One of Our Conquerors - World eBook Library

George Meredith
tell me that!’
Mr. Fenellan gathered himself together; he sipped, and relaxed
his bracing. But there really was a bit more to tell: not
much, was it? Not likely to puff a gale on the voluptuous
indolence of a man drawn along by Nereids over sunny seawaves
to behold the birth of the Foam-Goddess? ‘According
to Carling, her lawyer; that is, he hints she meditates a blow.’
‘Mrs. Burman means to strike a blow?’
‘The lady.’
‘Does he think I fear any—does he mean a blow with a
weapon? Is it a legal … ? At last? Fenellan!’
‘So I fancied I understood.’
‘But can the good woman dream of that as a blow to strike
and hurt, for a punishment?—that’s her one aim.’
‘She may have her hallucinations.’
‘But a blow—what a word for it! But it’s life to us life! It’s
the blow we’ve prayed for. Why, you know it! Let her strike,
we bless her. We’ve never had an ill feeling to the woman;
utterly the contrary—pity, pity, pity! Let her do that, we’re
at her feet, my Nataly and I. If you knew what my poor girl
suffers! She ‘s a saint at the stake. Chiefly on behalf of her
family. Fenellan, you may have a sort of guess at my fortune:
I’ll own to luck; I put in a claim to courage and calculation.’
‘You’ve been a bulwark to your friends.’
‘All, Fenellan, all-stocks, shares, mines, companies, industries
at home and—abroad—all, at a sweep, to have the
woman strike that blow! Cheerfully would I begin to build a
fortune over again—singing! Ha! the woman has threatened
it before. It’s probably feline play with us.’
His chin took support, he frowned.
‘You may have touched her.’
‘She won’t be touched, and she won’t be driven. What ‘s
the secret of her? I can’t guess, I never could. She’s a riddle.’
‘Riddles with wigs and false teeth have to be taken and
shaken for the ardently sought secret to reveal itself,’ said
Mr. Fenellan.
His picture, with the skeleton issue of any shaking, smote
Mr. Radnor’s eyes, they turned over. ‘Oh!—her charms! She
had a desperate belief in her beauty. The woman ‘s undoubtedly
charitable; she’s not without a mind—sort of mind: well,
it shows no crack till it’s put to use. Heart! yes, against me
she has plenty of it. They say she used to be courted; she
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