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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7706.txt b/7706.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5274002 --- /dev/null +++ b/7706.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3355 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook My Novel, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Vol. 5 +#133 in our series by Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: My Novel, Volume 5. + +Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Release Date: March 2005 [EBook #7706] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 29, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY NOVEL, BY LYTTON, V5 *** + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + + + + + +BOOK FIFTH. + + +INITIAL CHAPTER. + +CONTAINING MR. CAXTON's UNAVAILING CAUTION NOT TO BE DULL. + +"I hope, Pisistratus," said my father, "that you do not intend to be +dull?" + +"Heaven forbid, sir! What could make you ask such a question? Intend! +No! if I am dull it is from innocence." + +"A very long discourse upon knowledge!" said my father; "very long! +I should cut it out." + +I looked upon my father as a Byzantian sage might have looked on a +Vandal. "Cut it out!" + +"Stops the action, sir!" said my father, dogmatically. + +"Action! But a novel is not a drama." + +"No; it is a great deal longer,--twenty times as long, I dare say," +replied Mr. Caxton, with a sigh. + +"Well, sir, well! I think my Discourse upon Knowledge has much to do +with the subject, is vitally essential to the subject; does not stop the +action,--only explains and elucidates the action. And I am astonished, +sir, that you, a scholar, and a cultivator of knowledge--" + +"There, there!" cried my father, deprecatingly. "I yield, I yield! What +better could I expect when I set up for a critic? What author ever lived +that did not fly into a passion, even with his own father, if his father +presumed to say, 'Cut out'!" + +MRS. CAXTON.--"My dear Austin, I am sure Pisistratus did not mean to +offend you, and I have no doubt he will take your--" + +PISISTRATUS (hastily).--"Advice for the future, certainly. I will +quicken the action, and--" + +"Go on with the Novel," whispered Roland, looking up from his eternal +account-book. "We have lost L200 by our barley!" + +Therewith I plunged my pen into the ink, and my thoughts into the "Fair +Shadowland." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +"HALT, cried a voice; and not a little surprised was Leonard when the +stranger who had accosted him the preceding evening got into the chaise. + +"Well," said Richard, "I am not the sort of man you expected, eh? Take +time to recover yourself." And with these words Richard drew forth a +book from his pocket, threw himself back, and began to read. Leonard +stole many a glance at the acute, hardy, handsome face of his companion, +and gradually recognized a family likeness to poor John, in whom, despite +age and infirmity, the traces of no common share of physical beauty were +still evident. And, with that quick link in ideas which mathematical +aptitude bestows, the young student at once conjectured that he saw +before him his uncle Richard. He had the discretion, however, to leave +that gentleman free to choose his own time for introducing himself, +and silently revolved the new thoughts produced by the novelty of his +situation. Mr. Richard read with notable quickness,--sometimes cutting +the leaves of the book with his penknife, sometimes tearing them open +with his forefinger, sometimes skipping whole pages altogether. Thus he +galloped to the end of the volume, flung it aside, lighted his cigar, and +began to talk. He put many questions to Leonard relative to his rearing, +and especially to the mode by which he had acquired his education; and +Leonard, confirmed in the idea that he was replying to a kinsman, +answered frankly. + +Richard did not think it strange that Leonard should have acquired so +much instruction with so little direct tuition. Richard Avenel himself +had been tutor to himself. He had lived too long with our go-ahead +brethren who stride the world on the other side the Atlantic with the +seven-leagued boots of the Giant-killer, not to have caught their +glorious fever for reading. But it was for a reading wholly different +from that which was familiar to Leonard. The books he read must be new; +to read old books would have seemed to him going back in the world. He +fancied that new books necessarily contained new ideas,--a common +mistake,--and our lucky adventurer was the man of his day. + +Tired with talking, he at length chucked the book he had run through to +Leonard, and taking out a pocket-book and pencil, amused himself with +calculations on some detail of his business, after which he fell into an +absorbed train of thought, part pecuniary, part ambitious. + +Leonard found the book interesting: it was one of the numerous works, +half-statistic, half-declamatory, relating to the condition of the +working classes, which peculiarly distinguish our century, and ought to +bind together rich and poor, by proving the grave attention which modern +society bestows upon all that can affect the welfare of the last. + +"Dull stuff! theory! claptrap!" said Richard, rousing himself from his +revery at last; "it can't interest you." + +"All books interest me, I think," said Leonard, "and this especially; for +it relates to the working class, and I am one of them." + +"You were yesterday, but you mayn't be to-morrow," answered Richard, +good-humouredly, and patting him on the shoulder. "You see, my lad, that +it is the middle class which ought to govern the country. What the book +says about the ignorance of country magistrates is very good; but the man +writes pretty considerable trash when he wants to regulate the number of +hours a free-born boy should work at a factory,--only ten hours a day-- +pooh! and so lose two hours to the nation! Labour is wealth; and if we +could get men to work twenty-four hours a day, we should be just twice +as rich. If the march of civilization is to proceed," continued Richard, +loftily, "men, and boys too, must not lie a bed doing nothing, all night, +sir." Then, with a complacent tone, "We shall get to the twenty-four +hours at last; and, by gad, we must, or we sha'n't flog the Europeans as +we do now." + +On arriving at the inn at which Richard had first made acquaintance with +Mr. Dale, the coach by which he had intended to perform the rest of the +journey was found to be full. Richard continued to perform the journey +in postchaises, not without some grumbling at the expense, and incessant +orders to the post-boys to make the best of the way. "Slow country this +in spite of all its brag," said he,--"very slow. Time is money--they +know that in the States; for why? they are all men of business there. +Always slow in a country where a parcel of lazy, idle lords and dukes and +baronets seem to think 'time is pleasure.'" + +Towards evening the chaise approached the confines of a very large town, +and Richard began to grow fidgety. His easy, cavalier air was abandoned. +He withdrew his legs from the window, out of which they had been +luxuriously dangling, pulled down his waistcoat, buckled more tightly his +stock; it was clear that he was resuming the decorous dignity that +belongs to state. He was like a monarch who, after travelling happy and +incognito, returns to his capital. Leonard divined at once that they +were nearing their journey's end. + +Humble foot-passengers now looked at the chaise, and touched their hats. +Richard returned the salutation with a nod,--a nod less gracious than +condescending. The chaise turned rapidly to the left, and stopped before +a small lodge, very new, very white, adorned with two Doric columns in +stucco, and flanked by a large pair of gates. "Hollo!" cried the post- +boy, and cracked his whip. + +Two children were playing before the lodge, and some clothes were hanging +out to dry on the shrubs and pales round the neat little building. + +"Hang those brats! they are actually playing," growled Dick. "As I live, +the jade has been washing again! Stop, boy!" During this soliloquy, a +good-looking young woman had rushed from the door, slapped the children +as, catching sight of the chaise, they ran towards the house, opened the +gates, and dropping a courtesy to the ground, seemed to wish that she +could drop into it altogether; so frightened and so trembling seemed she +to shrink from the wrathful face which the master now put out of the +window. + +"Did I tell you, or did I not," said Dick, "that I would not have those +horrid, disreputable cubs of yours playing just before my lodge gates?" + +"Please, sir--" + +"Don't answer me. And did I tell you, or did I not, that the next time I +saw you making a drying-ground of my lilacs, you should go out, neck and +crop--" + +"Oh, please, sir--" + +"You leave my lodge next Saturday! drive on, boy. The ingratitude and +insolence of those common people are disgraceful to human nature," +muttered Richard, with an accent of the bitterest misanthropy. + +The chaise wheeled along the smoothest and freshest of gravel roads, and +through fields of the finest land, in the highest state of cultivation. +Rapid as was Leonard's survey, his rural eye detected the signs of a +master in the art agronomial. Hitherto he had considered the squire's +model farm as the nearest approach to good husbandry he had seen; for +Jackeymo's finer skill was developed rather on the minute scale of +market-gardening than what can fairly be called husbandry. But the +squire's farm was degraded by many old-fashioned notions, and concessions +to the whim of the eye, which would not be found in model farms +nowadays,--large tangled hedgerows, which, though they constitute one of +the beauties most picturesque in old England, make sad deductions from +produce; great trees, overshadowing the corn and harbouring the birds; +little patches of rough sward left to waste; and angles of woodland +running into fields, exposing them to rabbits and blocking out the sun. +These and such like blots on a gentleman-farmer's agriculture, common- +sense and Giacomo had made clear to the acute comprehension of Leonard. +No such faults were perceptible in Richard Avenel's domain. The fields +lay in broad divisions, the hedges were clipped and narrowed into their +proper destination of mere boundaries. Not a blade of wheat withered +under the cold shade of a tree; not a yard of land lay waste; not a weed +was to be seen, not a thistle to waft its baleful seed through the air: +some young plantations were placed, not where the artist would put them, +but just where the farmer wanted a fence from the wind. Was there no +beauty in this? Yes, there was beauty of its kind,--beauty at once +recognizable to the initiated, beauty of use and profit, beauty that +could bear a monstrous high rent. And Leonard uttered a cry of +admiration which thrilled through the heart of Richard Avenel. + +"This IS farming!" said the villager. + +"Well, I guess it is," answered Richard, all his ill-humour vanishing. +"You should have seen the land when I bought it. But we new men, as they +call us (damn their impertinence!) are the new blood of this country." + +Richard Avenel never said anything more true. Long may the new blood +circulate through the veins of the mighty giantess; but let the grand +heart be the same as it has beat for proud ages. + +The chaise now passed through a pretty shrubbery, and the house came into +gradual view,--a house with a portico, all the offices carefully thrust +out of sight. + +The postboy dismounted and rang the bell. + +"I almost think they are going to keep me waiting," said Mr. Richard, +well-nigh in the very words of Louis XIV. But the fear was not +realized,--the door opened; a well-fed servant out of livery presented +himself. There was no hearty welcoming smile on his face, but he opened +the chaise-door with demure and taciturn respect. + +"Where's George? Why does he not come to the door?" asked Richard; +descending from the chaise slowly, and leaning on the servant's +outstretched arm with as much precaution as if he had had the gout. + +Fortunately, George here came into sight, settling himself hastily into +his livery coat. + +"See to the things, both of you," said Richard, as he paid the postboy. + +Leonard stood on the gravel sweep, gazing at the square white house. + +"Handsome elevation--classical, I take it, eh?" said Richard, joining +him. "But you should see the offices." He then, with familiar kindness, +took Leonard by the arm, and drew him within. He showed him the hall, +with a carved mahogany stand for hats; he showed him the drawing-room, +and pointed out all its beauties; though it was summer, the drawing-room +looked cold, as will look rooms newly furnished, with walls newly +papered, in houses newly built. The furniture was handsome, and suited +to the rank of a rich trader. There was no pretence about it, and +therefore no vulgarity, which is more than can be said for the houses of +many an Honourable Mrs. Somebody in Mayfair, with rooms twelve feet +square, ebokeful of buhl, that would have had its proper place in the +Tuileries. Then Richard showed him the library, with mahogany book- +cases, and plate glass, and the fashionable authors handsomely bound. +Your new men are much better friends to living authors than your old +families who live in the country, and at most subscribe to a book-club. +Then Richard took him up-stairs, and led him through the bedrooms,--all +very clean and comfortable, and with every modern convenience; and +pausing in a very pretty single gentleman's chamber, said, "This is your +den. And now, can you guess who I am?" + +"No one but my uncle Richard could be so kind," answered Leonard. + +But the compliment did not flatter Richard. He was extremely +disconcerted and disappointed. He had hoped that he should be taken for +a lord at least, forgetful of all that he had said in disparagement of +lords. + +"Fish!" said he at last, biting his lip, "so you don't think that I look +like a gentleman? Come, now, speak honestly." + +Leonard, wonderingly, saw he had given pain, and with the good breeding +which comes instinctively from good nature, replied, "I judge you by your +heart, sir, and your likeness to my grandfather,--otherwise I should +never have presumed to fancy we could be relations." + +"Hum!" answered Richard. "You can just wash your hands, and then come +down to dinner; you will hear the gong in ten ininutes. There's the +bell,--ring for what you want." With that, he turned on his heel; and +descending the stairs, gave a look into the dining-room, and admired the +plated salver on the sideboard, and the king's pattern spoons and silver +on the table. Then he walked to the looking-glass over the mantelpiece; +and, wishing to survey the whole effect of his form, mounted a chair. He +was just getting into an attitude which he thought imposing, when the +butler entered, and, being London bred, had the discretion to try to +escape unseen; but Richard caught sight of him in the looking-glass, and +coloured up to the temples. + +"Jarvis," said he, mildly, "Jarvis, put me in mind to have these +inexpressibles altered." