daughter."
"The devil they will!" exclaimed the baronet.
"Then, in that case, I shall remind them of the consideration for which
the large sum you allude to was given."
"Monster - coward!" cried Lady Cecilia: "do
you dare to throw in my teeth the weakness of which I was guilty through excess
of love for you?"
"I am sure you need not be so fastidious, Cecilia. To
talk of love now, between a man of the world like me and a woman of the world
like you, is an absurdity ;- and as for the little weakness of which you speak,
I repaired it."
"Yes, " said the lady, bitterly. "When you
saw me kneeling in despair at your feet - and when my mother implored you to
save her daughter's honour, you turned a deaf ear to our entreaties - you
scorned our prayers: but when my father offered a golden argument —"
"Lady Cecilia - silence, I command you!"
"When he offered a golden argument," I say,
continued the lady, with withering scorn, "- when he produced his
cheque-book, Sir Rupert Harborough pretended to yield to my entreaties; and as
he raised me from the ground - condescendingly - raised me - me, the daughter
of a peer - with one hand, - with the other he clutched the bribe! Ah! Sir Rupert
- you spoilt a good heart - you trampled a confiding disposition in the dust -
when you would not allow yourself to be purchased by my love, but still
consented to sell yourself to me for my father's gold! Oh! it was the vile
instance of a man prostituting himself for gain, as poor weak woman has so
often been doomed to do!"
"Lady Cecilia - I am astonished. - I am amazed at the
terms in which you allow yourself to address me!" said Sir Rupert
Harborough, humiliated and put to shame by these words of keenly cutting
satire.
"And now," continued the indignant lady, -
"now you solicit me to ruin myself for you - to part with my very
ornaments to supply your extravagances, - you, who had no pity upon my tears,
no feeling for my anguish, no respect for my honour! No, Sir Rupert Harborough:
I have assisted you once - assisted you twice - assisted you thrice - assisted
you a hundred times already; and what return have you made me? When you are
penniless, you remain at home: when you are in the possession of funds, you
remain absent for weeks and weeks together. You may love me no longer, it is
true; - and, with regard to myself, I confess that your conduct has long-long
ago destroyed all the romance of affection in my bosom. Still a woman cannot
endure neglect - at least I thought so a few months ago ;- but now - now,"
she added emphatically, as her thoughts wandered to Greenwood, " I am
indifferent alike as to your attention or your neglect!"
"At least, Lady Cecilia, you are candid and
explicit," said Sir Rupert, biting his lips. " But perhaps you have
something more to observe."
"No-nothing," answered the lady coldly; and, with
these words, she rose and left the room.
Not many minutes had elapsed since the termination of this
"scene," when Mr. Chichester was announced.
"Well, what news with the old man?" demanded the
baronet hastily.
"My father will not advance me another shilling until
June," answered Chichester, throwing himself upon the sofa; "and as
for your bill - he won't look at it. Any thing good with you?"
"Nothing. Lady Cecilia positively refuses to part with
the jewels again," said the baronet, stamping his foot with rage.
"And can't you —"
"Can't I what?"
"Can't you help yourself to them in spite of her?"
demanded Chichester.
"Impossible!" returned Harborough. " She
keeps them under lock and key in her own room; and the door of that room she
always locks when she goes out."
"How provoking! If we only had some ready money at this
moment," observed Chichester, " we might make a little fortune."
"Yes - town is full - and such opportunities at we
might have! By Jove, we
must
raise the wind somewhere."
"You do not think that Greenwood—"
"Oh! no - not for a moment! " cried the baronet,
turning very pale as the idea of the forged acceptance of Lord Tremordyn, which
would be due in another month, flashed across his mind: "no - I cannot
apply to Greenwood for a shilling."
"And after all the pains I have taken in perfecting you
in the new dodges with the cards and dice, ready for this season," said
Mr. Chichester, in a most lachrymose tone; then, taking a small parcel from his
pocket, he continued, "Here are the implements we want, too: every thing
prepared - except the money."
"Ah! " exclaimed the baronet, "you have got
the things, then, at last?"
"Yes, returned Chichester, opening the parcel and
displaying its contents upon the table. " Here are the
scratched dice
, you see. These must be used
upon a bare table, because it is necessary to judge by the sound of the dice in
the box whether they are on the scratched side or not. You understand that a
hole has been drilled in the centre pip of the five in this die, and in the ace
of the other: a piece of ebony is then inserted, with a very small portion
projecting. These dice cannot, therefore, fall perfectly fiat, when the five
side of the one and the ace of the other are underneath on the table; and it is
very easy for the thrower just to move the box the least thing before he lifts
it, so that the sound may tell him whether the scratched side is down or not.
But you are to recollect that a man must be very drunk when you can use them
with any degree of safety."
"I should think so, indeed," said Sir
Rupert.
"I can assure you that no implements of our craft are,
on certain occasions, more destructive than these," observed Chichester.
