Little Dorrit | Page 7

to die;-- at any rate, not a rare
misfortune, that. It happens without any aid of mine, pretty often.'
John Baptist having smoked his cigarette down to his fingers' ends,

Monsieur Rigaud had the magnanimity to throw him another. He
lighted the second at the ashes of the first, and smoked on, looking
sideways at his companion, who, preoccupied with his own case,
hardly looked at him.
'Monsieur Barronneau left a widow. She was two-and-twenty. She had
gained a reputation for beauty, and (which is often another thing) was
beautiful. I continued to live at the Cross of Gold. I married Madame
Barronneau. It is not for me to say whether there was any great
disparity in such a match. Here I stand, with the contamination of a jail
upon me; but it is possible that you may think me better suited to her
than her former husband was.'
He had a certain air of being a handsome man--which he was not; and a
certain air of being a well-bred man--which he was not. It was mere
swagger and challenge; but in this particular, as in many others,
blustering assertion goes for proof, half over the world.
'Be it as it may, Madame Barronneau approved of me. That is not to
prejudice me, I hope?'
His eye happening to light upon John Baptist with this inquiry, that
little man briskly shook his head in the negative, and repeated in an
argumentative tone under his breath, altro, altro, altro, altro--an infinite
number of times.
' Now came the difficulties of our position. I am proud. I say nothing in
defence of pride, but I am proud. It is also my character to govern. I
can't submit; I must govern. Unfortunately, the property of Madame
Rigaud was settled upon herself. Such was the insane act of her late
husband. More unfortunately still, she had relations. When a wife's
relations interpose against a husband who is a gentleman, who is proud,
and who must govern, the consequences are inimical to peace. There
was yet another source of difference between us. Madame Rigaud was
unfortunately a little vulgar. I sought to improve her manners and
ameliorate her general tone; she (supported in this likewise by her
relations) resented my endeavours. Quarrels began to arise between us;
and, propagated and exaggerated by the slanders of the relations of

Madame Rigaud, to become notorious to the neighbours. It has been
said that I treated Madame Rigaud with cruelty. I may have been seen
to slap her face--nothing more. I have a light hand; and if I have been
seen apparently to correct Madame Rigaud in that manner, I have done
it almost playfully.'
If the playfulness of Monsieur Rigaud were at all expressed by his
smile at this point, the relations of Madame Rigaud might have said
that they would have much preferred his correcting that unfortunate
woman seriously.
'I am sensitive and brave. I do not advance it as a merit to be sensitive
and brave, but it is my character. If the male relations of Madame
Rigaud had put themselves forward openly, I should have known how
to deal with them. They knew that, and their machinations were
conducted in secret; consequently, Madame Rigaud and I were brought
into frequent and unfortunate collision. Even when I wanted any little
sum of money for my personal expenses, I could not obtain it without
collision--and I, too, a man whose character it is to govern! One night,
Madame Rigaud and myself were walking amicably--I may say like
lovers--on a height overhanging the sea. An evil star occasioned
Madame Rigaud to advert to her relations; I reasoned with her on that
subject, and remonstrated on the want of duty and devotion manifested
in her allowing herself to be influenced by their jealous animosity
towards her husband. Madame Rigaud retorted; I retorted; Madame
Rigaud grew warm; I grew warm, and provoked her. I admit it.
Frankness is a part of my character. At length, Madame Rigaud, in an
access of fury that I must ever deplore, threw herself upon me with
screams of passion (no doubt those that were overheard at some
distance), tore my clothes, tore my hair, lacerated my hands, trampled
and trod the dust, and finally leaped over, dashing herself to death upon
the rocks below. Such is the train of incidents which malice has
perverted into my endeavouring to force from Madame Rigaud a
relinquishment of her rights; and, on her persistence in a refusal to
make the concession I required, struggling with her--assassinating her!'
He stepped aside to the ledge where the vine leaves yet lay strewn

about, collected two or three, and stood wiping his hands upon them,
with his back to the light.
'Well,' he demanded after a silence, 'have you nothing to say