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +/A propos/ of the inexpressibles, Mr. Richard did not forget to provide +his nephew with a much larger wardrobe than could have been thrust into +Dr. Riccabocca's knapsack. There was a very good tailor in the town, and +the clothes were very well made. And, but for an air more ingenuous, and +a cheek that, despite study and night vigils, retained much of the +sunburned bloom of the rustic, Leonard Fairfield might now have almost +passed, without disparaging comment, by the bow-window at White's. +Richard burst into an immoderate fit of laughter when he first saw the +watch which the poor Italian had bestowed upon Leonard; but to atone for +the laughter, he made him a present of a very pretty substitute, and bade +him "lock up his turnip." Leonard was more hurt by the jeer at his old +patron's gift than pleased by his uncle's. But Richard Avenel had no +conception of sentiment. It was not for many days that Leonard could +reconcile himself to his uncle's manner. Not that the peasant could +pretend to judge of its mere conventional defects; but there is an ill +breeding to which, whatever our rank and nurture, we are almost equally +sensitive,--the ill breeding that comes from want of consideration for +others. Now, the squire was as homely in his way as Richard Avenel, but +the squire's bluntness rarely hurt the feelings; and when it did so, the +squire perceived and hastened to repair his blunder. But Mr. Richard, +whether kind or cross, was always wounding you in some little delicate +fibre,--not from malice, but from the absence of any little delicate +fibres of his own. He was really, in many respects, a most excellent +man, and certainly a very valuable citizen--; but his merits wanted the +fine tints and fluent curves that constitute beauty of character. He was +honest, but sharp in his practice, and with a keen eye to his interests. +He was just, but as a matter of business. He made no allowances, and did +not leave to his justice the large margin of tenderness and mercy. He +was generous, but rather from an idea of what was due to himself than +with much thought of the pleasure he gave to others; and he even regarded +generosity as a capital put out to interest. He expected a great deal of +gratitude in return, and, when he obliged a man, considered that he had +bought a slave. Every needy voter knew where to come, if he wanted +relief or a loan; but woe to him if he had ventured to express hesitation +when Mr. Avenel told him how he must vote. + +In this town Richard had settled after his return from America, in which +country he had enriched himself,--first, by spirit and industry, lastly, +by bold speculation and good luck. He invested his fortune in business, +--became a partner in a large brewery, soon bought out his associates, +and then took a principal share in a flourishing corn-mill. He prospered +rapidly,--bought a property of some two or three hundred acres, built a +house, and resolved to enjoy himself, and make a figure. He had now +become the leading man of the town, and the boast to Audley Egerton that +he could return one of the members, perhaps both, was by no means an +exaggerated estimate of his power. Nor was his proposition, according to +his own views, so unprincipled as it appeared to the statesman. He had +taken a great dislike to both the sitting members,--a dislike natural to +a sensible man of moderate politics, who had something to lose. For Mr. +Slappe, the active member, who was head-over-ears in debt, was one of the +furious democrats--rare before the Reform Bill,--and whose opinions were +held dangerous even by the mass of a Liberal constituency; while Mr. +Sleekie, the gentleman member who laid by L5000 every year from his +dividends in the Funds, was one of those men whom Richard justly +pronounced to be "humbugs,"--men who curry favour with the extreme party +by voting for measures sure not to be carried; while if there was the +least probability of coming to a decision that would lower the money +market. Mr. Sleekie was seized with a well-timed influenza. Those +politicians are common enough now. Propose to march to the Millennium, +and they are your men. Ask them to march a quarter of a mile, and they +fall to feeling their pockets, and trembling for fear of the footpads. +They are never so joyful as when there is no chance of a victory. Did +they beat the minister, they would be carried out of the House in a fit. + +Richard Avenel--despising both these gentlemen, and not taking kindly to +the Whigs since the great Whig leaders were lords--had looked with a +friendly eye to the government as it then existed, and especially to +Audley Egerton, the enlightened representative of commerce. But in +giving Audley and his colleagues the benefit of his influence, through +conscience, he thought it all fair and right to have a quid pro quo, and, +as he had so frankly confessed, it was his whim to rise up "Sir Richard." +For this worthy citizen abused the aristocracy much on the same principle +as the fair Olivia depreciated Squire Thornhill,--he had a sneaking +affection for what he abused. The society of Screwstown was, like most +provincial capitals, composed of two classes,--the commercial and the +exclusive. These last dwelt chiefly apart, around the ruins of an old +abbey; they affected its antiquity in their pedigrees, and had much of +its ruin in their finances. Widows of rural thanes in the neighbourhood, +genteel spinsters, officers retired on half-pay, younger sons of rich +squires, who had now become old bachelors,--in short, a very respectable, +proud, aristocratic set, who thought more of themselves than do all the +Gowers and Howards, Courtenays and Seymours, put together. It had early +been the ambition of Richard Avenel to be admitted into this sublime +coterie; and, strange to say, he had partially succeeded. He was never +more happy than when he was asked to their card-parties, and never more +unhappy than when he was actually there. Various circumstances combined +to raise Mr. Avenel into this elevated society. First, he was unmarried, +still very handsome, and in that society there was a large proportion of +unwedded females. Secondly, he was the only rich trader in Screwstown +who kept a good cook, and professed to give dinners, and the half-pay +captains and colonels swallowed the host for the sake of the venison. +Thirdly, and principally, all these exclusives abhorred the two sitting +members, and "idem nolle idem velle de republica, ea firma amicitia est;" +that is, congeniality in politics pieces porcelain and crockery together +better than the best diamond cement. The sturdy Richard Avenel, who +valued himself on American independence, held these ladies and gentlemen +in an awe that was truly Brahminical. Whether it was that, in England, +all notions, even of liberty, are mixed up historically, traditionally, +socially, with that fine and subtle element of aristocracy which, like +the press, is the air we breathe; or whether Richard imagined that he +really became magnetically imbued with the virtues of these silver +pennies and gold seven-shilling pieces, distinct from the vulgar coinage +in popular use, it is hard to say. But the truth must be told,--Richard +Avenel was a notable tuft-hunter. He had a great longing to marry out of +this society; but he had not yet seen any one sufficiently high-born and +high-bred to satisfy his aspirations. In the meanwhile, he had convinced +himself that his way would be smooth could he offer to make his ultimate +choice "My Lady;" and he felt that it would be a proud hour in his life +when he could walk before stiff Colonel Pompley to the sound of "Sir +Richard." Still, however disappointed at the ill-success of his bluff +diplomacy with Mr. Egerton, and however yet cherishing the most +vindictive resentment against that individual, he did not, as many would +have done, throw up his political convictions out of personal spite. He +reserved his private grudge for some special occasion, and continued +still to support the Administration, and to hate one of the ministers. + +But, duly to appreciate the value of Richard Avenel, and in just +counterpoise to all his foibles, one ought to have seen what he had +effected for the town. Well might he boast of "new blood;" he had done +as much for the town as he had for his fields. His energy, his quick +comprehension of public utility, backed by his wealth and bold, bullying, +imperious character, had sped the work of civilization as if with the +celerity and force of a steam-engine. + +If the town were so well paved and so well lighted, if half-a-dozen +squalid lanes had been transformed into a stately street, if half the +town no longer depended on tanks for their water, if the poor-rates were +reduced one-third, praise to the brisk new blood which Richard Avenel had +infused into vestry and corporation. And his example itself was so +contagious! + +"There was not a plate-glass window in the town when I came into it," +said Richard Avenel; "and now look down the High Street!" He took the +credit to himself, and justly; for though his own business did not +require windows of plate-glass, he had awakened the spirit of enterprise +which adorns a whole city. + +Mr. Avenel did not present Leonard to his friends for more than a +fortnight. He allowed him to wear off his rust. He then gave a grand +dinner, at which his nephew was formally introduced, and, to his great +wrath and disappointment, never opened his lips. How could he, poor +youth, when Miss Clarina Mowbray only talked upon high life, till proud +Colonel Pompley went in state through the history of the Siege of +Seringapatam? + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +While Leonard accustoms himself gradually to the splendours that surround +him, and often turns with a sigh to the remembrance of his mother's +cottage and the sparkling fount in the Italian's flowery garden, we will +make with thee, O reader, a rapid flight to the metropolis, and drop +ourselves amidst the gay groups that loiter along the dusty ground or +loll over the roadside palings of Hyde Park. The season is still at its +height; but the short day of fashionable London life, which commences two +hours after noon, is in its decline. + +The crowd in Rotten Row begins to thin. Near the statue of Achilles, and +apart from all other loungers, a gentleman, with one hand thrust into his +waistcoat, and the other resting on his cane, gazed listlessly on the +horsemen and carriages in the brilliant ring. He was still in the prime +of life, at the age when man is usually the most social,--when the +acquaintances of youth have ripened into friendships, and a personage of +some rank and fortune has become a well-known feature in the mobile face +of society. But though, when his contemporaries were boys scarce at +college, this gentleman had blazed foremost amongst the princes of +fashion, and though he had all the qualities of nature and circumstance +which either retain fashion to the last, or exchange its false celebrity +for a graver repute, he stood as a stranger in that throng of his +countrymen. Beauties whirled by to the toilet, statesmen passed on to +the senate, dandies took flight to the clubs; and neither nods, nor +becks, nor wreathed smiles said to the solitary spectator, "Follow us,-- +thou art one of our set." Now and then some middle-aged beau, nearing +the post of the loiterer, turned round to look again; but the second +glance seemed to dissipate the recognition of the first, and the beau +silently continued his way. + +"By the tomb of my fathers!" said the solitary to himself, "I know now +what a dead man might feel if he came to life again, and took a peep at +the living." + +Time passed on,--the evening shades descended fast. Our stranger in +London had well-nigh the Park to himself. He seemed to breathe more +freely as he saw that the space was so clear. + +"There's oxygen in the atmosphere now," said he, half aloud; "and I can +walk without breathing in the gaseous fumes of the multitude. Oh, those +chemists--what dolts they are! They tell us that crowds taint the air, +but they never guess why! Pah, it is not the lungs that poison the +element,--it is the reek of bad hearts. When a periwigpated fellow +breathes on me, I swallow a mouthful of care. Allons! my friend Nero; +now for a stroll." He touched with his cane a large Newfoundland dog, +who lay stretched near his feet, and dog and man went slow through the +growing twilight, and over the brown dry turf. At length our solitary +paused, and threw himself on a bench under a tree. "Half-past eight!" +said he, looking at his watch, "one may smoke one's cigar without +shocking the world." + +He took out his cigar-case, struck a light, and in another moment +reclined at length on the bench, seemed absorbed in regarding the smoke, +that scarce coloured ere it vanished into air. + +"It is the most barefaced lie in the world, my Nero," said he, addressing +his dog, "this boasted liberty of man! Now, here am I, a free-born +Englishman, a citizen of the world, caring--I often say to myself--caring +not a jot for Kaiser or Mob; and yet I no more dare smoke this cigar in +the Park at half-past six, when all the world is abroad, than I dare pick +my Lord Chancellor's pocket, or hit the Archbishop of Canterbury a thump +on the nose. Yet no law in England forbids me my cigar, Nero! What is +law at half-past eight was not crime at six and a half! Britannia says, +'Man, thou art free, and she lies like a commonplace woman. O Nero, +Nero! you enviable dog! you serve but from liking. No thought of the +world costs you one wag of the tail. Your big heart and true instinct +suffice you for reason and law. You would want nothing to your felicity, +if in these moments of ennui you would but smoke a cigar. Try it, Nero! +--try it!" And, rising from his incumbent posture, he sought to force +the end of the weed between the teeth of the dog. + +While thus gravely engaged, two figures had approached the place. The +one was a man who seemed weak and sickly. His threadbare coat was +buttoned to the chin, but hung large on his shrunken breast. The other +was a girl, who might be from twelve to fourteen, on whose arm he leaned +heavily. Her cheek was wan, and there was a patient, sad look on her +face, which seemed so settled that you would think she could never have +known the mirthfulness of childhood. + +"Pray rest here, Papa," said the child, softly; and she pointed to the +bench, without taking heed of its pre-occupant, who now, indeed, confined +to one corner of the seat, was almost hidden by the shadow of the tree. + +The man sat down, with a feeble sigh, and then, observing the stranger, +raised his hat, and said, in that tone of voice which betrays the usages +of polished society, "Forgive me if I intrude on you, sir." + +The stranger looked up from his dog, and seeing that the girl was +standing, rose at once, as if to make room for her on the bench. + +But still the girl did not heed him. She hung over her father, and wiped +his brow tenderly with a little kerchief which she took from her own neck +for the purpose. + +Nero, delighted to escape the cigar, had taken to some unwieldy curvets +and gambols, to vent the excitement into which he had been thrown; and +now returning, approached the bench with a low growl of surprise, and +sniffed at the intruders of his master's privacy. + +"Come here, sir," said the master. "You need not fear him," he added, +addressing himself to the girl. + +But the girl, without turning round to him, cried in a voice rather of +anguish than alarm, "He has fainted! Father! Father!" + +The stranger kicked aside his dog, which was in the way, and loosened the +poor man's stiff military stock. While thus charitably engaged, the moon +broke out, and the light fell full on the pale, careworn face of the +unconscious sufferer. + +"This face seems not unfamiliar to me, though sadly changed," said the +stranger to himself; and bending towards the girl, who had sunk on her +knees, and was chafing her father's hand, he asked, "My child, what is +your father's name?" + +The child continued her task, too absorbed to answer. + +The stranger put his hand on her shoulder, and repeated the question. + +"Digby," answered the child, almost unconsciously; and as she spoke the +man's senses began to return. In a few minutes more he had sufficiently +recovered to falter forth his thanks to the stranger. But the last took +his hand, and said, in a voice at once tremulous and soothing, "Is it +possible that I see once more an old brother in arms? Algernon Digby, I +do not forget you; but it seems England has forgotten." + +A hectic flush spread over the soldier's face, and he looked away from +the speaker as he answered,-- + +"My name is Digby, it is true, sir; but I do not think we have met +before. Come, Helen, I am well now,--we will go home." + +"Try and play with that great dog, my child," said the stranger,--"I want +to talk with your father." + +The child bowed her submissive head, and moved away; but she did not play +with the dog. + +"I must reintroduce myself formally, I see," quoth the stranger. "You +were in the same regiment with myself, and my name is L'Estrange." + +"My Lord," said the soldier, rising, "forgive me that--" + +"I don't think that it was the fashion to call me 'my lord' at the mess- +table. Come, what has happened to you?