In the first place he took an early opportunity of pumping Miss Briggs.
That was not a difficult operation. A very little encouragement would
set that worthy woman to talk volubly and pour out all within her. And
one day when Mrs. Rawdon had gone out to drive (as Mr. Fiche, his
lordship's confidential servant, easily learned at the livery stables
where the Crawleys kept their carriage and horses, or rather, where the
livery-man kept a carriage and horses for Mr. and Mrs. Crawley)--my
lord dropped in upon the Curzon Street house--asked Briggs for a cup of
coffee--told her that he had good accounts of the little boy at
school--and in five minutes found out from her that Mrs. Rawdon had
given her nothing except a black silk gown, for which Miss Briggs was
immensely grateful.
He laughed within himself at this artless story. For the truth is, our
dear friend Rebecca had given him a most circumstantial narration of
Briggs's delight at receiving her money--eleven hundred and twenty-five
pounds--and in what securities she had invested it; and what a pang
Becky herself felt in being obliged to pay away such a delightful sum
of money. "Who knows," the dear woman may have thought within herself,
"perhaps he may give me a little more?" My lord, however, made no such
proposal to the little schemer--very likely thinking that he had been
sufficiently generous already.
He had the curiosity, then, to ask Miss Briggs about the state of her
private affairs--and she told his lordship candidly what her position
was--how Miss Crawley had left her a legacy--how her relatives had had
part of it--how Colonel Crawley had put out another portion, for which
she had the best security and interest--and how Mr. and Mrs. Rawdon
had kindly busied themselves with Sir Pitt, who was to dispose of the
remainder most advantageously for her, when he had time. My lord asked
how much the Colonel had already invested for her, and Miss Briggs at
once and truly told him that the sum was six hundred and odd pounds.
But as soon as she had told her story, the voluble Briggs repented of
her frankness and besought my lord not to tell Mr. Crawley of the
confessions which she had made. "The Colonel was so kind--Mr. Crawley
might be offended and pay back the money, for which she could get no
such good interest anywhere else." Lord Steyne, laughing, promised he
never would divulge their conversation, and when he and Miss Briggs
parted he laughed still more.
"What an accomplished little devil it is!" thought he. "What a splendid
actress and manager! She had almost got a second supply out of me the
other day; with her coaxing ways. She beats all the women I have ever
seen in the course of all my well-spent life. They are babies compared
to her. I am a greenhorn myself, and a fool in her hands--an old fool.
She is unsurpassable in lies." His lordship's admiration for Becky rose
immeasurably at this proof of her cleverness. Getting the money was
nothing--but getting double the sum she wanted, and paying nobody--it
was a magnificent stroke. And Crawley, my lord thought--Crawley is not
such a fool as he looks and seems. He has managed the matter cleverly
enough on his side. Nobody would ever have supposed from his face and
demeanour that he knew anything about this money business; and yet he
put her up to it, and has spent the money, no doubt. In this opinion
my lord, we know, was mistaken, but it influenced a good deal his
behaviour towards Colonel Crawley, whom he began to treat with even
less than that semblance of respect which he had formerly shown towards
that gentleman. It never entered into the head of Mrs. Crawley's
patron that the little lady might be making a purse for herself; and,
perhaps, if the truth must be told, he judged of Colonel Crawley by his
experience of other husbands, whom he had known in the course of the
long and well-spent life which had made him acquainted with a great
deal of the weakness of mankind. My lord had bought so many men during
his life that he was surely to be pardoned for supposing that he had
found the price of this one.