Where do you spend it all? said the mother; five shillings I gave you on Monday, and what expenses have you? Kept in luxury, and never needing to put your hand in your pocket. Goodness, Meg, what a smell! Is it a barrel of beer youve rolled into my room, or is it is it my only boy?
By Gosh! said Gervase. He could not be gentlemanly even in his oaths. He would have said By George! or perhaps By Jove! even if he had been with Patty, but nothing but this vulgar expletive would come to his lips here.
Ive heard of you, sir, said Lady Piercey; Ive heard where you spend your time, and who you spend it with. A common beerhouse, and the woman that serves the beer. Oh, good gracious! good gracious! and
to think that should be my son, and that hes the heir to an old estate and will be Sir Gervase if he lives!
Ay, said Gervase, with a laugh, and you cant stop that, old lady, not if you should burst.
Dont you be too sure I cant stop it, she cried. Your father is not much good, but he is more good than you think; and if you suppose theres no way of putting an idiot out of the line, youre mistaken. There are plenty of asylums for fools, I can tell you; and if you are such a double-dyed fool as that
Gervase stared and grew pale; but then he took courage and laughed a weak laugh. I may be a fool, he said, youre always that nice to me, mamma: but theres them in the world that will stand up for me, and cleverer than you.
Lady Piercey stared also for a moment; and then turning to Mrs. Osborne, asked, Meg! what does the ass mean?
Oh, have a little patience, aunt! He means nothing, probably. He has been doing no harm, and hes vexed to be blamed. Why should he be blamed when he has been doing no harm?
Do you call it no harm to bring the smell of an alehouse into my room? cried Lady Piercey; you will have to open all the windows to get rid of it, and probably I shall get my death of cold which is what he would like, no doubt.
Gervase laughed again, his lower lip more watery than ever. Trust you for taking care of yourself, he said. If thats all you have got to say, slanging a fellow for nothing, Ill go to bed.
Stop here, when I tell you! and let me know this instant about that woman. Who is she that will have anything to say to you ? Perhaps she thinks she will be my lady, and get my place after me a girl that draws beer for all the ploughmen in the parish!
I dont know who youre speaking of, said Gervase. His face grew a dull red, and he clenched his fist. By Gosh! and if she marries me, so she will, and nobody can stop it, he said.
You had better banish this illusion from your mind, said Lady Piercey, with solemnity. A woman like that shall never be my lady, and come after me. Its against against the laws of this house; its against the law of the land. Your father can leave every penny away from you! And as for the name, its its forbidden to a common person. The Lord Chancellor will not allow it! the Queen will not have it! You might as well try to to bring down St. Pauls to Greyshott! Do you hear, you fool, what I say?
Gervase stood with his mouth open: he was confounded with these big names. The Queen and the Lord Chancellor and St. Pauls! They mingled together in a something stupendous, an authority before which even Patty, with all her cleverness, must fail. He gazed at his mother with the stupid alarm which all his life her denunciations had inspired. St. Pauls and the Queen! The one an awful shadow, coming down on the moors; the other at the head of her army, as in a fairy story. And the Lord Chancellor! something more alarming still, because Gervase could form no idea of him unless by the incarnation of the police, which even in Greyshott was a name of fear.
Look here, said Lady Piercey, this is what it would mean; you wouldnt have a penny; youd have to draw the beer yourself to get your living; youd be cut off from your fathers will like like a turnip top. The Lord Chancellor would grant an injunction to change your name; for they wont have good old names degraded, the great officers wont. You might think yourself lucky if you kept the Gervase, for thats your christened name; but it would be Gervase Brown, or Green, or something; or they might let you for a favour take her name the beerhouse womans; which would suit you very well, for you would be the beerhouse man.
Gervases lip dropped more and more, his face grew paler and paler. Lady Piercey by long experience had grown versed in this kind of argument. She was aware that she could reduce him to absolute vacuity and silence every plea he might bring forth. He had no plea, poor fellow. He was so ignorant that, often as he had been thus threatened, he never had found out the absurdity of these threats. He fell upon himself like a ruined wall, as he stood before her limp and terrified. There was a grim sort of humour in the woman which enjoyed this too, as well as the sense of absolute power she had over him; and when she had dismissed him, which she did with the slight touch of a kiss upon his cheek, but again a grimace at the smell of beer, she burst into a wild but suppressed laugh. Was there ever such a fool, to believe all I say? she said to her niece who removed her dressing-gown, and helped her into bed; and then for this fierce old lady was but an old woman after all she fell a-whimpering and crying. And thats my son! oh Lord! my only child; all that Ive got in the world.