第35章

And it was queer to remark the change that had taken place in Mrs.Hoggarty's character now: for whereas she was in the country among the topping persons of the village, and quite content with a tea- party at six and a game of twopenny whist afterwards,--in London she would never dine till seven; would have a fly from the mews to drive in the Park twice a week; cut and uncut, and ripped up and twisted over and over, all her old gowns, flounces, caps, and fallals, and kept my poor Mary from morning till night altering them to the present mode.Mrs.Hoggarty, moreover, appeared in a new wig; and, I am sorry to say, turned out with such a pair of red cheeks as Nature never gave her, and as made all the people in Bernard Street stare, where they are not as yet used to such fashions.

Moreover, she insisted upon our establishing a servant in livery,-- a boy, that is, of about sixteen,--who was dressed in one of the old liveries that she had brought with her from Somersetshire, decorated with new cuffs and collars, and new buttons: on the latter were represented the united crests of the Titmarshes and Hoggartys, viz., a tomtit rampant and ahog in armour.I thought this livery and crest-button rather absurd, I must confess; though my family is very ancient.And heavens! what a roar of laughter was raised in the office one day, when the little servant in the big livery, with the immense cane, walked in and brought me a message from Mrs.Hoggarty of Castle Hoggarty! Furthermore, all letters were delivered on a silver tray.If we had had a baby, I believe Aunt would have had it down on the tray: but there was as yet no foundation for Mr.Smithers's insinuation upon that score, any more than for his other cowardly fabrication before narrated.Aunt and Mary used to walk gravely up and down the New Road, with the boy following with his great gold-headed stick; but though there was all this ceremony and parade, and Aunt still talked of her acquaintances, we did not see a single person from week's end to week's end, and a more dismal house than ours could hardly be found in London town.

On Sundays, Mrs.Hoggarty used to go to St.Pancras Church, then just built, and as handsome as Covent Garden Theatre; and of evenings, to a meeting-house of the Anabaptists: and that day, at least, Mary and I had to ourselves,--for we chose to have seats at the Foundling, and heard the charming music there, and my wife used to look wistfully in the pretty children's faces,--and so, for the matter of that, did I.It was not, however, till a year after our marriage that she spoke in a way which shall be here passed over, but which filled both her and me with inexpressible joy.

I remember she had the news to give me on the very day when the Muff and Tippet Company shut up, after swallowing a capital of 300,000L.as some said, and nothing to show for it except a treaty with some Indians, who had afterwards tomahawked the agent of the Company.Some people said there were no Indians, and no agent to be tomahawked at all; but that the whole had been invented in a house in Crutched Friars.Well, I pitied poor Tidd, whose 20,000L.were thus gone in a year, and whom I met in the City that day with a most ghastly face.He had 1,000L.of debts, he said, and talked of shooting himself; but he was only arrested, and passed a long time in the Fleet.Mary's delightful news, however, soon put Tidd and the Muff and Tippet Company out of my head; as you may fancy.

Other circumstances now occurred in the City of London which seemed to show that our Director was--what is not to be found in Johnson's Dictionary--rather shaky.Three of his companies had broken; four more were in a notoriously insolvent state; and even at the meetings of the directors of the West Diddlesex, some stormy words passed, which ended in the retirement of several of the board.Friends of Mr.B.'s filled up their places: Mr.Puppet, Mr.Straw, Mr.Query, and other respectable gents, coming forward and joining the concern.Brough and Hoff dissolved partnership; and Mr.B.said he had quite enough to do to manage the I.W.D., and intended gradually to retire from the other affairs.Indeed, such an Association as ours was enough work for any man, let alone the parliamentary duties which Brough was called on to perform, and the seventy-two lawsuits which burst upon him as principal director of the late companies.

Perhaps I should here describe the desperate attempts made by Mrs.Hoggarty to introduce herself into genteel life.Strange to say, although we had my Lord Tiptoff's word to the contrary, she insisted upon it that she and Lady Drum were intimately related; and no sooner did she read in the Morning Post of the arrival of her Ladyship and her granddaughters in London, than she ordered the fly before mentioned, and left cards at their respective houses: her card, that is--"MRS.HOGGARTY OF CASTLE HOGGARTY," magnificently engraved in Gothic letters and flourishes; and ours, viz., "Mr.and Mrs.S.Titmarsh," which she had printed for the purpose.

She would have stormed Lady Jane Preston's door and forced her way upstairs, in spite of Mary's entreaties to the contrary, had the footman who received her card given her the least encouragement; but that functionary, no doubt struck by the oddity of her appearance, placed himself in the front of the door, and declared that he had positive orders not to admit any strangers to his lady.On which Mrs.Hoggarty clenched her fist out of the coach-window, and promised that she would have him turned away.