--on half-pay?" + +Mr. Digby shook his head mournfully. + +"Digby, old fellow, can you lend me L100?" said Lord L'Estrange, clapping +his ci-devant brother-officer on the shoulder, and in a tone of voice +that seemed like a boy's, so impudent was it, and devil-me-Garish. "No! +Well, that's lucky, for I can lend it to you." Mr. Digby burst into +tears. + +Lord L'Estrange did not seem to observe the emotion, but went on +carelessly,-- + +"Perhaps you don't know that, besides being heir to a father who is not +only very rich, but very liberal, I inherited, on coming of age, from a +maternal relation, a fortune so large that it would bore me to death if I +were obliged to live up to it. But in the days of our old acquaintance, +I fear we were both sad extravagant fellows, and I dare say I borrowed of +you pretty freely." + +"Me! Oh, Lord L'Estrange!" + +"You have married since then, and reformed, I suppose. Tell me, old +friend, all about it." + +Mr. Digby, who by this time had succeeded in restoring some calm to his +shattered nerves, now rose, and said in brief sentences, but clear, firm +tones,-- + +"My Lord, it is idle to talk of me,--useless to help me. I am fast +dying. But my child there, my only child" (he paused for an instant, and +went on rapidly). "I have relations in a distant county, if I could but +get to them; I think they would, at least, provide for her. This has +been for weeks my hope, my dream, my prayer. I cannot afford the journey +except by your help. I have begged without shame for myself; shall I be +ashamed, then, to beg for her?" + +"Digby," said L'Estrange, with some grave alteration of manner, "talk +neither of dying nor begging. You were nearer death when the balls +whistled round you at Waterloo. If soldier meets soldier and says +'Friend, thy purse,' it is not begging, but brotherhood. Ashamed! By +the soul of Belisarius! if I needed money, I would stand at a crossing +with my Waterloo medal over my breast, and say to each sleek citizen I +had helped to save from the sword of the Frenchman, 'It is your shame if +I starve.' Now, lean upon me; I see you should be at home: which way?" + +The poor soldier pointed his hand towards Oxford Street, and reluctantly +accepted the proffered arm. + +"And when you return from your relations, you will call on me? What-- +hesitate? Come, promise." + +"I will." + +"On your honour." + +"If I live, on my honour." + +"I am staying at present at Knightsbridge, with my father; but you will +always hear of my address at No.--, Grosvenor Square, Mr. Egerton's. So +you have a long journey before you?" + +"Very long." + +"Do not fatigue yourself,--travel slowly. Ho, you foolish child! I see +you are jealous of me. Your father has another arm to spare you." + +Thus talking, and getting but short answers, Lord L'Estrange continued to +exhibit those whimsical peculiarities of character, which had obtained +for him the repute of heartlessness in the world. Perhaps the reader may +think the world was not in the right; but if ever the world does judge +rightly of the character of a man who does not live for the world nor +talk of the world nor feel with the world, it will be centuries after the +soul of Harley L'Estrange has done with this planet. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +Lord L'Estrange parted company with Mr. Digby at the entrance of Oxford +Street. The father and child there took a cabriolet. Mr. Digby directed +the driver to go down the Edgware Road. He refused to tell L'Estrange +his address, and this with such evident pain, from the sores of pride, +that L'Estrange could not press the point. Reminding the soldier of his +promise to call, Harley thrust a pocket-book into his hand, and walked +off hastily towards Grosvenor Square. + +He reached Audley Egerton's door just as that gentleman was getting out +of his carriage; and the two friends entered the house together. + +"Does the nation take a nap to-night?" asked L'Estrange. "Poor old lady! +She hears so much of her affairs, that she may well boast of her +constitution: it must be of iron." + +"The House is still sitting," answered Audley, seriously, and with small +heed of his friend's witticism. "But it is not a Government motion, and +the division will be late, so I came home; and if I had not found you +here, I should have gone into the Park to look for you." + +"Yes; one always knows where to find me at this hour, nine o'clock P.M., +cigar, Hyde Park. There is not a man in England so regular in his +habits." + +Here the friends reached a drawing-room in which the member of parliament +seldom sat, for his private apartments were all on the ground-floor. + +"But it is the strangest whim of yours, Harley," said he. + +"What?" + +To affect detestation of ground-floors." + +"Affect! O sophisticated man, of the earth, earthy! Affect!--nothing +less natural to the human soul than a ground-floor. We are quite far +enough from Heaven, mount as many stairs as we will, without grovelling +by preference." + +"According to that symbolical view of the case," said Audley, "you should +lodge in an attic." + +"So I would, but that I abhor new slippers. As for hairbrushes, I am +indifferent." + +"What have slippers and hair-brushes to do with attics?" + +"Try! Make your bed in an attic, and the next morning you will have +neither slippers nor hair-brushes!" + +"What shall I have done with them?" + +"Shied them at the cats!" + +"What odd things you say, Harley!" + +"Odd! By Apollo and his nine spinsters! there is no human being who has +so little imagination as a distinguished member of parliament. Answer me +this, thou solemn Right Honourable,--Hast thou climbed to the heights of +august contemplation? Hast thou gazed on the stars with the rapt eye of +song? Hast thou dreamed of a love known to the angels, or sought to +seize in the Infinite the mystery of life?" + +"Not I indeed, my poor Harley." + +"Then no wonder, poor Audley, that you cannot conjecture why he who makes +his bed in an attic, disturbed by base catterwauls, shies his slippers at +cats. Bring a chair into the balcony. Nero spoiled my cigar to-night. +I am going to smoke now. You never smoke. You can look on the shrubs in +the square." + +Audley slightly shrugged his shoulders, but he followed his friend's +counsel and example, and brought his chair into the balcony. Nero came +too, but at sight and smell of the cigar prudently retreated, and took +refuge under the table. + +"Audley Egerton, I want something from Government." + +"I am delighted to hear it." + +"There was a cornet in my regiment, who would have done better not to +have come into it. We were, for the most part of us, puppies and fops." + +"You all fought well, however." + +"Puppies and fops do fight well. Vanity and valour generally go +together. CAesar, who scratched his head with due care of his scanty +curls, and even in dying thought of the folds in his toga; Walter +Raleigh, who could not walk twenty yards because of the gems in his +shoes; Alcibiades, who lounged into the Agora with doves in his bosom, +and an apple in his hand; Murat, bedizened in gold lace and furs; and +Demetrius, the City-Taker, who made himself up like a French marquise, +were all pretty good fellows at fighting. A slovenly hero like Cromwell +is a paradox in nature, and a marvel in history. But to return to my +cornet. We were rich; he was poor. When the pot of clay swims down the +stream with the brass-pots, it is sure of a smash. Men said Digby was +stingy; I saw he was extravagant. But every one, I fear, would be rather +thought stingy than poor. /Bref/--I left the army, and saw him no more +till to-night. There was never shabby poor gentleman on the stage more +awfully shabby, more pathetically gentleman. But, look ye, this man has +fought for England. It was no child's play at Waterloo, let me tell you, +Mr. Egerton; and, but for such men, you would be at best a /sous prefet/, +and your parliament a Provincial Assembly. You must do something for +Digby. What shall it be?" + +"Why, really, my dear Harley, this man was no great friend of yours, eh?" + +"If he were, he would not want the Government to help him,--he would not +be ashamed of taking money from me." + +"That is all very fine, Harley; but there are so many poor officers, and +so little to give. It is the most difficult thing in the world that +which you ask me. Indeed, I know nothing can be done: he has his half- +pay?" + +"I think not; or, if he has it, no doubt it all goes on his debts. +That's nothing to us: the man and his child are starving." + +"But if it is his own fault,--if he has been imprudent?" + +"Ah, well, well; where the devil is Nero?" + +"I am so sorry I can't oblige you. If it were anything else--" + +"There is something else. My valet--I can't turn him adrift-excellent +fellow, but gets drunk now and then. Will you find him a place in the +Stamp Office?" + +"With pleasure." + +"No, now I think of it, the man knows my ways: I must keep him. But my +old wine-merchant--civil man, never dunned--is a bankrupt. I am under +great obligations to him, and he has a very pretty daughter. Do you +think you could thrust him into some small place in the Colonies, or make +him a King's Messenger, or something of the sort?" + +"If you very much wish it, no doubt I can." + +"My dear Audley, I am but feeling my way: the fact is, I want something +for myself." + +"Ah, that indeed gives me pleasure!" cried Egerton, with animation. + +"The mission to Florence will soon be vacant,--I know it privately. The +place would quite suit me. Pleasant city; the best figs in Italy; very +little to do. You could sound Lord on the subject." + +"I will answer beforehand. Lord--would be enchanted to secure to the +public service a man so accomplished as yourself, and the son of a peer +like Lord Lansmere." + +Harley L'Estrange sprang to his feet, and flung his cigar in the face of +a stately policeman who was looking up at the balcony. + +"Infamous and bloodless official!" cried Harley L'Estrange; "so you could +provide for a pimple-nosed lackey, for a wine-merchant who has been +poisoning the king's subjects with white lead,--or sloe-juice,--for an +idle sybarite, who would complain of a crumpled rose-leaf; and nothing, +in all the vast patronage of England, for a broken-down soldier, whose +dauntless breast was her rampart?" + +"Harley," said the member of parliament, with his calm, sensible smile, +"this would be a very good claptrap at a small theatre; but there is +nothing in which parliament demands such rigid economy as the military +branch of the public service; and no man for whom it is so hard to effect +what we must plainly call a job as a subaltern officer who has done +nothing more than his duty,--and all military men do that. Still, as you +take it so earnestly, I will use what interest I can at the War Office, +and get him, perhaps, the mastership of a barrack." + +"You had better; for, if you do not, I swear I will turn Radical, and +come down to your own city to oppose you, with Hunt and Cobbett to +canvass for me." + +"I should be very glad to see you come into parliament, even as a +Radical, and at my expense," said Audley, with great kindness; "but the +air is growing cold, and you are not accustomed to our climate. Nay, if +you are too poetic for catarrhs and rheums, I'm not,--come in." