`O dear, sir!' said Mrs Tulliver, frightened at a result so different from the one she had fixed her mind on, `I wouldn't wish to contradict you, but it's like enough he's changed his mind with this illness - he's forgot a many things he used to talk about.And you wouldn't like to have a corpse on your mind, if he was to die; and they do say as it's allays unlucky when Dorlcote Mill changes hands, and the water might all run away and then...not as I'm wishing you any ill-luck, sir, for I forgot to tell you as I remember your wedding as if it was yesterday - Mrs Wakem was a Miss Clint, I know that - and my boy, as there isn't nicer, handsomer, straiter boy nowhere, went to school with your son...'
Mr Wakem rose, opened the door and called to one of his clerks.
`You must excuse me for interrupting you, Mrs Tulliver, I have business that must be attended to; and I think there is nothing more, necessary to be said.'
`But if you would bear it in mind, sir,' said Mrs Tulliver, rising, `and not run against me and my children - and I'm not denying Mr Tulliver's been in the wrong, but he's been punished enough, and there's worse men, for it's been giving to other folks has been his fault - he's done nobody any harm but himself and his family - the more's the pity - and I go and look at the bare shelves every day and think where all my things used to stand.'
`Yes, yes, I'll bear it in mind,' said Mr Wakem hastily, looking towards the open door.
`And if you'd please not to say as I've been to speak to you, for my son 'ud be very angry with me for demeaning myself, I know he would, and I've trouble enough without being scolded by my children.'
Poor Mrs Tulliver's voice trembled a little, and she could make no answer to the attorney's `good morning,' but curtsied and walked out in silence.
` Which day is it that Dorlcote Mill is to be sold? Where's the bill?' said Mr Wakem to his clerk when they were alone.
`Next Friday is the day: Friday, at six o'clock.'
`Oh; just run to Winship's, the auctioneer - and see if he's at home.
I have some business for him: ask him to come up.'
Although when Mr Wakem entered his office that morning, he had had no intention of purchasing Dorlcote Mill, his mind was already made up: Mrs Tulliver had suggested to him several determining motives, and his mental glance was very rapid: he was one of those men who can be prompt without being rash, because their motives run in fixed tracks, and they have no need to reconcile conflicting aims.
To suppose that Wakem had the same sort of inveterate hatred towards Tulliver, that Tulliver had towards him, would be like supposing that a pike and a roach can look at each other from a similar point of view.The roach necessarily abhors the mode in which the pike gets his living, and the pike is likely to think nothing further even of the most indignant roach than that he is excellent good eating: it could only be when the roach choked him that the pike could entertain a strong personal animosity.
If Mr Tulliver had ever seriously injured or thwarted the attorney, Wakem would not have refused him the distinction of being a special object of vindictiveness.But when Mr Tulliver called Wakem a rascal at the market dinner-table, the attorney's clients were not a whit inclined to withdraw their business from him, and if when Wakem himself happened to be present, some jocose cattle-feeder, stimulated by opportunity and brandy, made a thrust at him by alluding to old ladies' wills, he maintained perfect sang-froid , and knew quite well that the majority of substantial men then present were perfectly contented with the fact that `Wakem was Wakem,' that is to say, a man who always knew the step-ping-stones that would carry him through very muddy bits of practice.A man who had made a large fortune, had a handsome house among the trees at Tofton, and decidedly the finest stock of port wine in the neighbourhood of St Ogg's, was likely to feel himself on a level with public opinion.And I am not sure that even honest Mr Tulliver himself, with his general view of law as a cock-pit, might not, under opposite circumstances, have seen a fine appropriateness in the truth that `Wakem was Wakem;' since I have understood from persons versed in history, that mankind is not disposed to look narrowly into the conduct of great victors when their victory is on the right side.Tulliver, then, could be no obstruction to Wakem: on the contrary he was a poor devil whom the lawyer had defeated several times - a hot-tempered fellow, who would always give you a handle against him.Wakem's conscience was not uneasy because he had used a few tricks against the miller: why should he hate that unsuccessful plaintiff - that pitiable, furious bull entangled in the meshes of a net?
