Page:Braddon--The Trail of the Serpent.djvu/74

70 Now this was a question which would have cruelly agitated some men in the position of Jabez North; but that gentleman was a philosopher, and he might have been inquiring the fate of some cast-off garment, for all the fear, tenderness, or emotion of any kind that his tone or manner betrayed.

"Your mother's been dead these many years. Don't you ask me how she died. I'm an old woman, and my head's not so right but what some things will set it wrong. Talking of that is one of 'em. She's dead. I couldn't save her, nor help her, nor set her right. I hope there's more pity where she's gone than she ever got here; for I'm sure if trouble can need it, she needed it. Don't ask me anything about her."

"Then I won't," said Jabez. "My relations don't seem such an eligible lot that I should set to work to write the history of the family. I suppose I had a father of some kind or other. What's become of him? Dead or"

"Hung, eh, deary?" said the old woman, relapsing into the malicious grin.

"Take care what you're about," said the fascinating Mr. North, "or you'll tempt me to shake the life out of your shrivelled old carcass."

"And then you'll never know who your father was. Eh? Ha, ha! my precious boy; that's part of the golden secret that none but me can tell."

"Then you won't tell me my father's name?"

"Perhaps I've forgotten it, deary; perhaps I never knew it—who knows?"

"Was he of your class—poor, insignificant, and wretched, the scum of the earth, the mud in the streets, the slush in the gutters, for other people to trample upon with their dirty boots? Was he that sort of thing? Because if he was, I shan't put myself out of the way to make any tender inquiries about him."

"Of course not, deary. You'd like him to have been a fine gentleman—a baronet, or an earl, or a marquis, eh, my blessed boy? A marquis is about the ticket for you, eh? What do you say to a marquis?"

It was not very polite, certainly, what he did say; not quite the tone of conversation to be pleasing to any marquis, or to any noble or potentate whatever, except one, and him, by the laws of polite literature, I am not allowed to mention.

Puzzled by her mysterious mumblings, grinnings, and gesticulations, our friend Jabez stared hard in the old crone's face for about three minutes—looking very much as if he would have liked to throttle her; but he refrained from that temptation, turned on his heel, and walked off in the direction of Slopperton.

The old woman apostrophized his receding figure.