“My head will last my time,” said Sir Francis, carelessly. “I can bring my wits together when there’s need for it. Four months, is it? Should have thought it was four days—or a century! Tom is dead ... did you know that? You don’t know what killed him, though! Well, give me something to eat, then: I’m hungry.”
Fillmore opened the door, and ordered the clerk to bring some bread and meat from the neighboring tavern. Sir Francis sat heavily down at the table, and supported his head between his hands. He was greatly changed from the courtly and fastidious baronet of last summer. There was something coarse and reckless about him. The germ of it had always been there, perhaps; but it had been kept out of sight till now. Fillmore leaned in thought against the mantelpiece, with his arms folded. After a while the clerk came in, with the bread and meat. He put it down before Sir Francis, who roused himself, and began to eat ravenously. When he had finished, he leaned back in his chair, and fixed his eyes upon the solicitor.
“You’re a good fellow, after all, Fillmore,” he said. “I’ll tell you all about it: ’twill be known soon enough, without my telling. Ever hear of Rackett’s?”
“The gambling house in Jermyn street?”
“That’s it. Well, that was Bendibow Brothers—that was the real place. It brought me in hundreds per cent., where the bank brought me in tens. We should have gone down long ago if it hadn’t been for Rackett’s. But the devil was in it all.”
“I knew you had something of the sort going on; but you never chose to explain, and I didn’t care to make inquiries. But I never thought of Rackett’s. ’Tis the most scandalous place in London.”
“ ’Tis nothing now, but four walls and a bailiff. Scandalous, eh? Well, so it was! I’ve had there, in one night, the Prince of Wales, Brummel, Fox, Rivers, Aubrey, and Dennis O’Kelly. Dick England—do you remember him? He was a great pal of mine a score of years ago. Tippoo Smith—he was another. Egad, I had ’em all! They never knew where their money went to—except those who were in the secret: never suspected Frank Bendibow of having any connection with such scandalous doings! We had Lady Kendall of Ross there once; and we made his lordship pay one hundred thousand pounds down, to save my lady’s reputation. Dear at the price, wasn’t it?”
“Aye, you were a clever man, Bendibow, ill as your cleverness has served you in the end. And in nothing more clever than in the way you kept your connection with this business concealed. Something was always suspected, but nothing was known.”
“No, nothing was known. Do you know the reason? ’Twas because I knew how to choose men, and how to make them work for me. Frank Bendibow was a Napoleon, in his own way; but he’s had his Waterloo! The only one who ever found me out was that jade Perdita; and she forced me to pay her ten thousand pounds for it, when I could easier have spared her as many drops of my heart’s blood. I was a fool not to have taken her into partnership ten years ago, instead of marrying her to that French imbecile. She is worth more than the best dozen men I ever came across, begad!”
“She is worth too much ever to have mixed herself up in any such thievish business,” said Fillmore sternly.