sir, yes. But that’s what I’ve said to myself,—I’ve said you’d had some nat’ral feeling; and as for my husband, as hasn’t been himself for this two months, I’m not a-defending him, in no way, for being so hot about th’ erigation,—not but what there’s worse men, for he never wronged nobody of a shilling nor a penny, not willingly; and as for his fieriness and lawing, what could I do? And him struck as if it was with death when he got the letter as said you’d the hold upo’ the land. But I can’t believe but what you’ll behave as a gentleman.”
“What does all this mean, Mrs. Tulliver?” said Mr. Wakem rather sharply. “What do you want to ask me?”
“Why, sir, if you’ll be so good,” said Mrs. Tulliver, starting a little, and speaking more hurriedly,—“if you’ll be so good not to buy the mill an’ the land,—the land wouldn’t so much matter, only my husband ull’ be like mad at your having it.”
Something like a new thought flashed across Mr. Wakem’s face as he said, “Who told you I meant to buy it?”
“Why, sir, it’s none o’ my inventing, and I should never ha’ thought of it; for my husband, as ought to know about the law, he allays used to say as lawyers had never no call to buy anything,—either lands or houses,—for they allays got ’em into their hands other ways. An’ I should think that ’ud be the way with you, sir; and I niver said as you’d be the man to do contrairy to that.”
“Ah, well, who was it that did say so?” said Wakem, opening his desk, and moving things about, with the accompaniment of an almost inaudible whistle.
“Why, sir, it was Mr. Glegg and Mr. Deane, as have all the management; and Mr. Deane thinks as Guest &Co. ’ud buy the mill and let Mr. Tulliver work it for ’em, if you didn’t bid for it and raise the price. And it ’ud be such a thing for my husband to stay where he is, if he could get his living: for it was his father’s before him, the mill was, and his grandfather built it, though I wasn’t fond o’ the noise of it, when first I was married, for there was no mills in our family,—not the Dodson’s,—and if I’d known as the mills had so much to do with the law, it wouldn’t have been me as ’ud have been the first Dodson to marry one; but I went into it blindfold, that I did, erigation and everything.”
“What! Guest &Co. would keep the mill in their own hands, I suppose, and pay your husband wages?”
“Oh dear, sir, it’s hard to think of,” said poor Mrs. Tulliver, a little tear making its way, “as my husband should take wage. But it ’ud look more like what used to be, to stay at the mill than to go anywhere else; and if you’ll only think—if you was to bid for the mill and buy it, my husband might be struck worse than he was before, and niver get better again as he’s getting now.”
“Well, but if I bought the mill, and allowed your husband to act as my manager in the same way, how then?” said Mr. Wakem.
“Oh, sir, I doubt he could niver be got to do it, not if the very mill stood still to beg and pray of him. For your name’s like poison to him, it’s so as never was; and he looks upon it as you’ve been the ruin of him all along, ever since you set the law on him about the road through the meadow,—that’s eight year ago, and he’s been going on ever since—as I’ve allays told him he was wrong——”
“He’s a pig-headed, foul-mouthed fool!” burst out Mr. Wakem, forgetting himself.
“Oh dear, sir!” said Mrs. Tulliver, frightened at a result so different from the one she had fixed her mind on; “I wouldn’t wish to contradict you, but it’s like enough he’s changed his mind with this illness,—he’s forgot a many things he used to talk about. And you wouldn’t like to have a corpse on your mind, if he was to die; and they do say as it’s allays unlucky when Dorlcote Mill changes hands, and the water might all run away, and then—not as I’m wishing you any ill-luck, sir, for I forgot to tell you as I remember your wedding as if it was yesterday; Mrs. Wakem was a Miss Clint, I know that; and my boy, as there isn’t a nicer, handsomer, straighter boy nowhere, went to school with your son——”
Mr. Wakem rose, opened the door, and called to one of his clerks.
“You must excuse me for interrupting you, Mrs. Tulliver; I have business that must be attended to; and I think there is nothing more necessary to be said.”
“But if you would bear it in mind, sir,” said Mrs. Tulliver, rising, “and not run against me and my children; and I’m not denying Mr. Tulliver’s been in the wrong, but he’s been punished enough, and there’s worse men, for it’s been giving to other folks has been his fault. He’s done nobody any harm but himself and his family,—the more’s the pity,—and I go and look at the bare shelves every day, and think where all my things used to stand.”
“Yes, yes, I’ll bear it in mind,” said Mr. Wakem, hastily, looking toward the open door.
“And if you’d please not to say as I’ve been to speak to you, for my son ’ud be very angry with me for demeaning myself, I know he would, and I’ve trouble enough without being scolded by my children.”
Poor Mrs. Tulliver’s voice trembled a little, and she could make no answer to the attorney’s “good morning,” but curtsied and walked out in silence.
“Which day is it that Dorlcote Mill is to be sold? Where’s the bill?” said Mr. Wakem to his clerk when they were alone.
“Next Friday is the day,—Friday at six o’clock.”
“Oh, just run to Winship’s the auctioneer, and see if he’s at home. I have some business for him; ask him to come up.”
Although, when Mr. Wakem entered his office that morning, he had had no intention of purchasing Dorlcote Mill, his mind was already made up. Mrs. Tulliver had suggested to him several determining motives, and his mental glance was very rapid; he was one of those men who can be prompt without being rash, because their motives run in fixed tracks, and they have no need to reconcile conflicting aims.
To suppose that Wakem had the same sort of inveterate hatred toward Tulliver that Tulliver had toward him would be like supposing that a pike and a roach can look at each other from a similar point of view. The roach necessarily abhors the mode in which the pike gets his living, and the pike is likely to think nothing further even of the most indignant roach than that he is excellent good eating; it could only be when the roach choked him that the pike could entertain a strong personal animosity. If Mr. Tulliver had ever seriously injured or thwarted the attorney, Wakem would not have refused him the distinction of being a special object of his vindictiveness. But when Mr. Tulliver called Wakem a rascal at the market dinner-table, the attorneys’ clients were not a whit inclined to withdraw their business from him; and if, when Wakem himself happened to be present, some jocose cattle-feeder, stimulated by opportunity and brandy, made a thrust at him by alluding to old ladies’ wills, he maintained perfect sang froid, and knew quite well that the majority of substantial men then present were perfectly contented with the fact that “Wakem was Wakem”; that is to say, a man who always knew the stepping-stones that would carry him through very muddy bits of practice. A man who had made a large fortune, had a handsome house among the trees at Tofton, and decidedly the finest stock of port-wine in the neighborhood of St. Ogg’s, was likely to feel himself on a level with public opinion. And I am not sure that even honest Mr. Tulliver himself, with his general view of law as a cockpit, might not, under opposite circumstances, have seen a fine appropriateness in the truth that “Wakem was Wakem”; since I have understood from persons versed in history, that mankind is not disposed to look narrowly into the conduct of great victors when their victory is on the right side. Tulliver, then, could be no obstruction to Wakem; on the contrary, he was a poor devil whom the lawyer had defeated several times; a hot-tempered fellow, who would always give you a handle against him. Wakem’s conscience was not uneasy because he had used a few tricks against the miller; why should he hate that unsuccessful plaintiff, that pitiable, furious bull entangled in the meshes of a net?
Still, among the various excesses to which