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Lord L'Estrange threw himself on a sofa, and leaned his cheek on his hand +thoughtfully. Audley Egerton sat near him, with his arms folded, and +gazed on his friend's face with a soft expression of aspect, which was +very unusual to the firm outline of his handsome features. The two men +were as dissimilar in person as the reader will have divined that they +were in character. All about Egerton was so rigid, all about L'Estrange +so easy. In every posture of Harley's there was the unconscious grace of +a child. The very fashion of his garments showed his abhorrence of +restraint. His clothes were wide and loose; his neckcloth, tied +carelessly, left his throat half bare. You could see that he had lived +much in warm and southern lands, and contracted a contempt for +conventionalities; there was as little in his dress as in his talk of the +formal precision of the North. He was three or four years younger than +Audley, but he looked at least twelve years younger. In fact, he was one +of those men to whom old age seems impossible; voice, look, figure, had +all the charm of youth: and perhaps it was from this gracious +youthfulness--at all events, it was characteristic of the kind of love he +inspired--that neither his parents, nor the few friends admitted into his +intimacy, ever called him, in their habitual intercourse, by the name of +his title. He was not L'Estrange with them, he was Harley; and by that +familiar baptismal I will usually designate him. He was not one of those +men whom author or reader wish to view at a distance, and remember as "my +Lord"--it was so rarely that he remembered it himself. For the rest, it +had been said of him by a shrewd wit, "He is so natural that every one +calls him affected." Harley L'Estrange was not so critically handsome as +Audley Egerton; to a commonplace observer, he was only rather good- +looking than otherwise. But women said that he had "a beautiful +countenance," and they were not wrong. He wore his hair, which was of a +fair chestnut, long, and in loose curls; and instead of the Englishman's +whiskers, indulged in the foreigner's mustache. His complexion was +delicate, though not effeminate: it was rather the delicacy of a student +than of a woman. But in his clear gray eye there was a wonderful vigour +of life. A skilful physiologist, looking only into that eye, would have +recognized rare stamina of constitution,--a nature so rich that, while +easily disturbed, it would require all the effects of time, or all the +fell combinations of passion and grief, to exhaust it. Even now, though +so thoughtful, and even so sad, the rays of that eye were as concentrated +and steadfast as the light of the diamond. + +"You were only, then, in jest," said Audley, after a long silence, "when +you spoke of this mission to Florence. You have still no idea of +entering into public life?" + +"None." + +"I had hoped better things when I got your promise to pass one season in +London; but, indeed, you have kept your promise to the ear to break it to +the spirit. I could not presuppose that you would shun all society, and +be as much of a hermit here as under the vines of Como." + +"I have sat in the Strangers' Gallery, and heard your great speakers; I +have been in the pit of the opera, and seen your fine ladies; I have +walked your streets; I have lounged in your parks, and I say that I can't +fall in love with a faded dowager, because she fills up her wrinkles with +rouge." + +"Of what dowager do you speak?" asked the matter-of-fact Audley. + +"She has a great many titles. Some people call her Fashion, you busy +men, Politics: it is all one,--tricked out and artificial. I mean London +Life. No, I can't fall in love with her, fawning old harridan!" + +"I wish you could fall in love with something." "I wish I could, with +all my heart." + +"But you are so /blaze/." + +"On the contrary, I am so fresh. Look out of the window--what do you +see?" + +"Nothing!" + +"Nothing?" + +"Nothing but houses and dusty lilacs, my coachman dozing on his box, and +two women in pattens crossing the kennel." + +"I see not those where I lie on the sofa. I see but the stars. And I +feel for them as I did when I was a schoolboy at Eton. It is you who are +/blaze/, not I. Enough of this. You do not forget my commission with +respect to the exile who has married into your brother's family?" + +"No; but here you set me a task more difficult than that of saddling your +cornet on the War Office." + +"I know it is difficult, for the counter influence is vigilant and +strong; but, on the other hand, the enemy is so damnable a traitor that +one must have the Fates and the household gods on one's side." + +"Nevertheless," said the practical Audley, bending over a book on the +table; "I think that the best plan would be to attempt a compromise with +the traitor." + +"To judge of others by myself," answered Harley, with spirit, "it were +less bitter to put up with wrong than to palter with it for compensation. +And such wrong! Compromise with the open foe--that maybe done with +honour; but with the perjured friend--that were to forgive the perjury!" + +"You are too vindictive," said Egerton; "there may be excuses for the +friend, which palliate even--" + +"Hush! Audley, hush! or I shall think the world has indeed corrupted +you. Excuse for the friend who deceives, who betrays! No, such is the +true outlaw of Humanity; and the Furies surround him even while he sleeps +in the temple." + +The man of the world lifted his eyes slowly on the animated face of one +still natural enough for the passions. He then once more returned to his +book, and said, after a pause, "It is time you should marry, Harley." + +"No," answered L'Estrange, with a smile at this sudden turn in the +conversation, "not time yet; for my chief objection to that change in +life is, that the women nowadays are too old for me, or I am too young +for them. A few, indeed, are so infantine that one is ashamed to be +their toy; but most are so knowing that one is afraid to be their dupe. +The first, if they condescend to love you, love you as the biggest doll +they have yet dandled, and for a doll's good qualities,--your pretty blue +eyes and your exquisite millinery. The last, if they prudently accept +you, do so on algebraical principles; you are but the X or the Y that +represents a certain aggregate of goods matrimonial,--pedigree, title, +rent-roll, diamonds, pin-money, opera-box. They cast you up with the +help of mamma, and you wake some morning to find that plus wife minus +affection equals--the Devil!" + +"Nonsense," said Audley, with his quiet, grave laugh. "I grant that it +is often the misfortune of a man in your station to be married rather for +what he has than for what he is; but you are tolerably penetrating, and +not likely to be deceived in the character of the woman you court." + +"Of the woman I court?--No! But of the woman I marry, very likely +indeed! Woman is a changeable thing, as our Virgil informed us at +school; but her change par excellence is from the fairy you woo to the +brownie you wed. It is not that she has been a hypocrite,--it is that +she is a transmigration. You marry a girl for her accomplishments. She +paints charmingly, or plays like Saint Cecilia. Clap a ring on her +finger, and she never draws again,--except perhaps your caricature on the +back of a letter,--and never opens a piano after the honeymoon. You +marry her for her sweet temper; and next year, her nerves are so +shattered that you can't contradict her but you are whirled into a storm +of hysterics. You marry her because she declares she hates balls and +likes quiet; and ten to one but what she becomes a patroness at Almack's, +or a lady-in-waiting." + +"Yet most men marry, and most men survive the operation." + +"If it were only necessary to live, that would be a consolatory and +encouraging reflection. But to live with peace, to live with dignity, +to live with freedom, to live in harmony with your thoughts, your habits, +your aspirations--and this in the perpetual companionship of a person to +whom you have given the power to wound your peace, to assail your +dignity, to cripple your freedom, to jar on each thought and each habit, +and bring you down to the meanest details of earth, when you invite her, +poor soul, to soar to the spheres--that makes the To Be or Not To Be, +which is the question." + +"If I were you, Harley, I would do as I have heard the author of +'Sandford and Merton' did,--choose out a child and educate her yourself, +after your own heart." + +"You have hit it," answered Harley, seriously. "That has long been my +idea,--a very vague one, I confess. But I fear I shall be an old man +before I find even the child." + +"Ah!" he continued, yet more earnestly, while the whole character of his +varying countenance changed again,--"ah, if indeed I could discover what +I seek,--one who, with the heart of a child, has the mind of a woman; one +who beholds in nature the variety, the charm, the never feverish, ever +healthful excitement that others vainly seek in the bastard +sentimentalities of a life false with artificial forms; one who can +comprehend, as by intuition, the rich poetry with which creation is +clothed,--poetry so clear to the child when enraptured with the flower, +or when wondering at the star! If on me such exquisite companionship +were bestowed--why, then--" He paused, sighed deeply, and, covering his +face with his hand, resumed, in faltering accents,-- + +"But once--but once only, did such vision of the Beautiful made Human +rise before me,--rise amidst 'golden exhalations of the dawn.' It +beggared my life in vanishing. You know only--you only--how--how--" + +He bowed his head, and the tears forced themselves through his clenched +fingers. + +"So long ago!" said Audley, sharing his friend's emotion. "Years so long +and so weary, yet still thus tenacious of a mere boyish memory!" + +"Away with it, then!" cried Harley, springing to his feet, and with a +laugh of strange merriment. "Your carriage still waits: set me home +before you go to the House." + +Then laying his hand lightly on his friend's shoulder, he said, "Is it +for you, Audley Egerton, to speak sneeringly of boyish memories? What +else is it that binds us together? What else warms my heart when I meet +you? What else draws your thoughts from blue-books and beer-bills to +waste them on a vagrant like me? Shake hands. Oh, friend of my boyhood! +recollect the oars that we plied and the bats that we wielded in the old +time, or the murmured talk on the moss-grown bank, as we sat together, +building in the summer air castles mightier than Windsor. Ah, they are +strong ties, those boyish memories believe me! I remember, as if it were +yesterday, my translation of that lovely passage in Persius, beginning-- +let me see--ah! + + "'Quum primum pavido custos mihi purpura cernet,'-- + +that passage on friendship which gushes out so livingly from the stern +heart of the satirist. And when old--complimented me on my verses, my +eye sought yours. Verily, I now say as then,-- + + "'Nescio quod, certe est quod me tibi temperet astrum.'" + + ["What was the star I know not, but certainly some star + it was that attuned me unto thee."] + +Audley turned away his head as he returned the grasp of his friend's +hand; and while Harley, with his light elastic footstep, descended the +stairs, Egerton lingered behind, and there was no trace of the worldly +man upon his countenance when he took his place in the carriage by his +companion's side. + +Two hours afterwards, weary cries of "Question, question!" "Divide, +divide!" sank into reluctant silence as Audley Egerton rose to conclude +the debate,--the man of men to speak late at night, and to impatient +benches: a man who would be heard; whom a Bedlam broke loose would not +have roared down; with a voice clear and sound as a bell, and a form as +firmly set on the ground as a church-tower. And while, on the dullest of +dull questions, Audley Egerton thus, not too lively himself, enforced +attention, where was Harley L'Estrange? Standing alone by the river at +Richmond, and murmuring low fantastic thoughts as he gazed on the moonlit +tide. + +When Audley left him at home he had joined his parents, made them gay +with his careless gayety, seen the old-fashioned folks retire to rest, +and then--while they, perhaps, deemed him once more the hero of ball- +rooms and the cynosure of clubs--he drove slowly through the soft summer +night, amidst the perfumes of many a garden and many a gleaming chestnut +grove, with no other aim before him than to reach the loveliest margin of +England's loveliest river, at the hour when the moon was fullest and the +song of the nightingale most sweet. And so eccentric a humourist was +this man, that I believe, as he there loitered,--no one near to cry "How +affected!" or "How romantic!"--he enjoyed himself more than if he had +been exchanging the politest "how-d'ye-dos" in the hottest of London +drawing-rooms, or betting his hundreds on the odd trick, with Lord de +R------ for his partner. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Leonard had been about six weeks with his uncle, and those weeks were +well spent. Mr. Richard had taken him to his counting-house, and +initiated him into business and the mysteries of double entry; and in +return for the young man's readiness and zeal in matters which the acute +trader instinctively felt were not exactly to his tastes, Richard engaged +the best master the town afforded to read with his nephew in the evening. +This gentleman was the head usher of a large school, who had his hours to +himself after eight o'clock, and was pleased to vary the dull routine of +enforced lessons by instructions to a pupil who took delightedly even to +the Latin grammar. Leonard made rapid strides, and learned more in those +six weeks than many a cleverish boy does in twice as many months. These +hours which Leonard devoted to study Richard usually spent from home,-- +sometimes at the houses of his grand acquaintances in the Abbey Gardens, +sometimes in the Reading-Room appropriated to those aristocrats. If he +stayed at home, it was in company with his head clerk, and for the +purpose of checking his account-books, or looking over the names of +doubtful electors. + +Leonard had naturally wished to communicate his altered prospects to his +old friends, that they, in turn, might rejoice his mother with such good +tidings. But he had not been two days in the house before Richard had +strictly forbidden all such correspondence. + +"Look you," said he, "at present we are on an experiment,--we must see if +we like each other. Suppose we don't, you will only have raised +expectations in your mother which must end in bitter disappointment; and +suppose we do, it will be time enough to write when something definite is +settled." + +"But my mother will be so anxious--" + +"Make your mind easy on that score. I will write regularly to Mr. Dale, +and he can tell her that you are well and thriving. No more words, my +man,--when I say a thing, I say it." Then, observing that Leonard looked +blank and dissatisfied, Richard added, with a good-humoured smile, "I +have my reasons for all this--you shall know them later. And I tell you +what: if you do as I bid you, it is my intention to settle something +handsome on your mother; but if you don't, devil a penny she'll get from +me." + +With that Richard turned on his heel, and in a few moments his voice was +heard loud in objurgation with some of his people. + +About the fourth week of Leonard's residence at Mr. Avenel's, his host +began to evince a certain change of manner. He was no longer quite so +cordial with Leonard, nor did he take the same interest in his progress. +About the same period he was frequently caught by the London butler +before the looking-glass. He had always been a smart man in his dress, +but he was now more particular. He would spoil three white cravats when +he went out of an evening, before he could satisfy himself as to the tie. +He also bought a 'Peerage,' and it became his favourite study at odd +quarters of an hour. All these symptoms proceeded from a cause, and that +cause was--woman. