`I was going to see if I could find your sister,' answered Tom, `to whom I wished to say a few words. We were going to Mrs. Todgers's, where I had the pleasure of seeing her before.'
`It's of no use your going on, then,' said Cherry, `for we have not long left there; and I know she is not at home. But I'll take you to my sister's house, if you please. Augustus--Mr. Moddle, I mean--and myself, are on our way to tea there, now. You needn't think of him,' she added, nodding her head as she observed some hesitation on Tom's part.
`He is not at home.'
`Are you sure?' asked Tom.
`Oh, I am quite sure of that. I don't want any more revenge,' said Miss Pecksniff, expressively. `But, really, I must beg you two gentlemen to walk on, and allow me to follow with Miss Pinch. My dear, I never was so taken by surprise!'
In furtherance of this bashful arrangement, Moddle gave his arm to Tom; and Miss Pecksniff linked her own in Ruth's.
`Of course, my love,' said Miss Pecksniff, `it would be useless for me to disguise, after what you have seen, that I am about to be united to the gentleman who is walking with your brother. It would be in vain to conceal it. What do you think of him? Pray, let me have your candid opinion.'
Ruth intimated that, as far as she could judge, he was a very eligible swain.
`I am curious to know,' said Miss Pecksniff, with loquacious frankness, `whether you have observed, or fancied, in this very short space of time, that he is of a rather melancholy turn?'
`So very short a time,' Ruth pleaded.
`No, no; but don't let that interfere with your answer,' returned Miss Pecksniff. `I am curious to hear what you say.'
Ruth acknowledged that he had impressed her at first sight as looking `rather low.'
`No, really?' said Miss Pecksniff `Well! that is quite remarkable! Everybody says the same. Mrs Todgers says the same; and Augustus informs me that it is quite a joke among the gentlemen in the house. Indeed, but for the positive commands I have laid upon him, I believe it would have been the occasion of loaded fire-arms being resorted to more than once. What do you think is the cause of his appearance of depression?'
Ruth thought of several things; such as his digestion, his tailor, his mother, and the like. But hesitating to give utterance to any one of them, she refrained from expressing an opinion `My dear,' said Miss Pecksniff; `I shouldn't wish it to be known, but I don't mind mentioning it to you, having known your brother for so many years--I refused Augustus three times. He is of a most amiable and sensitive nature, always ready to shed tears if you look at him, which is extremely charming; and he has never recovered the effect of that cruelty. For it was cruel,' said Miss Pecksniff, with a self-conviction candour that might have adorned the diadem of her own papa. `There is no doubt of it. I look back upon my conduct now with blushes. I always liked him I felt that he was not to me what the crowd of young men who had made proposals had been, but something very different. Then what right had I to refuse him three times?'
`It was a severe trial of his fidelity, no doubt,' said Ruth.
`My dear,' returned Miss Pecksniff. `It was wrong. But such is the caprice and thoughtlessness of our sex! Let me be a warning to you. Don't try the feelings of any one who makes you an offer, as I have tried the feelings of Augustus; but if you ever feel towards a person as I really felt towards him, at the very time when I was driving him to distraction, let that feeling find expression, if that person throws himself at your feet, as Augustus Moddle did at mine. Think,' said Miss Pecksniff, `what my feelings would have been, if I had goaded him to suicide, and it had got into the papers!'
Ruth observed that she would have been full of remorse, no doubt.
`Remorse!' cried Miss Pecksniff, in a sort of snug and comfortable penitence.
`What my remorse is at this moment, even after making reparation by accepting him, it would be impossible to tell you! Looking back upon my giddy self, my dear, now that I am sobered down and made thoughtful, by treading on the very brink of matrimony; and contemplating myself as I was when I was like what you are now; I shudder. I shudder. What is the consequence of my past conduct? Until Augustus leads me to the altar he is not sure of me. I have blighted and withered the affections of his heart to that extent that he is not sure of me. I see that preying on his mind and feeding on his vitals. What are the reproaches of my conscience, when I see this in the man I love!'
Ruth endeavoured to express some sense of her unbounded and flattering confidence; and presumed that she was going to be married soon.
`Very soon indeed,' returned Miss Pecksniff. `As soon as our house is read. We are furnishing now as fast as we can.'
In the same vein of confidence Miss Pecksniff ran through a general inventory of the articles that were already bought with the articles that remained to be purchased; what garments she intended to be married in, and where the ceremony was to be performed; and gave Miss Pinch, in short (as she told her), early and exclusive information on all points of interest connected with the event.
While this was going forward in the rear, Tom and Mr. Moddle walked on, arm in arm, in the front, in a state of profound silence, which Tom at last broke: after thinking for a long time what he could say that should refer to an indifferent topic, in respect of which he might rely, with some degree of certainty, on Mr. Moddle's bosom being unruffled.
`I wonder,' said Tom, `that in these crowded streets the foot-passengers are not oftener run over.'
Mr. Moddle, with a dark look, replied:
`The drivers won't do it.'
`Do you mean?' Tom began--
`That there are some men,' interrupted Moddle, with a hollow laugh, `who can't get run over. They live a charmed life. Coal waggons recoil from them, and even cabs refuse to run them down. Ah!' said Augustus, marking Tom's astonishment. `There are such men. One of 'em is a friend of mine.'