Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures Part 9

"YOU THINK BETTER OF THE WORLD?

"Ha! that would be all very well if you could afford it; but you're not in means, I know, to think so well of people as all that. And of course they only laugh at you. 'Caudle's an easy fool,' they cry--I know it as well as if I heard 'em--'Caudle's an easy fool; anybody may lead him.' Yes anybody but his own wife;--and she--of course--is n.o.body.

"And now, everybody that's arrested will of course send to you. Yes, Mr. Caudle, you'll have your hands full now, no doubt of it. You'll soon know every sponging-house and every sheriff's officer in London.

Your business will have to take care of itself; you'll have enough to do to run from lawyer to lawyer after the business of other people.

Now, it's no use calling me a dear soul--not a bit! No; and I shan't put it off till to-morrow. It isn't often I speak, but I WILL speak now.

"I wish that Prettyman had been at the bottom of the sea before-- what?

"IT ISN'T PRETTYMAN?

"Ah! it's very well for you to say so; but I know it is; it's just like him. He looks like a man that's always in debt--that's always in a sponging-house. Anybody might swear it. I knew it from the very first time you brought him here--from the very night he put his nasty dirty wet boots on my bright steel fender. Any woman could see what the fellow was in a minute. Prettyman! a pretty gentleman, truly, to be robbing your wife and family!

"Why couldn't you let him stop in the sponging--Now don't call upon heaven in that way, and ask me to be quiet, for I won't. Why couldn't you let him stop there? He got himself in; he might have got himself out again. And you must keep me awake, ruin my sleep, my health, and for what you care, my peace of mind. Ha! everybody but you can see how I'm breaking. You can do all this while you're talking with a set of low bailiffs! A great deal you must think of your children to go into a lawyer's office.

"And then you must be bail--you must be bound--for Mr. Prettyman!

You may say, bound! Yes--you've your hands nicely tied, now. How he laughs at you--and serve you right! Why, in another week he'll be in the East Indies; of course he will! And you'll have to pay his debts; yes, your children may go in rags, so that Mr. Prettyman--what do you say?

"IT ISN'T PRETTYMAN?

"I know better. Well, if it isn't Prettyman that's kept you out,--if it isn't Prettyman you're bail for--who is it, then? I ask, who is it, then? What?

"MY BROTHER? BROTHER TOM?

"Oh, Caudle! dear Caudle--"

"It was too much for the poor soul," says Caudle; "she sobbed as if her heart would break, and I--" and here the MS. is blotted, as though Caudle himself had dropped tears as he wrote.

LECTURE XVI--BABY IS TO BE CHRISTENED; MRS. CAUDLE CANVa.s.sES THE MERITS OF PROBABLE G.o.dFATHERS

"Come, now, love, about baby's name? The dear thing's three months old, and not a name to its back yet. There you go again! Talk of it to-morrow! No; we'll talk of it to-night. There's no having a word with you in the daytime--but here you can't leave me. Now don't say you wish you could, Caudle; that's unkind, and not treating a wife-- especially the wife to you--as she deserves. It isn't often that I speak but I DO believe you'd like never to hear the sound of my voice. I might as well have been born dumb!

"I suppose the baby MUST have a G.o.dfather; and so, Caudle, who shall we have? Who do you think will be able to do the most for it? No, Caudle, no; I'm not a selfish woman--nothing of the sort--but I hope I've the feelings of a mother; and what's the use of a G.o.dfather if he gives nothing else to the child but a name? A child might almost as well not be christened at all. And so who shall we have? What do you say?

"ANYBODY?

"Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Caudle? Don't you think something will happen to you, to talk in that way? I don't know where you pick up such principles. I'm thinking who there is among our acquaintance who can do the most for the blessed creature, and you say,-- 'ANYBODY!' Caudle, you're quite a heathen.

"There's Wagstaff. No chance of his ever marrying, and he's very fond of babies. He's plenty of money, Caudle; and I think he might be got. Babies, I know it--babies are his weak side. Wouldn't it be a blessed thing to find our dear child in his will? Why don't you speak? I declare, Caudle, you seem to care no more for the child than if it was a stranger's. People who can't love children more than you do, ought never to have 'em.

"YOU DON'T LIKE WAGSTAFF?