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +The first people at Screwstown were indisputably the Pompleys. Colonel +Pompley was grand, but Mrs. Pompley was grander. The colonel was stately +in right of his military rank and his services in India; Mrs. Pompley was +majestic in right of her connections. Indeed, Colonel Pompley himself +would have been crushed under the weight of the dignities which his lady +heaped upon him, if he had not been enabled to prop his position with a +"connection" of his own. He would never have held his own, nor been +permitted to have an independent opinion on matters aristocratic, but for +the well-sounding name of his relations, "the Digbies." Perhaps on the +principle that obscurity increases the natural size of objects and is an +element of the sublime, the colonel did not too accurately define his +relations "the Digbies:" he let it be casually understood that they were +the Digbies to be found in Debrett. But if some indiscreet Vulgarian (a +favourite word with both the Pompleys) asked point-blank if he meant "my +Lord Digby," the colonel, with a lofty air, answered, "The elder branch, +sir." No one at Screwstown had ever seen these Digbies: they lay amidst +the Far, the Recondite,--even to the wife of Colonel Pompley's bosom. +Now and then, when the colonel referred to the lapse of years, and the +uncertainty of human affections, he would say, "When young Digby and I +were boys together," and then add with a sigh, "but we shall never meet +again in this world. His family interests secured him a valuable +appointment in a distant part of the British dominions." Mrs. Pompley +was always rather cowed by the Digbies. She could not be sceptical as to +this connection, for the colonel's mother was certainly a Digby, and the +colonel impaled the Digby arms. /En revanche/, as the French say, for +these marital connections, Mrs. Pompley had her own favourite affinity, +which she specially selected from all others when she most desired to +produce effect; nay, even upon ordinary occasions the name rose +spontaneously to her lips,--the name of the Honourable Mrs. M'Catchley. +Was the fashion of a gown or cap admired, her cousin, Mrs. M'Catchley, +had just sent to her the pattern from Paris. Was it a question whether +the Ministry would stand, Mrs. M'Catchley was in the secret, but Mrs. +Pompley had been requested not to say. Did it freeze, "My cousin, Mrs. +M'Catchley, had written word that the icebergs at the Pole were supposed +to be coming this way." Did the sun glow with more than usual fervour, +Mrs. M'Catchley had informed her "that it was Sir Henry Halford's decided +opinion that it was on account of the cholera." The good people knew all +that was doing at London, at court, in this world--nay, almost in the +other--through the medium of the Honourable Mrs. M'Catchley. Mrs. +M'Catchley was, moreover, the most elegant of women, the wittiest +creature, the dearest. King George the Fourth had presumed to admire +Mrs. M'Catehley; but Mrs. M'Catchley, though no prude, let him see that +she was proof against the corruptions of a throne. So long had the ears +of Mrs. Pompley's friends been filled with the renown of Mrs. M'Catchley, +that at last Mrs. M'Catchley was secretly supposed to be a myth, a +creature of the elements, a poetic fiction of Mrs. Pompley's. Richard +Avenel, however, though by no means a credulous man, was an implicit +believer in Mrs. M'Catchley. He had learned that she was a widow, and +honourable by birth, and honourable by marriage, living on her handsome +jointure, and refusing offers every day that she so lived. Somehow or +other, whenever Richard Avenel thought of a wife, he thought of the +Honourable Mrs. M'Catchley. Perhaps that romantic attachment to the fair +invisible preserved him heart-whole amongst the temptations of +Screwstown. Suddenly, to the astonishment of the Abbey Gardens, Mrs. +M'Catchley proved her identity, and arrived at Colonel Pompley's in a +handsome travelling-carriage, attended by her maid and footman. She had +come to stay some weeks; a tea-party was given in her honour. Mr. Avenel +and his nephew were invited. Colonel Pompley, who kept his head clear in +the midst of the greatest excitement, had a desire to get from the +Corporation a lease of a piece of ground adjoining his garden, and he no +sooner saw Richard Avenel enter than he caught him by the button, and +drew him into a quiet corner, in order to secure his interest. Leonard, +meanwhile, was borne on by the stream, till his progress was arrested by +a sofa-table at which sat Mrs. M'Catchley herself, with Mrs. Pompley by +her side. For on this great occasion the hostess had abandoned her +proper post at the entrance, and, whether to show her respect to Mrs. +M'Catchley, or to show Mrs. M'Catchley her well-bred contempt for the +people of Screwstown, remained in state by her friend, honouring only the +elite of the town with introductions to the illustrious visitor. + +Mrs. M'Catchley was a very fine woman,--a woman who justified Mrs. +Pompley's pride in her. Her cheek-bones were rather high, it is true. +but that proved the purity of her Caledonian descent; for the rest, she +had a brilliant complexion, heightened by a /soupcon/ of rouge, good eyes +and teeth, a showy figure, and all the ladies of Screwstown pronounced +her dress to be perfect. She might have arrived at that age at which one +intends to stop for the next ten years, but even a Frenchman would not +have called her passee,--that is, for a widow. For a spinster it would +have been different. + +Looking round her with a glass, which Mrs. Pompley was in the habit of +declaring that "Mrs. M'Catchley used like an angel," this lady suddenly +perceived Leonard Fairfield; and his quiet, simple, thoughtful air and +look so contrasted with the stiff beaux to whom she had been presented, +that, experienced in fashion as so fine a personage must be supposed to +be, she was nevertheless deceived into whispering to Mrs. Pompley, + +"That young man has really an /air distingue/; who is he?" "Oh," said +Mrs. Pompley, in unaffected surprise, "that is the nephew of the rich +Vulgarian I was telling you of this morning." + +"Ah! and you say that he is Mr. Arundel's heir?" "Avenel--not Arundel--my +sweet friend." + +"Avenel is not a bad name," said Mrs. M'Catchley. "But is the uncle +really so rich?" + +"The colonel was trying this very day to guess what he is worth; but he +says it is impossible to guess it." + +"And the young man is his heir?" + +"It is thought so; and reading for College, I hear. They say he is +clever." + +"Present him, my love; I like clever people," said Mrs. M'Catchley, +falling back languidly. + +About ten minutes afterwards, Richard Avenel having effected his escape +from the colonel, and his gaze being attracted towards the sofa-table by +the buzz of the admiring crowd, beheld his nephew in animated +conversation with the long cherished idol of his dreams. A fierce pang +of jealousy shot through his breast. His nephew had never looked so +handsome and so intelligent; in fact, poor Leonard had never before been +drawn out by a woman of the world, who had learned how to make the most +of what little she knew. And as jealousy operates like a pair of bellows +on incipient flames, so, at first sight of the smile which the fair widow +bestowed upon Leonard, the heart of Mr. Avenel felt in a blaze. + +He approached with a step less assured than usual, and, overhearing +Leonard's talk, marvelled much at the boy's audacity. Mrs. M'Catchley +had been speaking of Scotland and the Waverley Novels, about which +Leonard knew nothing. But he knew Burns, and on Burns he grew artlessly +eloquent. Burns the poet and peasant--Leonard might well be eloquent on +him. Mrs. M'Catchley was amused and pleased with his freshness and +naivete, so unlike anything she had ever heard or seen, and she drew him +on and on till Leonard fell to quoting. And Richard heard, with less +respect for the sentiment than might be supposed, that + + "Rank is but the guinea's stamp, + The man's the gowd for a' that." + +"Well!" exclaimed Mr. Avenel. "Pretty piece of politeness to tell that +to a lady like the Honourable Mrs. M'Catch ley! You'll excuse him, +ma'am." + +"Sir!" said Mrs. M'Catchley, startled, and lifting her glass. Leonard, +rather confused, rose and offered his chair to Richard, who dropped into +it. The lady, without waiting for formal introduction, guessed that she +saw the rich uncle. "Such a sweet poet-Burns!" said she, dropping her +glass. "And it is so refreshing to find so much youthful enthusiasm," +she added, pointing her fan towards Leonard, who was receding fast among +the crowd. + +"Well, he is youthful, my nephew,--rather green!" + +"Don't say green!" said Mrs. M'Catchley. Richard blushed scarlet. He +was afraid he had committed himself to some expression low and shocking. +The lady resumed, "Say unsophisticated." + +"A tarnation long word," thought Richard; but he prudently bowed and held +his tongue. + +"Young men nowadays," continued Mrs. M'Catchley, resettling herself on +the sofa, "affect to be so old. They don't dance, and they don't read, +and they don't talk much! and a great many of them wear /toupets/ before +they are two-and-twenty!" + +Richard mechanically passed his hand through his thick curls. But he was +still mute; he was still ruefully chewing the cud of the epithet "green." +What occult horrid meaning did the word convey to ears polite? Why +should he not say "green"? + +"A very fine young man your nephew, sir," resumed Mrs. M' Catchley. + +Richard grunted. + +"And seems full of talent. Not yet at the University? Will he go to +Oxford or Cambridge?" + +"I have not made up my mind yet if I shall send him to the University at +all." + +"A young man of his expectations!" exclaimed Mrs. M'Catchley, artfully. + +"Expectations!" repeated Richard, firing up. "Has he been talking to you +of his expectations?" + +"No, indeed, sir. But the nephew of the rich Mr. Avenel! Ah, one hears +a great deal, you know, of rich people; it is the penalty of wealth, Mr. +Avenel!" + +Richard was very much flattered. His crest rose. + +"And they say," continued Mrs. M'Catchley, dropping out her words very +slowly, as she adjusted her blonde scarf, "that Mr. Avenel has resolved +not to marry." + +"The devil they do, ma'am!" bolted out Richard, gruffly; and then, +ashamed of his /lapsus linguae/, screwed up his lips firmly, and glared +on the company with an eye of indignant fire. + +Mrs. M'Catchley observed him over her fan. Richard turned abruptly, and +she withdrew her eyes modestly, and raised the fan. + +"She's a real beauty," said Richard, between his teeth. The fan +fluttered. + +Five minutes afterwards, the widow and the bachelor seemed so much at +their ease that Mrs. Pompley, who had been forced to leave her friend, in +order to receive the dean's lady, could scarcely believe her eyes when +she returned to the sofa. + +Now, it was from that evening that Mr. Richard Avenel exhibited the +change of mood which I have described; and from that evening he abstained +from taking Leonard with him to any of the parties in the Abbey Gardens. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Some days after this memorable /soiree/, Colonel Pompley sat alone in his +study (which opened pleasantly on an old-fashioned garden), absorbed in +the house bills. For Colonel Pompley did not leave that domestic care to +his lady,--perhaps she was too grand for it. Colonel Pompley with his +own sonorous voice ordered the joints, and with his own heroic hands +dispensed the stores. In justice to the colonel, I must add--at whatever +risk of offence to the fair sex--that there was not a house at Screwstown +so well managed as the Pompleys'; none which so successfully achieved +the difficult art of uniting economy with show. I should despair of +conveying to you an idea of the extent to which Colonel Pompley made his +income go. It was but seven hundred a year; and many a family contrived +to do less upon three thousand. To be sure, the Pompleys had no children +to sponge upon them. What they had they spent all on themselves. +Neither, if the Pompleys never exceeded their income, did they pretend to +live much within it. The two ends of the year met at Christmas,--just +met, and no more. + +Colonel Pompley sat at his desk. He was in his well-brushed blue coat, +buttoned across his breast, his gray trousers fitted tight to his limbs, +and fastened under his boots with a link chain. He saved a great deal of +money in straps. No one ever saw Colonel Pompley in dressing-gown and +slippers. He and his house were alike in order--always fit to be seen + + "From morn to noon, from noon to dewy eve." + +The colonel was a short compact man, inclined to be stout,--with a very +red face, that seemed not only shaved, but rasped. He wore his hair +cropped close, except just in front, where it formed what the hairdresser +called a feather, but it seemed a feather of iron, so stiff and so strong +was it. Firmness and precision were emphatically marked on the colonel's +countenance. There was a resolute strain on his features, as if he was +always employed in making the two ends meet! + +So he sat before his house-book, with his steel-pen in his hand, and +making crosses here and notes of interrogation there. + +"Mrs. M'Catchley's maid," said the colonel to himself, "must be put upon +rations. The tea that she drinks! Good heavens!--tea again!" + +There was a modest ring at the outer door. "Too early for a visitor!" +thought the colonel. "Perhaps it is the water-rates." + +The neat man-servant--never seen beyond the offices, save in /grande +tenue/, plushed and powdered-entered and bowed. "A gentleman, sir, +wishes to see you." + +"A gentleman," repeated the colonel, glancing towards the clock. "Are +you sure it is a gentleman?" + +The man hesitated. "Why, sir, I ben't exactly sure; but he speaks like a +gentleman. He do say he comes from London to see you, sir." + +A long and interesting correspondence was then being held between the +colonel and one of his wife's trustees touching the investment of Mrs. +Pompley's fortune. It might be the trustee,--nay, it must be. The +trustee had talked of running down to see him. + +"Let him come in," said the colonel, "and when I ring--sandwiches and +sherry." + +"Beef, sir?" + +"Ham." + +The colonel put aside his house-book, and wiped his pen. In another +minute the door opened and the servant announced-- + + "MR. DIGBY." + +The colonel's face fell, and he staggered back. + +The door closed, and Mr. Digby stood in the middle of the room, leaning +on the great writing-table for support. The poor soldier looked sicklier +and shabbier, and nearer the end of all things in life and fortune, than +when Lord L'Estrange had thrust the pocket-book into his hands. But +still the servant showed knowledge of the world in calling him gentleman; +there was no other word to apply to him. + +"Sir," began Colonel Pompley, recovering himself, and with great +solemnity, "I did not expect this pleasure." + +The poor visitor stared round him dizzily, and sank into a chair, +breathing hard. The colonel looked as a man only looks upon a poor +relation, and buttoned up first one trouser pocket and then the other. + +"I thought you were in Canada," said the colonel, at last. Mr. Digby had +now got breath to speak, and he said meekly, "The climate would have +killed my child, and it is two years since I returned." + +"You ought to have found a very good place in England to make it worth +your while to leave Canada." + +"She could not have lived through another winter in Canada,--the doctor +said so." + +"Pooh," quoth the colonel. + +Mr. Digby drew a long breath. "I would not come to you, Colonel Pompley, +while you could think that I came as a beggar for myself." + +The colonel's brow relaxed. "A very honourable sentiment, Mr. Digby." + +"No: I have gone through a great deal; but you see, Colonel," added the +poor relation, with a faint smile, "the campaign is well-nigh over, and +peace is at hand." + +The colonel seemed touched. + +"Don't talk so, Digby,--I don't like it. You are younger than I am-- +nothing more disagreeable than these gloomy views of things. You have +got enough to live upon, you say,--at least so I understand you. I am +very glad to hear it; and, indeed, I could not assist you--so many claims +on me. So it is all very well, Digby." + +"Oh, Colonel Pompley," cried the soldier, clasping his hands, and with +feverish energy, "I am a suppliant, not for myself, but my child! I have +but one,--only one, a girl. She has been so good to me! She will cost +you little. Take her when I die; promise her a shelter, a home. I ask +no more. You are my nearest relative. I have no other to look to. You +have no children of your own. She will be a blessing to you, as she has +been all upon earth to me!" + +If Colonel Pompley's face was red in ordinary hours, no epithet +sufficiently rubicund or sanguineous can express its colour at this +appeal. "The man's mad," he said, at last, with a tone of astonishment +that almost concealed his wrath,--"stark mad! I take his child!