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Updated: June 24, 2025
It is seldom that servants are not good in such straits as that. From Mrs Broughton's house Dalrymple went directly to Mrs Van Siever's, and learned that Musselboro had been there about half an hour before, and had then gone off in a cab with Mrs Van Siever. It was now nearly four o'clock in the afternoon, and no one in the house knew when Mrs Van Siever would be back.
Thus spoke Mr Musselboro. He was seated in Dobbs Broughton's arm-chair in Dobbs Broughton's room in Hook Court, on the hind legs of which he was balancing himself comfortably; and he was communicating his experience in City matters to our old friend, Adolphus Crosbie, of whom we may surmise that he would not have been there, at that moment, in Hook Court, if things had been going well with him.
"Everybody has these plated things now. What's the use of a lot of capital lying dead?" "Everybody doesn't. I don't. You know as well as I do, Musselboro, that the appearance of the thing goes for a great deal. Capital isn't lying dead as long as people know that you've got it." Before answering this Mr Musselboro was driven to reflect that Mrs Dobbs Broughton would probably hear his reply.
There was something which made Clara unwilling even to name the man whom her mother had publicly proposed as her future husband. "He isn't Mr Broughton's partner," said Mrs Van Siever. "Mr Broughton has not got a partner. Mr Musselboro is the head of the firm. And as to your marrying him, of course, I can't make you." "No, mamma, you cannot."
Behind this again, but with a separate entrance from the passage, was the closet; and this closet was specially devoted to the use of Mr Musselboro. Closet as it was, or cupboard as it might almost have been called, it contained a table and two chairs; and it had a window of its own, which opened out upon a blank wall which was distant from it not above four feet.
Mr Musselboro was not long in coming, and, in accordance with Mrs Van Siever's implied directions to her daughter, was shown up into the drawing-room. Clara gave him her mother's message in a very few words. "I was expressly told, sir, to ask you to stop, if it is not inconvenient, as she very much wants to see you." Mr Musselboro declared that of course he would stop.
He would certainly do it as Jael; and he would, if he dared, insert dimly in the background some idea of the face of the mother, half-appearing, half-vanishing, as the spirit of the sacrifice. He was composing the picture, while Mr Dobbs Broughton was arranging himself and his bottles. "Musselboro," he said, "I'll come up between you and Crosbie.
Crosbie, when he heard this, became very angry; and Musselboro, perceiving this, got out of his chair, so that he might be in readiness to prevent any violence, if violence were attempted. "It really is no good your staying here," he said. "You see that Broughton has been drinking. There's no knowing what he may say or do."
On that august occasion Musselboro was absent." So instructed, Eames, on entering that room, looked round at once for Mr Musselboro. "If I don't see the whiskers and chain," he had said, "I shall know there's a Peer." Mr Musselboro was in the room, but Eames had descried Mr Crosbie long before he had seen Mr Musselboro. There was no reason for confusion on his part in meeting Crosbie.
Heavens! do you think that I am joking?" "Mamma wants me to marry Mr Musselboro." "He is a vulgar brute. It would be impossible." "It is impossible; but mamma is very obstinate. I have no fortune of my own, not a shilling. She told me to-day that she would turn me out into the street. She forbade me to come here, thinking I should meet you; but I came, because I had promised Mrs Broughton.
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