Vanity Fair - Page 439/573

In the first place he took an early opportunity of pumping Miss Briggs.

That was not a difficult operation. A very little encouragement would

set that worthy woman to talk volubly and pour out all within her. And

one day when Mrs. Rawdon had gone out to drive (as Mr. Fiche, his

lordship's confidential servant, easily learned at the livery stables

where the Crawleys kept their carriage and horses, or rather, where the

livery-man kept a carriage and horses for Mr. and Mrs. Crawley)--my

lord dropped in upon the Curzon Street house--asked Briggs for a cup of

coffee--told her that he had good accounts of the little boy at

school--and in five minutes found out from her that Mrs. Rawdon had

given her nothing except a black silk gown, for which Miss Briggs was

immensely grateful.

He laughed within himself at this artless story. For the truth is, our

dear friend Rebecca had given him a most circumstantial narration of

Briggs's delight at receiving her money--eleven hundred and twenty-five

pounds--and in what securities she had invested it; and what a pang

Becky herself felt in being obliged to pay away such a delightful sum

of money. "Who knows," the dear woman may have thought within herself,

"perhaps he may give me a little more?" My lord, however, made no such

proposal to the little schemer--very likely thinking that he had been

sufficiently generous already.

He had the curiosity, then, to ask Miss Briggs about the state of her

private affairs--and she told his lordship candidly what her position

was--how Miss Crawley had left her a legacy--how her relatives had had

part of it--how Colonel Crawley had put out another portion, for which

she had the best security and interest--and how Mr. and Mrs. Rawdon

had kindly busied themselves with Sir Pitt, who was to dispose of the

remainder most advantageously for her, when he had time. My lord asked

how much the Colonel had already invested for her, and Miss Briggs at

once and truly told him that the sum was six hundred and odd pounds.

But as soon as she had told her story, the voluble Briggs repented of

her frankness and besought my lord not to tell Mr. Crawley of the

confessions which she had made. "The Colonel was so kind--Mr. Crawley

might be offended and pay back the money, for which she could get no

such good interest anywhere else." Lord Steyne, laughing, promised he

never would divulge their conversation, and when he and Miss Briggs

parted he laughed still more.

"What an accomplished little devil it is!" thought he. "What a splendid

actress and manager! She had almost got a second supply out of me the

other day; with her coaxing ways. She beats all the women I have ever

seen in the course of all my well-spent life. They are babies compared

to her. I am a greenhorn myself, and a fool in her hands--an old fool.

She is unsurpassable in lies." His lordship's admiration for Becky rose

immeasurably at this proof of her cleverness. Getting the money was

nothing--but getting double the sum she wanted, and paying nobody--it

was a magnificent stroke. And Crawley, my lord thought--Crawley is not

such a fool as he looks and seems. He has managed the matter cleverly

enough on his side. Nobody would ever have supposed from his face and

demeanour that he knew anything about this money business; and yet he

put her up to it, and has spent the money, no doubt. In this opinion

my lord, we know, was mistaken, but it influenced a good deal his

behaviour towards Colonel Crawley, whom he began to treat with even

less than that semblance of respect which he had formerly shown towards

that gentleman. It never entered into the head of Mrs. Crawley's

patron that the little lady might be making a purse for herself; and,

perhaps, if the truth must be told, he judged of Colonel Crawley by his

experience of other husbands, whom he had known in the course of the

long and well-spent life which had made him acquainted with a great

deal of the weakness of mankind. My lord had bought so many men during

his life that he was surely to be pardoned for supposing that he had

found the price of this one.