--lodge +and board a great, positive, hungry child! Why, sir, many and many a +time have I said to Mrs. Pompley, ''T is a mercy we have no children. We +could never live in this style if we had children,--never make both ends +meet.' Child--the most expensive, ravenous, ruinous thing in the world-- +a child." + +"She has been accustomed to starve," said Mr. Digby, plaintively. "Oh, +Colonel, let me see your wife. Her heart I can touch,--she is a woman." + +Unlucky father! A more untoward, unseasonable request the Fates could +not have put into his lips. + +Mrs. Pompley see the Digbies! Mrs. Pompley learn the condition of the +colonel's grand connections! The colonel would never have been his own +man again. At the bare idea, he felt as if he could have sunk into the +earth with shame. In his alarm he made a stride to the door, with the +intention of locking it. Good heavens, if Mrs. Pompley should come in! +And the man, too, had been announced by name. Mrs. Pompley might have +learned already that a Digby was with her husband,--she might be actually +dressing to receive him worthily; there was not a moment to lose. + +The colonel exploded. "Sir, I wonder at your impudence. See Mrs. +Pompley! Hush, sir, hush!--hold your tongue. I have disowned your +connection. I will not have my wife--a woman, sir, of the first family +--disgraced by it. Yes; you need not fire up. John Pompley is not a man +to be bullied in his own house. I say disgraced. Did not you run into +debt, and spend your fortune? Did not you marry a low creature,--a +vulgarian, a tradesman's daughter?---and your poor father such a +respectable man,--a benefited clergyman! Did not you sell your +commission? Heaven knows what became of the money! Did not you turn +(I shudder to say it) a common stage-player, sir? And then, when you +were on your last legs, did I not give you L200 out of my own purse to +go to Canada? And now here you are again,--and ask me, with a coolness +that--that takes away my breath--takes away-my breath, sir--to provide +for the child you have thought proper to have,--a child whose connections +on the mother's side are of the most abject and discreditable condition. +Leave my house, leave it! good heavens, sir, not that way!--this." And +the colonel opened the glass-door that led into the garden. "I will let +you out this way. If Mrs. Pompley should see you!" And with that +thought the colonel absolutely hooked his arm into his poor relation's, +and hurried him into the garden. + +Mr. Digby said not a word, but he struggled ineffectually to escape from +the colonel's arm; and his colour went and came, came and went, with a +quickness that showed that in those shrunken veins there were still some +drops of a soldier's blood. + +But the colonel had now reached a little postern-door in the garden-wall. +He opened the latch, and thrust out his poor cousin. Then looking down +the lane, which was long, straight, and narrow, and seeing it was quite +solitary, his eye fell upon the forlorn man, and remorse shot through his +heart. For a moment the hardest of all kinds of avarice, that of the +genteel, relaxed its gripe. For a moment the most intolerant of all +forms of pride, that which is based upon false pretences, hushed +its voice, and the colonel hastily drew out his purse. "There," said he, +"that is all I can do for you. Do leave the town as quick as you can, +and don't mention your name to any one. Your father was such a +respectable man,--beneficed clergyman!" + +"And paid for your commission, Mr. Pompley. My name! I am not ashamed +of it. But do not fear I shall claim your relationship. No; I am +ashamed of you!" + +The poor cousin put aside the purse, still stretched towards him, with a +scornful hand, and walked firmly down the lane. Colonel Pompley stood +irresolute. At that moment a window in his house was thrown open. He +heard the noise, turned round, and saw his wife looking out. + +Colonel Pompley sneaked back through the shrubbery, hiding himself +amongst the trees. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +"Ill-luck is a /betise/," said the great Cardinal Richelieu; and in the +long run, I fear, his Eminence was right. If you could drop Dick Avenel +and Mr. Digby in the middle of Oxford Street,--Dick in a fustian jacket, +Digby in a suit of superfine; Dick with five shillings in his pocket, +Digby with L1000,--and if, at the end of ten years, you looked up your +two men, Dick would be on his road to a fortune, Digby--what we have seen +him! Yet Digby had no vice; he did not drink nor gamble. What was he, +then? Helpless. He had been an only son,--a spoiled child, brought up +as "a gentleman;" that is, as a man who was not expected to be able to +turn his hand to anything. He entered, as we have seen, a very expensive +regiment, wherein he found himself, at his father's death, with L4000 and +the incapacity to say "No." Not naturally extravagant, but without an +idea of the value of money,--the easiest, gentlest, best-tempered man +whom example ever led astray. This part of his career comprised a very +common history,--the poor man living on equal terms with the rich. Debt; +recourse to usurers; bills signed sometimes for others, renewed at twenty +per cent; the L4000 melted like snow; pathetic appeal to relations; +relations have children of their own; small help given grudgingly, eked +out by much advice, and coupled with conditions. Amongst the conditions +there was a very proper and prudent one,--exchange into a less expensive +regiment. Exchange effected; peace; obscure country quarters; ennui, +flute-playing, and idleness. Mr. Digby had no resources on a rainy day +--except flute-playing; pretty girl of inferior rank; all the officers +after her; Digby smitten; pretty girl very virtuous; Digby forms +honourable intentions; excellent sentiments; imprudent marriage. Digby +falls in life; colonel's lady will not associate with Mrs. Digby; Digby +cut by his whole kith and kin; many disagreeable circumstances in +regimental life; Digby sells out; love in a cottage; execution in ditto. +Digby had been much applauded as an amateur actor; thinks of the stage; +genteel comedy,--a gentlemanlike profession. Tries in a provincial town, +under another name; unhappily succeeds; life of an actor; hand-to-mouth +life; illness; chest affected; Digby's voice becomes hoarse and feeble; +not aware of it; attributes failing success to ignorant provincial +public; appears in London; is hissed; returns to the provinces; sinks +into very small parts; prison; despair; wife dies; appeal again to +relations; a subscription made to get rid of him; send him out of the +country; place in Canada,--superintendent to an estate, L150 a year; +pursued by ill-luck; never before fit for business, not fit now; honest +as the day, but keeps slovenly accounts; child cannot bear the winter of +Canada; Digby wrapped up in the child; return home; mysterious life for +two years; child patient, thoughtful, loving; has learned to work; +manages for father; often supports him; constitution rapidly breaking; +thought of what will become of his child,--worst disease of all. Poor +Digby! never did a base, cruel, unkind thing in his life; and here he is, +walking down the lane from Colonel Pompley's house! Now, if Digby had +but learned a little of the world's cunning, I think he would have +succeeded even with Colonel Pompley. Had he spent the L100 received from +Lord L'Estrange with a view to effect; had he bestowed a fitting wardrobe +on himself and his pretty Helen; had he stopped at the last stage, taken +thence a smart chaise and pair, and presented himself at Colonel +Pompley's in a way that would not have discredited the colonel's +connection, and then, instead of praying for home and shelter, asked the +colonel to become guardian to his child in case of his death, I have a +strong notion that the colonel, in spite of his avarice, would have +stretched both ends so as to take in Helen Digby. But our poor friend +had no such arts. Indeed, of the L100 he had already very little left, +for before leaving town he had committed what Sheridan considered the +extreme of extravagance,--frittered away his money in paying his debts; +and as for dressing up Helen and himself--if that thought had ever +occurred to him, he would have rejected it as foolish. He would have +thought that the more he showed his poverty, the more he would be +pitied,--the worst mistake a poor cousin can commit. According to +Theophrastus, the partridge of Paphlagonia has two hearts: so have most +men; it is the common mistake of the unlucky to knock at the wrong one. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Mr. Digby entered the room of the inn in which he had left Helen. She +was seated by the window, and looking out wistfully on the narrow street, +perhaps at the children at play. There had never been a playtime for +Helen Digby. + +She sprang forward as her father came in. His coming was her holiday. + +"We must go back to London," said Mr. Digby, sinking helplessly on the +chair. Then with his sort of sickly smile,--for he was bland even to his +child,--"Will you kindly inquire when the first coach leaves?" + +All the active cares of their careful life devolved upon that quiet +child. She kissed her father, placed before him a cough mixture which he +had brought from London, and went out silently to make the necessary +inquiries, and prepare for the journey back. + +At eight o'clock the father and child were seated in the night-coach, +with one other passenger,--a man muffled up to the chin. After the first +mile the man let down one of the windows. Though it was summer the air +was chill and raw. Digby shivered and coughed. + +Helen placed her hand on the window, and, leaning towards the passenger, +whispered softly. + +"Eh!" said the passenger, "draw up the window? You have got your own +window; this is mine. Oxygen, young lady," he added solemnly, "oxygen is +the breath of life. Cott, child!" he continued with suppressed choler, +and a Welsh pronunciation, "Cott! let us breathe and live." + +Helen was frightened, and recoiled. + +Her father, who had not heard, or had not heeded, this colloquy, +retreated into the corner, put up the collar of his coat, and coughed +again. + +"It is cold, my dear," said he, languidly, to Helen. + +The passenger caught the word, and replied indignantly, but as if +soliloquizing,-- + +"Cold-ugh! I do believe the English are the stuffiest people! Look at +their four-post beds--all the curtains drawn, shutters closed, board +before the chimney--not a house with a ventilator! Cold-ugh!" + +The window next Mr. Digby did not fit well into its frame. "There is a +sad draught," said the invalid. + +Helen instantly occupied herself in stopping up the chinks of the window +with her handkerchief. Mr. Digby glanced ruefully at the other window. +The look, which was very eloquent, aroused yet more the traveller's +spleen. + +"Pleasant!" said he. "Cott! I suppose you will ask me to go outside +next! But people who travel in a coach should know the law of a coach. +I don't interfere with your window; you have no business to interfere +with mine." + +"Sir, I did not speak," said Mr. Digby, meekly. + +"But Miss here did." + +"Ah, sir!" said Helen, plaintively, "if you knew how Papa suffers!" And +her hand again moved towards the obnoxious window. + +"No, my dear; the gentleman is in his right," said Mr. Digby; and, bowing +with his wonted suavity, he added, "Excuse her, sir. She thinks a great +deal too much of me." + +The passenger said nothing, and Helen nestled closer to her father, and +strove to screen him from the air. + +The passenger moved uneasily. "Well," said he, with a sort of snort, +"air is air, and right is right: but here goes--" and he hastily drew up +the window. + +Helen turned her face full towards the passenger with a grateful +expression, visible even in the dim light. + +"You are very kind, sir," said poor Mr. Digby; "I am ashamed to--" his +cough choked the rest of the sentence. The passenger, who was a +plethoric, sanguineous man, felt as if he were stifling. But he took off +his wrappers, and resigned the oxygen like a hero. + +Presently he drew nearer to the sufferer, and laid hand on his wrist. + +"You are feverish, I fear. I am a medical man. St!--one--two. Cott! +you should not travel; you are not fit for it!" + +Mr. Digby shook his head; he was too feeble to reply. + +The passenger thrust his hand into his coat-pocket, and drew out what +seemed a cigar-case, but what, in fact, was a leathern repertory, +containing a variety of minute phials. + +From one of these phials he extracted two tiny globules. "There," said +he, "open your mouth, put those on the tip of your tongue. They will +lower the pulse, check the fever. Be better presently, but should not +travel, want rest; you should be in bed. Aconite! Henbane! hum! Your +papa is of fair complexion,--a timid character, I should say;--a horror +of work, perhaps. Eh, child?" + +"Sir!" faltered Helen, astonished and alarmed. Was the man a conjuror? + +"A case for phosphor!" cried the passenger: "that fool Browne would have +said arsenic. Don't be persuaded to take arsenic!" + +"Arsenic, sir!" echoed the mild Digby. "No: however unfortunate a man +may be, I think, sir, that suicide is--tempting, perhaps, but highly +criminal." + +"Suicide," said the passenger, tranquilly,--"suicide is my hobby! You +have no symptom of that kind, you say?" + +"Good heavens! No, sir." + +"If ever you feel violently impelled to drown yourself, take pulsatilla; +but if you feel a preference towards blowing out your brains, accompanied +with weight in the limbs, loss of appetite, dry cough, and bad corns, +/sulphuret of antimony/. Don't forget." + +Though poor Mr. Digby confusedly thought that the gentleman was out of +his mind, yet he tried politely to say "that he was much obliged, and +would be sure to remember; "but his tongue failed him, and his own ideas +grew perplexed. His head fell back heavily, and he sank into a silence +which seemed that of sleep. + +The traveller looked hard at Helen, as she gently drew her father's head +on her shoulder, and there pillowed it with a tenderness which was more +that of a mother than child. + +"Moral affections, soft, compassionate!--a good child and would go well +with--/pulsatilla/." + +Helen held up her finger, and glanced from her father to the traveller, +and then to her father again. + +"Certainly,--pulsatilla!" muttered the homoeopathist, and ensconcing +himself in his own corner, he also sought to sleep. But after vain +efforts, accompanied by restless gestures and movements, he suddenly +started up, and again extracted his phial-book. + +"What the deuce are they to me?" he muttered. "Morbid sensibility of +character--coffee? No!