"And what is the use of these slight scratches upon the
dice? "
"To assist the eye in manipulating them. But
here," continued Chichester, holding up a dice-box, and surveying it with
a species of paternal admiration, - "here is a famous antidote to fair
dice.
Don't you see that when fair dice are used, you must introduce an
unfair box,
Many a greenhorn may have heard of loaded dice, and so on; but
very few know that there is such a thing as the
Doctor Dice-box
. Honour to the man, say I, who invented it. If you judge by
the outside of this box, it is a very fair-looking one; but just put, your
finger into it, and you will feel that no less than three-quarters of the
inside are filled up, so that there is now only just space enough left in the
middle for the dice to fit in. Towards the top the sides grow larger and
smoother. The dice, you see, rattle by rising up and down, when shaken briskly,
but do not change their position. All that you have to do is to put them in, in
the first instance, with a view to the way in which you want them to come
up."
"So that if you want to
throw a six and a five, put the dice into the box with the ace and the two
uppermost," said the baronet.
"Precisely," answered Chichester. "A fair
box, you know as well as I do, has one or more rims inside, against which the
dice must turn in coming out."
"By the bye," said the baronet, "what is the
Gradus
, Chichester? you promised to
show me a great many times, and have forgotten it; but now that we are upon the
subject, you may as well enlighten me."
"Certainly, my dear fellow," returned this very
complacent Mentor; then, taking up a pack of cards, he said, "nothing is
more easy than the
Gradus
, or
Step
. It is often much safer than
Bridging
, too.
Bridging
is known by every snob about town
who pretends to set up for a
Greek
.
All that you have to do for the
Gradus
is to let any particular card you
fancy project a little in this way, so as to make sure that your opponent will
turn it up, at whist or ecarté, as the case may be."
" Excellent! I like the plan better than any other you
ever yet showed me for effecting the same object."
"Palming may sometimes be done successfully,"
continued Chichester: "but you must have the small French cards to do it.
There - all that there is to do is to secrete a particular card under the
palm and partially up the sleeve till it is required. When your opponent is
well primed, you can easily introduce a
fifth king
, or
fifth ace
, in this way. There is a great
deal of art, too, in shuffling, or
Weaving
. At ecarté or whist, always
watch which tricks taken up have the best cards; then, when you take up all the
cards to shuffle them again, weave in the good tricks to suit your
purposes."
"I heard a gentleman say the other night,"
observed the baronet, "that he had been most gloriously fleeced by a
fellow who used pricked cards."
"Ah! they are capital weapons," exclaimed
Chichester. "Just lay the high cards flat on their backs, and then prick
them with a very fine needle, - so as to raise the slightest possible pimple in
the world upon the backs down in one of the corners; but mind, the cards
are not to be punctured quite through. The fellow who told me how to do
this dodge, used some chemical preparation to the ball of his thumb, which made
that part almost raw, and consequently so very sensitive that he could feel the
smallest possible pimple on the card with the greatest ease."
"And what have you got there?" demanded Sir
Rupert, pointing to a pack of cards which Chichester had just taken from his
parcel.
"These are
Reflectors
," replied the Mentor.
"They are French cards, you perceive, and are only manufactured in France.
They cost two guineas a stack ; but then - only think of their utility! Look at
the backs of these cards: instead of being plain, they are figured. Now this to
a common observer is nothing, most of the French cards being, you know,
variegated with flowers or other designs at the back. But to the initiated, the
lines upon these cards are every thing. Mark how their run. All the high
cards have semicircles in the corners, while all the low cards have the
ends of the lines meeting in the corners. Then, by a more minute study still of
these cards, it is easy to know kings, queens, knaves, and aces, by the manner
in which the lines run upon the back. I hope these weapons are dangerous enough
for you?"
"They are decidedly the most efficient I have yet
seen," answered the baronet. "I think we now know all the mysteries
of the gaming world and considering how many that there are in London and the
watering places, it would be astonishing indeed if we could not pick up a
handsome living."
"Of course it would," said Mr. Chichester.
"The mania for play is most extraordinary. The moment a young man enters
upon life, he fancies that it is very fine to frequent gambling-houses or lose
his loose gold at private play: indeed he imagines that he cannot be a man of
the world without it. There is our advantage. That anxiety to be looked upon as
a fine dashing fellow is the real cause of the immense increase of gaming
propensities. Young men do not begin to play in the first instance because they
like it: they commence, simply to gratify their vanity; and then they imbibe
the taste and acquire the habit. What they began through pride, they continue
through love. There, again, I say, is our pull :- there always will be flats
ready to throw themselves head and shoulders into the nets that sharps spread
out for them."
"All that is very true, Chichester," said the
baronet. "But we don't want a homily on the vice of gambling this
afternoon: what we require us the needful to enable us to put our plans into
execution. The old tricks that you taught me more than three years ago in that
very respectable lodging which you occupied in Bartholomew Close, are well-nigh
worn out: we have now studied fresh ones ;- but we are totally deficient in the
steam to set our new engines in motion."
Chichester was about to reply when a carriage drove up to
the front door, and Mr. Greenwood alighted.