I am very much obliged to you for coming," Newman said.
"I hope it won't get you into trouble."
"I don't think I shall be missed.My lady, in, these days, is not fond of having me about her." This was said with a certain fluttered eagerness which increased Newman's sense of having inspired the old woman with confidence.
"From the first, you know," he answered, "you took an interest in my prospects.You were on my side.That gratified me, I assure you.
And now that you know what they have done to me, I am sure you are with me all the more.""They have not done well--I must say it," said Mrs.Bread.
"But you mustn't blame the poor countess; they pressed her hard.""I would give a million of dollars to know what they did to her!" cried Newman.
Mrs.Bread sat with a dull, oblique gaze fixed upon the lights of the chateau."They worked on her feelings; they knew that was the way.
She is a delicate creature.They made her feel wicked.
She is only too good."
"Ah, they made her feel wicked," said Newman, slowly; and then he repeated it."They made her feel wicked,--they made her feel wicked."The words seemed to him for the moment a vivid description of infernal ingenuity.
"It was because she was so good that she gave up--poor sweet lady!"added Mrs.Bread.
"But she was better to them than to me," said Newman.
"She was afraid," said Mrs.Bread, very confidently;"she has always been afraid, or at least for a long time.
That was the real trouble, sir.She was like a fair peach, I may say, with just one little speck.She had one little sad spot.
You pushed her into the sunshine, sir, and it almost disappeared.
Then they pulled her back into the shade and in a moment it began to spread.Before we knew it she was gone.
She was a delicate creature."
This singular attestation of Madame de Cintre's delicacy, for all its singularity, set Newman's wound aching afresh.
"I see," he presently said; "she knew something bad about her mother.""No, sir, she knew nothing," said Mrs.Bread, holding her head very stiff and keeping her eyes fixed upon the glimmering windows of the chateau.
"She guessed something, then, or suspected it.""She was afraid to know," said Mrs.Bread.
"But YOU know, at any rate," said Newman.
She slowly turned her vague eyes upon Newman, squeezing her hands together in her lap."You are not quite faithful, sir.
I thought it was to tell me about Mr.Valentin you asked me to come here.""Oh, the more we talk of Mr.Valentin the better," said Newman.
"That's exactly what I want.I was with him, as I told you, in his last hour.He was in a great deal of pain, but he was quite himself.
You know what that means; he was bright and lively and clever.""Oh, he would always be clever, sir," said Mrs.Bread.
"And did he know of your trouble?"
"Yes, he guessed it of himself."
"And what did he say to it?"
"He said it was a disgrace to his name--but it was not the first.""Lord, Lord!" murmured Mrs.Bread.
"He said that his mother and his brother had once put their heads together and invented something even worse.""You shouldn't have listened to that, sir.""Perhaps not.But I DID listen, and I don't forget it.
Now I want to know what it is they did."
Mrs.Bread gave a soft moan."And you have enticed me up into this strange place to tell you?""Don't be alarmed," said Newman."I won't say a word that shall be disagreeable to you.Tell me as it suits you, and when it suits you.
Only remember that it was Mr.Valentin's last wish that you should.""Did he say that?"
"He said it with his last breath--'Tell Mrs.Bread I told you to ask her.' ""Why didn't he tell you himself?"
"It was too long a story for a dying man; he had no breath left in his body.
He could only say that he wanted me to know--that, wronged as I was, it was my right to know.""But how will it help you, sir?" said Mrs.Bread.
"That's for me to decide.Mr.Valentin believed it would, and that's why he told me.Your name was almost the last word he spoke."Mrs.Bread was evidently awe-struck by this statement;she shook her clasped hands slowly up and down.
"Excuse me, sir," she said, "if I take a great liberty.
Is it the solemn truth you are speaking? I MUST ask you that;must I not, sir?"
"There's no offense.It is the solemn truth; I solemnly swear it.
Mr.Valentin himself would certainly have told me more if he had been able.""Oh, sir, if he knew more!"
"Don't you suppose he did?"
"There's no saying what he knew about anything," said Mrs.Bread, with a mild head-shake."He was so mightily clever.
He could make you believe he knew things that he didn't, and that he didn't know others that he had better not have known.""I suspect he knew something about his brother that kept the marquis civil to him," Newman propounded; "he made the marquis feel him.
What he wanted now was to put me in his place; he wanted to give me a chance to make the marquis feel ME.""Mercy on us!" cried the old waiting-woman, "how wicked we all are!""I don't know," said Newman; "some of us are wicked, certainly.
I am very angry, I am very sore, and I am very bitter, but Idon't know that I am wicked.I have been cruelly injured.
They have hurt me, and I want to hurt them.I don't deny that;on the contrary, I tell you plainly that it is the use I want to make of your secret."Mrs.Bread seemed to hold her breath."You want to publish them--you want to shame them?"
"I want to bring them down,--down, down, down! I want to turn the tables upon them--I want to mortify them as they mortified me.
They took me up into a high place and made me stand there for all the world to see me, and then they stole behind me and pushed me into this bottomless pit, where I lie howling and gnashing my teeth!
I made a fool of myself before all their friends; but I shall make something worse of them."This passionate sally, which Newman uttered with the greater fervor that it was the first time he had had a chance to say all this aloud, kindled two small sparks in Mrs.Bread's fixed eyes.
"I suppose you have a right to your anger, sir; but think of the dishonor you will draw down on Madame de Cintre.""Madame de Cintre is buried alive," cried Newman.