--accompanied by vivacity and violence--nux!" +He brought his book to the window, contrived to read the label on a pigmy +bottle. "Nux! that's it," he said,--and he swallowed a globule! + +"Now," quoth he, after a pause, "I don't care a straw for the misfortunes +of other people; nay, I have half a mind to let down the window." + +Helen looked up. + +"But I'll not," he added resolutely; and this time he fell fairly asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +The coach stopped at eleven o'clock to allow the passengers to sup. The +homoeopathist woke up, got out, gave himself a shake, and inhaled the +fresh air into his vigorous lungs with an evident sensation of delight. +He then turned and looked into the coach. + +"Let your father get out, my dear," said he, with a tone more gentle than +usual. "I should like to see him indoors,--perhaps I can do him good." + +But what was Helen's terror when she found that her father did not stir! +He was in a deep swoon, and still quite insensible when they lifted him +from the carriage. When he recovered his senses his cough returned, and +the effort brought up blood. + +It was impossible for him to proceed farther. The homoeopathist assisted +to undress and put him into bed. And having administered another of his +mysterious globules, he inquired of the landlady how far it was to the +nearest doctor,--for the inn stood by itself in a small hamlet. There +was the parish apothecary three miles off. But on hearing that the +gentlefolks employed Dr. Dosewell, and it was a good seven miles to his +house, the homoeopathist fetched a deep breath. The coach only stopped a +quarter of an hour. + +"Cott!" said he, angrily, to himself, "the nux was a failure. My +sensibility is chronic. I must go through a long course to get rid of +it. Hollo, guard! get out my carpet-bag. I sha'n't go on to-night." + +And the good man after a very slight supper went upstairs again to the +sufferer. + +"Shall I send for Dr. Dosewell, sir?" asked the landlady, stopping him at +the door. + +"Hum! At what hour to-morrow does the next coach to London pass?" + +"Not before eight, sir." + +"Well, send for the doctor to be here at seven. That leaves us at least +some hours free from allopathy and murder," grunted the disciple of +Hahnemann, as he entered the room. + +Whether it was the globule that the homoeopathist had administered, or +the effect of nature, aided by repose, that checked the effusion of +blood, and restored some temporary strength to the poor sufferer, is more +than it becomes one not of the Faculty to opine. But certainly Mr. Digby +seemed better, and he gradually fell into a profound sleep, but not till +the doctor had put his ear to his chest, tapped it with his hand, and +asked several questions; after which the homoeopathist retired into a +corner of the room, and leaning his face on his hand seemed to meditate. +From his thoughts he was disturbed by a gentle touch. Helen was kneeling +at his feet. "Is he very ill, very?" said she; and her fond wistful eyes +were fixed on the physician's with all the earnestness of despair. + +"Your father is very ill," replied the doctor, after a short pause. "He +cannot move hence for some days at least. I am going to London; shall I +call on your relations, and tell some of them to join you?" + +"No, thank you, sir," answered Helen, colouring. "But do not fear; I can +nurse Papa. I think he has been worse before,--that is, he has +complained more." + +The homeeopathist rose, and took two strides across the room; then he +paused by the bed, and listened to the breathing of the sleeping man. + +He stole back to the child, who was still kneeling, took her in his arms +and kissed her. "Tamn it," said he, angrily, and putting her down, "go +to bed now,--you are not wanted any more." + +"Please, sir," said Helen, "I cannot leave him so. If he wakes he would +miss me." + +The doctor's hand trembled; he had recourse to his globules. + +"Anxiety--grief suppressed," muttered he. "Don't you want to cry, my +dear? Cry,--do!" + +"I can't," murmured Helen. + +"Pulsatilla!" said the doctor, almost with triumph. "I said so from the +first. Open your mouth--here! Goodnight. My room is opposite,--No. 6; +call me if he wakes." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +At seven o'clock Dr. Dosewell arrived, and was shown into the room of the +homoeopathist, who, already up and dressed, had visited his patient. + +"My name is Morgan," said the homoeopathist; "I am a physician. I leave +in your hands a patient whom, I fear, neither I nor you can restore. +Come and look at him." + +The two doctors went into the sick-room. Mr. Digby was very feeble, but +he had recovered his consciousness, and inclined his head courteously. + +"I am sorry to cause so much trouble," said he. The homoeopathist drew +away Helen; the allopathist seated himself by the bedside and put his +questions, felt the pulse, sounded the lungs, and looked at the tongue of +the patient. Helen's eye was fixed on the strange doctor, and her colour +rose, and her eye sparkled when he got up cheerfully, and said in a +pleasant voice, "You may have a little tea." + +"Tea!" growled the homceopathist,--"barbarian!" + +"He is better, then, sir?" said Helen, creeping to the allopathist. + +"Oh, yes, my dear,--certainly; and we shall do very well, I hope." + +The two doctors then withdrew. + +"Last about a week!" said Dr. Dosewell, smiling pleasantly, and showing a +very white set of teeth. + +"I should have said a month; but our systems are different," replied Dr. +Morgan, dryly. + +DR. DOSEWELL (courteously).--"We country doctors bow to our metropolitan +superiors; what would you advise? You would venture, perhaps, the +experiment of bleeding." + +DR. MORGAN (spluttering and growling Welsh, which he never did but in +excitement).--"Pleed! Cott in heaven! do you think I am a putcher,--an +executioner? Pleed! Never." + +DR. DOSEWELL.--"I don't find it answer, myself, when both lungs are gone! +But perhaps you are for inhaling?" + +DR. MORGAN.--"Fiddledee!" + +DR. DOSEWELL (with some displeasure).--"What would you advise, then, in +order to prolong our patient's life for a month?" + +DR. MORGAN.--"Give him Rhus!" + +DR. DOSEWELL.--"Rhus, sir! Rhus! I don't know that medicine. Rhus!" + +Dr. MORGAN.--"Rhus Toxicodendron." + +The length of the last word excited Dr. Dosewell's respect. A word of +five syllables,--that was something like! He bowed deferentially, but +still looked puzzled. At last he said, smiling frankly, "You great +London practitioners have so many new medicines: may I ask what Rhus +toxico--toxico--" + +"Dendron." + +"Is?" + +"The juice of the upas,--vulgarly called the poison-tree." Dr. Dosewell +started. + +"Upas--poison-tree--little birds that come under the shade fall down +dead! You give upas juice in these desperate cases: what's the dose?" + +Dr. Morgan grinned maliciously, and produced a globule the size of a +small pin's head. + +Dr. Dosewell recoiled in disgust. + +"Oh!" said he, very coldly, and assuming at once an air of superb +superiority, "I see, a homoeopathist, sir!" + +"A homoeopathist." + +"Um!" + +"Um!" + +"A strange system, Dr. Morgan," said Dr. Dosewell, recovering his +cheerful smile, but with a curl of contempt in it, "and would soon do for +the druggists." + +"Serve 'em right. The druggists soon do for the patients." + +"Sir!" + +"Sir!" + +DR. DOSEWELL (with dignity).---"You don't know, perhaps, Dr. Morgan, that +I am an apothecary as well as a surgeon. In fact," he added, with a +certain grand humility, "I have not yet taken a diploma, and am but +doctor by courtesy." + +DR. MORGAN.--"All one, sir! Doctor signs the death-warrant, 'pothecary +does the deed!" + +DR. DOSEWELL (with a withering sneer).--"Certainly we don't profess to +keep a dying man alive upon the juice of the deadly upas-tree." + +DR. MORGAN (complacently).--"Of course you don't. There are no poisons +with us. That's just the difference between you and me, Dr. Dosewell." + +DR. DOSEWELL (pointing to the homceopathist's travelling pharmacopoeia, +and with affected candour).--"Indeed, I have always said that if you can +do no good, you can do no harm, with your infinitesimals." + +DR. MORGAN, who had been obtuse to the insinuation of poisoning, fires up +violently at the charge of doing no harm. "You know nothing about it! I +could kill quite as many people as you, if I chose it; but I don't +choose." + +DR. DOSEWELL (shrugging his shoulders).--"Sir Sir! It is no use arguing; +the thing's against common-sense. In short, it is my firm belief that it +is--is a complete--" + +DR. MORGAN.--"A complete what?" + +DR. DOSEWELL (provoked to the utmost).--"Humbug!" + +DR. MORGAN.--"Humbug! Cott in heaven! You old--" + +DR. DOSEWELL.--"Old what, sir?" + +DR. MORGAN (at home in a series of alliteral vowels, which none but a +Cymbrian could have uttered without gasping).--"Old allopathical +anthropophagite!" + +DR. DOSEWELL (starting up, seizing by the back the chair on which he had +sat, and bringing it down violently on its four legs).--"Sir!" + +DR. MORGAN (imitating the action with his own chair).--"Sir!" + +DR. DOSEWELL.--"You're abusive." + +DR. MORGAN.--"You're impertinent." + +DR. DOSEWELL.--" Sir!" + +DR. MORGAN.--"Sir!" + +The two rivals confronted each other. + +They were both athletic men, and fiery men. Dr. Dosewell was the taller, +but Dr. Morgan was the stouter. Dr. Dosewell on the mother's side was +Irish; but Dr. Morgan on both sides was Welsh. All things considered, I +would have backed Dr. Morgan if it had come to blows. But, luckily for +the honour of science, here the chambermaid knocked at the door, and +said, "The coach is coming, sir." + +Dr. Morgan recovered his temper and his manners at that announcement. +"Dr. Dosewell," said he, "I have been too hot,--I apologize." + +"Dr. Morgan," answered the allopathist, "I forgot myself. Your hand, +sir." + +DR. MORGAN.--"We are both devoted to humanity, though with different +opinions. We should respect each other." + +DR. DOSEWELL.--"Where look for liberality, if men of science are +illiberal to their brethren?" + +DR. MORGAN (aside).--"The old hypocrite! He would pound me in a mortar +if the law would let him." + +DR. DOSEWELL (aside).--"The wretched charlatan! I should like to pound +him in a mortar." + +DR. MORGAN.--"Good-by, my esteemed and worthy brother." + +DR. DOSEWELL.--"My excellent friend, good-by." + +DR. MORGAN (returning in haste).--"I forgot. I don't think our poor +patient is very rich. I confide him to your disinterested benevolence." +(Hurries away.) + +DR. DOSEWELL (in a rage).--"Seven miles at six o'clock in the morning, +and perhaps done out of my fee! Quack! Villain!" + +Meanwhile, Dr. Morgan had returned to the sick-room. + +"I must wish you farewell," said he to poor Mr. Digby, who was languidly +sipping his tea. "But you are in the hands of a--of a--gentleman in the +profession." + +"You have been too kind,--I am shocked," said Mr. Digby. "Helen, where's +my purse?" + +Dr. Morgan paused. + +He paused, first, because it must be owned that his practice was +restricted, and a fee gratified the vanity natural to unappreciated +talent, and had the charm of novelty, which is sweet to human nature +itself. Secondly, he was a man-- + + "Who knew his rights; and, knowing, dared maintain." + +He had resigned a coach fare, stayed a night, and thought he had relieved +his patient. He had a right to his fee. + +On the other hand, he paused, because, though he had small practice, he +was tolerably well off, and did not care for money in itself, and he +suspected his patient to be no Croesus. + +Meanwhile the purse was in Helen's hand. He took it from her, and saw +but a few sovereigns within the well-worn network. He drew the child a +little aside. + +"Answer me, my dear, frankly,--is your papa rich?--" And he glanced at +the shabby clothes strewed on the chair and Helen's faded frock. + +"Alas, no!" said Helen, hanging her head. "Is that all you have?" + +"All." + +"I am ashamed to offer you two guineas," said Mr. Digby's hollow voice +from the bed. + +"And I should be still more ashamed to take them. Good by, sir. Come +here, my child. Keep your money, and don't waste it on the other doctor +more than you can help. His medicines can do your father no good. But I +suppose you must have some. He's no physician, therefore there's no fee. +He'll send a bill,--it can't be much. You understand. And now, God +bless you." + +Dr. Morgan was off. But, as he paid the landlady his bill, he said +considerately, "The poor people upstairs can pay you, but not that +doctor,--and he's of no use. Be kind to the little girl, and get the +doctor to tell his patient (quietly of course) to write to his friends-- +soon--you understand. Somebody must take charge of the poor child. And +stop--hold your hand; take care--these globules for the little girl when +her father dies,"--here the doctor muttered to himself, "grief,--aconite, +and if she cries too much afterwards, these--(don't mistake). Tears,-- +caustic!" + +"Come, sir," cried the coachman. + +"Coming; tears,--caustic," repeated the homoeopathist, pulling out his +handkerchief and his phial-book together as he got into the coach; and he +hastily swallowed his antilachrymal. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Richard Avenel was in a state of great nervous excitement. He proposed +to give an entertainment of a kind wholly new to the experience of +Screwstown. Mrs. M'Catchley had described with much eloquence the +/Dejeunes dansants/ of her fashionable friends residing in the elegant +suburbs of Wimbledon and Fulham. She declared that nothing was so +agreeable. She had even said point-blank to Mr. Avenel, "Why don't you +give a /Dejeune dansant/?" And, therewith, a /Dejeune dansant/ Mr. +Avenel resolved to give. + +The day was fixed, and Mr. Avenel entered into all the requisite +preparations, with the energy of a man and the providence of a woman. + +One morning as he stood musing on the lawn, irresolute as to the best +site for the tents, Leonard came up to him with an open letter in his +hand. + +"My dear uncle," said he, softly. + +"Ha!" exclaimed Mr. Avenel, with a start. "Ha-well, what now?" + +"I have just received a letter from Mr. Dale. He tells me that my poor +mother is very restless and uneasy, because he cannot assure her that he +has heard from me; and his letter requires an answer. Indeed I shall +seem very ungrateful to him--to all--if I do not write." + +Richard Avenel's brows met. He uttered an impatient "Pish!" and turned +away. Then coming back, he fixed his clear hawk-like eye on Leonard's +ingenuous countenance, linked his arm into his nephew's, and drew him +into the shrubbery. + +"Well, Leonard," said he, after a pause, "it is time that I should give +you some idea of my plans with regard to you. You have seen my manner of +living--some difference from what you ever saw before, I calculate! Now +I have given you, what no one gave me, a lift in the world; and where I +place you, there you must help yourself." + +"Such is my duty and my desire," said Leonard, heartily. "Good. You are +a clever lad, and a genteel lad, and will do me credit. I have had +doubts of what is best for you. At one time I thought of sending you to +college. That, I know; is Mr. Dale's wish; perhaps it is your own. But +I have given up that idea; I have something better for you. You have a +clear head for business, and are a capital arithmetician. I think of +bringing you up to superintend my business; by and by I will adinit you +into partnership; and before you are thirty you will be a rich