"No more do I much; but what's that to do with it? People who've their families to provide for, mustn't think of their feelings. I don't like him; but then I'm a mother, and love my baby.

"YOU WON'T HAVE WAGSTAFF AND THAT'S FLAT?

"Ha, Caudle, you're like n.o.body else--not fit for this world, you're not.

"What do you think of Pugsby? I can't bear his wife; but that's nothing to do with it. I know my duty to my babe: I wish other people did. What do you say?

"PUGSBY'S A WICKED FELLOW?

"Ha! that's like you--always giving people a bad name. We mustn't always believe what the world says, Caudle; it doesn't become us as Christians to do it. I only know that he hasn't chick or child; and, besides that, he's very strong interest in the Blue-coats; and so, if Pugsby--Now, don't fly out at the man in that manner. Caudle, you ought to be ashamed of yourself! You can't speak well of anybody.

Where DO you think to go to?

"What do you say, then, to Sniggins? Now, don't bounce round in that way, letting the cold air into the bed! What's the matter with Sniggins?

"YOU WOULDN'T ASK HIM A FAVOUR FOR THE WORLD?

"Well, it's a good thing the baby has somebody to care for it: _I_ will. What do you say?

"I SHAN'T?

"I will, I can tell you. Sniggins, besides being a warm man, has good interest in the Customs; and there's nice pickings there, if one only goes the right way to get 'em. It's no use, Caudle, your fidgetting about--not a bit. I'm not going to have baby lost-- sacrificed, I may say, like its brothers and sisters.

"WHAT DO I MEAN BY SACRIFICED?

"Oh, you know what I mean very well. What have any of 'em got by their G.o.dfathers beyond a half-pint mug, a knife and fork, and spoon- -and a shabby coat, that I know was bought second-hand, for I could almost swear to the place? And then there was your fine friend Hartley's wife--what did she give to Caroline? Why, a trumpery lace cap it made me blush to look at. What?

"IT WAS THE BEST SHE COULD AFFORD?

"Then she'd no right to stand for the child. People who can't do better than that have no business to take the responsibility of G.o.dmother. They ought to know their duties better.

"Well, Caudle, you can't object to Goldman?

"YES, YOU DO?

"Was there ever such a man! What for?

"HE'S A USURER AND A HUNKS?

"Well, I'm sure, you've no business in this world, Caudle; you have such high-flown notions. Why, isn't the man as rich as the bank?

And as for his being a usurer,--isn't it all the better for those who come after him? I'm sure it's well there's some people in the world who save money, seeing the stupid creatures who throw it away. But you are the strangest man! I really believe you think money a sin, instead of the greatest blessing; for I can't mention any of our acquaintance that's rich--and I'm sure we don't know too many such people--that you haven't something to say against 'em. It's only beggars that you like--people with not a s.h.i.+lling to bless themselves. Ha! though you're my husband, I must say it--you're a man of low notions, Caudle. I only hope none of the dear boys will take after their father!

"And I should like to know what's the objection to Goldman? The only thing against him is his name; I must confess it, I don't like the name of Lazarus: it's low, and doesn't sound genteel--not at all respectable. But after he's gone and done what's proper for the child, the boy could easily slip Lazarus into Laurence. I'm told the thing's done often. No, Caudle, don't say that--I'm not a mean woman--certainly not; quite the reverse. I've only a parent's love for my children; and I must say it--I wish everybody felt as I did.

"I suppose, if the truth was known, you'd like your tobacco-pipe friend, your pot-companion, Prettyman, to stand for the child?

"YOU'D HAVE NO OBJECTION?

"I thought not! Yes; I knew what it was coming to. He's a beggar, he is; and a person who stays out half the night; yes, he does; and it's no use your denying it--a beggar and a tippler, and that's the man you'd make G.o.dfather to your own flesh and blood! Upon my word, Caudle, it's enough to make a woman get up and dress herself to hear you talk.

"Well, I can hardly tell you, if you won't have Wagstaff, or Pugsby, or Sniggins, or Goldman, or somebody that's respectable, to do what's proper, the child sha'n't be christened at all. As for Prettyman, or any such raff--no, never! I'm sure there's a certain set of people that poverty's catching from, and that Prettyman's one of 'em. Now, Caudle, I won't have my dear child lost by any of your spittoon acquaintance, I can tell you.