Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens [big ebook reader txt] 📗

In a moment Affery had thrown the stocking down, started up, caught hold of the windowsill with her right hand, lodged herself upon the window-seat with her right knee, and was flourishing her left hand, beating expected assailants off.

“No, I won’t, Jeremiah⁠—no, I won’t⁠—no, I won’t! I won’t go! I’ll stay here. I’ll hear all I don’t know, and say all I know. I will, at last, if I die for it. I will, I will, I will, I will!”

Mr. Flintwinch, stiffening with indignation and amazement, moistened the fingers of one hand at his lips, softly described a circle with them in the palm of the other hand, and continued with a menacing grin to screw himself in the direction of his wife; gasping some remark as he advanced, of which, in his choking anger, only the words, “Such a dose!” were audible.

“Not a bit nearer, Jeremiah!” cried Affery, never ceasing to beat the air. “Don’t come a bit nearer to me, or I’ll rouse the neighbourhood! I’ll throw myself out of window. I’ll scream Fire and Murder! I’ll wake the dead! Stop where you are, or I’ll make shrieks enough to wake the dead!”

The determined voice of Mrs. Clennam echoed “Stop!” Jeremiah had stopped already.

“It is closing in, Flintwinch. Let her alone. Affery, do you turn against me after these many years?”

“I do, if it’s turning against you to hear what I don’t know, and say what I know. I have broke out now, and I can’t go back. I am determined to do it. I will do it, I will, I will, I will! If that’s turning against you, yes, I turn against both of you two clever ones. I told Arthur when he first come home to stand up against you. I told him it was no reason, because I was afeard of my life of you, that he should be. All manner of things have been a-going on since then, and I won’t be run up by Jeremiah, nor yet I won’t be dazed and scared, nor made a party to I don’t know what, no more. I won’t, I won’t, I won’t! I’ll up for Arthur when he has nothing left, and is ill, and in prison, and can’t up for himself. I will, I will, I will, I will!”

“How do you know, you heap of confusion,” asked Mrs. Clennam sternly, “that in doing what you are doing now, you are even serving Arthur?”

“I don’t know nothing rightly about anything,” said Affery; “and if ever you said a true word in your life, it’s when you call me a heap of confusion, for you two clever ones have done your most to make me such. You married me whether I liked it or not, and you’ve led me, pretty well ever since, such a life of dreaming and frightening as never was known, and what do you expect me to be but a heap of confusion? You wanted to make me such, and I am such; but I won’t submit no longer; no, I won’t, I won’t, I won’t, I won’t!” She was still beating the air against all comers.

After gazing at her in silence, Mrs. Clennam turned to Rigaud. “You see and hear this foolish creature. Do you object to such a piece of distraction remaining where she is?”

“I, madame,” he replied, “do I? That’s a question for you.”

“I do not,” she said, gloomily. “There is little left to choose now. Flintwinch, it is closing in.”

Mr. Flintwinch replied by directing a look of red vengeance at his wife, and then, as if to pinion himself from falling upon her, screwed his crossed arms into the breast of his waistcoat, and with his chin very near one of his elbows stood in a corner, watching Rigaud in the oddest attitude. Rigaud, for his part, arose from his chair, and seated himself on the table with his legs dangling. In this easy attitude, he met Mrs. Clennam’s set face, with his moustache going up and his nose coming down.

“Madame, I am a gentleman⁠—”

“Of whom,” she interrupted in her steady tones, “I have heard disparagement, in connection with a French jail and an accusation of murder.”

He kissed his hand to her with his exaggerated gallantry.

“Perfectly. Exactly. Of a lady too! What absurdity! How incredible! I had the honour of making a great success then; I hope to have the honour of making a great success now. I kiss your hands. Madame, I am a gentleman (I was going to observe), who when he says, ‘I will definitely finish this or that affair at the present sitting,’ does definitely finish it. I announce to you that we are arrived at our last sitting on our little business. You do me the favour to follow, and to comprehend?”

She kept her eyes fixed upon him with a frown. “Yes.”

“Further, I am a gentleman to whom mere mercenary trade-bargains are unknown, but to whom money is always acceptable as the means of pursuing his pleasures. You do me the favour to follow, and to comprehend?”

“Scarcely necessary to ask, one would say. Yes.”

“Further, I am a gentleman of the softest and sweetest disposition, but who, if trifled with, becomes enraged. Noble natures under such circumstances become enraged. I possess a noble nature. When the lion is awakened⁠—that is to say, when I enrage⁠—the satisfaction of my animosity is as acceptable to me as money. You always do me the favour to follow, and to comprehend?”

“Yes,” she answered, somewhat louder than before.

“Do not let me derange you; pray be tranquil. I have said we are now arrived at our last sitting. Allow me to recall the two sittings we have held.”

“It is not necessary.”

“Death, madame,” he burst out, “it’s my fancy! Besides, it clears the way. The first sitting was limited. I had the honour of making your acquaintance⁠—of presenting my letter; I am a Knight of Industry, at your service, madame, but my polished manners had won me so much of success, as a master of