man. +Come, does that suit you?" + +"My dear uncle," said Leonard, frankly, but much touched by this +generosity, "it is not for me to have a choice. I should have preferred +going to college, because there I might gain independence for myself and +cease to be a burden on you. Moreover, my heart moves me to studies more +congenial with the college than the counting-house. But all this is +nothing compared with my wish to be of use to you, and to prove in any +way, however feebly, my gratitude for all your kindness." + +"You're a good, grateful, sensible lad," exclaimed Richard, heartily; +"and believe me, though I'm a rough diamond, I have your true interest +at heart. You can be of use to me, and in being so you will best serve +yourself. To tell you the truth, I have some idea of changing my +condition. There's a lady of fashion and quality who, I think, may +condescend to become Mrs. Avenel; and if so, I shall probably reside a +great part of the year in London. I don't want to give up my business. +No other investment will yield the same interest. But you can soon learn +to superintend it for me, as some day or other I may retire, and then you +can step in. Once a member of our great commercial class, and with your +talents you may be anything,--member of parliament, and after that, +minister of State, for what I know. And my wife--hem! that is to be--has +great connections, and you shall marry well; and--oh, the Avenels will +hold their heads with the highest, after all! Damn the aristocracy! we +clever fellows will be the aristocrats, eh?" Richard rubbed his hands. + +Certainly, as we have seen, Leonard, especially in his earlier steps to +knowledge, had repined at his position in the many degrees of life; +certainly he was still ambitious; certainly he could not now have +returned contentedly to the humble occupation he had left; and woe to the +young man who does not hear with a quickened pulse and brightening eye +words that promise independence, and flatter with the hope of +distinction. Still, it was with all the reaction of chill and mournful +disappointment that Leonard, a few hours after this dialogue with his +uncle, found himself alone in the fields, and pondering over the +prospects before him. He had set his heart upon completing his +intellectual education, upon developing those powers within him which +yearned for an arena of literature, and revolted from the routine of +trade. + +But to his credit be it said, that he vigorously resisted this natural +disappointment, and by degrees schooled himself to look cheerfully on the +path imposed on his duty, and sanctioned by the manly sense that was at +the core of his character. + +I believe that this self-conquest showed that the boy had true genius. +The false genius would have written sonnets and despaired. + +But still, Richard Avenel left his nephew sadly perplexed as to the +knotty question from which their talk on the future had diverged,-- +namely, should he write to the parson, and assure the fears of his +mother? How do so without Richard's consent, when Richard had on a +former occasion so imperiously declared that, if he did, it would lose +his mother all that Richard intended to settle on her? While he was +debating this matter with his conscience, leaning against a stile that +interrupted a path to the town, Leonard Fairfield was startled by an +exclamation. He looked up, and beheld Mr. Sprott the tinker. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +The tinker, blacker and grimmer than ever, stared hard at the altered +person of his old acquaintance, and extended his sable fingers, as if +inclined to convince himself by the sense of touch that it was Leonard in +the flesh that he beheld, under vestments so marvellously elegant and +preternaturally spruce. + +Leonard shrank mechanically from the contact, while in great surprise he +faltered,-- + +"You here, Mr. Sprott! What could bring you so far from home?" + +"'Ome!" echoed the tinker, "I 'as no 'ome! or rather, d' ye see, Muster +Fairfilt, I makes myself at 'ome verever I goes! Lor' love ye! I ben't +settled on no parridge. I wanders here and I vanders there, and that's +my 'ome verever I can mend my kettles and sell my tracks!" + +So saying, the tinker slid his panniers on the ground, gave a grunt of +release and satisfaction, and seated himself with great composure on the +stile from which Leonard had retreated. + +"But, dash my wig," resumed Mr. Sprott, as he once more surveyed Leonard, +"vy, you bees a rale gentleman, now, surely! Vot's the dodge, eh?" + +"Dodge!" repeated Leonard, mechanically, "I don't understand you." +Then, thinking that it was neither necessary nor expedient to keep up +his acquaintance with Mr. Sprott, nor prudent to expose himself to the +battery of questions which he foresaw that further parley would bring +upon him, he extended a crown-piece to the tinker; and saying, with a +half-smile, "You must excuse me for leaving you--I have business in the +town; and do me the favour to accept this trifle," he walked briskly off. + +The tinker looked long at the crown-piece, and then sliding it into his +pocket, said to himself,-- + +"Ho, 'ush-money! No go, my swell cove." + +After venting that brief soliloquy he sat silent a little while, till +Leonard was nearly out of sight; then rose, resumed his fardel, and +creeping quick along the hedgerows, followed Leonard towards the town. +Just in the last field, as he looked over the hedge, he saw Leonard +accosted by a gentleman of comely mien and important swagger. That +gentleman soon left the young man, and came, whistling loud, up the path, +and straight towards the tinker. Mr. Sprott looked round, but the hedge +was too neat to allow of a good hiding-place, so he put a bold front on +it, and stepped forth like a man. But, alas for him! before he got into +the public path, the proprietor of the land, Mr. Richard Avenel (for the +gentleman was no less a personage), had spied out the trespasser, and +called to him with a "Hillo, fellow," that bespoke all the dignity of a +man who owns acres, and all the wrath of a man who beholds those acres +impudently invaded. + +The tinker stopped, and Mr. Avenel stalked up to him. "What the devil +are you doing on my property, lurking by my hedge? I suspect you are an +incendiary!" + +"I be a tinker," quoth Mr. Sprott, not louting low, for a sturdy +republican was Mr. Sprott, but, like a lord of human kind,-- + + "Pride in his port, defiance in his eye." + +Mr. Avenel's fingers itched to knock the tinker's villanous hat off his +jacobinical head, but he repressed the undignified impulse by thrusting +both hands deep into his trousers' pockets. + +"A tinker!" he cried,--"that's a vagrant; and I'm a magistrate, and I've +a great mind to send you to the treadmill,--that I have. What do you do +here, I say? You have not answered my question." + +"What does I do 'ere?" said Mr. Sprott. "Vy, you had better ax my +crakter of the young gent I saw you talking with just now; he knows me." + +"What! my nephew knows you?" + +"W-hew," whistled the tinker, "your nephew is it, sir? I have a great +respek for your family. I 've knowed Mrs. Fairfilt the vashervoman this +many a year. I 'umbly ax your pardon." And he took off his hat this +time. + +Mr. Avenel turned red and white in a breath. He growled out something +inaudible, turned on his heel, and strode off. The tinker watched him as +he had watched Leonard, and then dogged the uncle as he had dogged the +nephew. I don't presume to say that there was cause and effect in what +happened that night, but it was what is called "a curious coincidence" +that that night one of Richard Avenel's ricks was set on fire, and that +that day he had called Mr. Sprott an incendiary. Mr. Sprott was a man of +a very high spirit, and did not forgive an insult easily. His nature was +inflammatory, and so was that of the lucifers which he always carried +about him, with his tracts and glue-pots. + +The next morning there was an inquiry made for the tinker, but he had +disappeared from the neighbourhood. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +It was a fortunate thing that the dejeune dansant so absorbed Mr. Richard +Avenel's thoughts that even the conflagration of his rick could not scare +away the graceful and poetic images connected with that pastoral +festivity. He was even loose and careless in the questions he put to +Leonard about the tinker; nor did he send justice in pursuit of that +itinerant trader; for, to say truth, Richard Avenel was a man accustomed +to make enemies amongst the lower orders; and though he suspected Mr. +Sprott of destroying his rick, yet, when he once set about suspecting, he +found he had quite as good cause to suspect fifty other persons. How on +earth could a man puzzle himself about ricks and tinkers when all his +cares and energies were devoted to a /dejeune dansant/? It was a maxim +of Richard Avenel's, as it ought to be of every clever man, "to do one +thing at a time;" and therefore he postponed all other considerations +till the /dejeune dansant/ was fairly done with. Amongst these +considerations was the letter which Leonard wished to write to the +parson. "Wait a bit, and we will both write!" said Richard, good- +humouredly, "the moment the dijeune dansant is over!" + +It must be owned that this fete was no ordinary provincial ceremonial. +Richard Avenel was a man to do a thing well when he set about it,-- + + "He soused the cabbage with a bounteous heart." + +By little and little his first notions had expanded, till what had been +meant to be only neat and elegant now embraced the costly and +magnificent. Artificers accustomed to /dejeunes dansants/ came all the +way from London to assist, to direct, to create. Hungarian singers and +Tyrolese singers and Swiss peasant-women, who were to chant the /Ranz des +Vaches/, and milk cows or make syllabubs, were engaged. The great +marquee was decorated as a Gothic banquet-hall; the breakfast itself was +to consist of "all the delicacies of the season." In short, as Richard +Avenel said to himself, "It is a thing once in a way; a thing on which I +don't object to spend money, provided that the thing is--the thing!" + +It had been a matter of grave meditation how to make the society worthy +of the revel; for Richard Avenel was not contented with the mere +aristocracy of the town,--his ambition had grown with his expenses. +"Since it will cost so much," said he, "I may as well come it strong, and +get in the county." + +True, that he was personally acquainted with very few of what are called +county families. But still, when a man makes himself a mark in a large +town, and can return one of the members whom that town sends to +parliament; and when, moreover, that man proposes to give some superb and +original entertainment, in which the old can eat and the young can dance, +there is no county in the island that has not families enow who will be +delighted by an invitation from THAT MAN. And so Richard, finding that, +as the thing got talked of, the dean's lady, and Mrs. Pompley, and +various other great personages, took the liberty to suggest that Squire +this, and Sir somebody that, would be so pleased if they were asked, +fairly took the bull by the horns, and sent out his cards to Park, Hall, +and Rectory, within a circumference of twelve miles. He met with but few +refusals, and he now counted upon five hundred guests. + +"In for a penny in for a pound," said Mr. Richard Avenel. "I wonder what +Mrs. M'Catchley will say?" Indeed, if the whole truth must be known,-- +Mr. Richard Avenel not only gave that /dejeune dansant/ in honour of Mrs. +M'Catchley, but he had fixed in his heart of hearts upon that occasion +(when surrounded by all his splendour, and assisted by the seductive arts +of Terpsichore and Bacchus) to whisper to Mrs. M'Catchley those soft +words which--but why not here let Mr. Richard Avenel use his own +idiomatic and unsophisticated expression? "Please the pigs, then," said +Mr. Avenel to himself, "I shall pop the question!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +The Great Day arrived at last; and Mr. Richard Avenel, from his dressing- +room window, looked on the scene below as Hannibal or Napoleon looked +from the Alps on Italy. It was a scene to gratify the thought of +conquest, and reward the labours of ambition. Placed on a little +eminence stood the singers from the mountains of the Tyrol, their high- +crowned hats and filigree buttons and gay sashes gleaming in the sun. +Just seen from his place of watch, though concealed from the casual eye, +the Hungarian musicians lay in ambush amidst a little belt of laurels and +American shrubs. Far to the right lay what had once been called +/horresco referens/ the duckpond, where--"Dulce sonant tenui gutture +carmen aves." But the ruthless ingenuity of the head-artificer had +converted the duck-pond into a Swiss lake, despite grievous wrong and +sorrow to the /assuetum innocuumque genus/,--the familiar and harmless +inhabitants, who had been all expatriated and banished from their native +waves. Large poles twisted with fir branches, stuck thickly around the +lake, gave to the waters the becoming Helvetian gloom. And here, beside +three cows all bedecked with ribbons, stood the Swiss maidens destined to +startle the shades with the /Ranz des Vaches/. To the left, full upon +the sward, which it almost entirely covered, stretched the great Gothic +marquee, divided into two grand sections,--one for the dancing, one for +the dejeune. + +The day was propitious,--not a cloud in the sky. The musicians were +already tuning their instruments; figures of waiters hired of Gunter-- +trim and decorous, in black trousers and white waistcoats--passed to and +fro the space between the house and marquee. Richard looked and looked; +and as he looked he drew mechanically his razor across the strop; and +when he had looked his fill, he turned reluctantly to the glass and +shaved! All that blessed morning he had been too busy, till then, to +think of shaving. + +There is a vast deal of character in the way that a man performs that +operation of shaving! You should have seen Richard Avenel shave! You +could have judged at once how he would shave his neighbours, when you saw +the celerity, the completeness with which he shaved himself,--a +forestroke and a backstroke, and /tondenti barba cadebat/. Cheek and +chin were as smooth as glass. You would have buttoned up your pockets +instinctively if you had seen him. + +But the rest of Mr. Avenel's toilet was not completed with correspondent +despatch. On his bed, and on his chairs, and on his sofa, and on his +drawers, lay trousers and vests and cravats enough to distract the choice +of a Stoic. And first one pair of trousers was tried on, and then +another--and one waistcoat, and then a second, and then a third. +Gradually that chef-d'oeuvre of civilization--a man dressed--grew into +development and form; and, finally, Mr. Richard Avenel emerged into the +light of day. He had been lucky in his costume,--he felt it. It might +not suit every one in colour or cut, but it suited him. + +And this was his garb. On such occasion, what epic poet would not +describe the robe and tunic of a hero? + +His surtout--in modern phrase his frockcoat--was blue, a rich blue, +a blue that the royal brothers of George the Fourth were wont to favour. +And the surtout, single-breasted, was thrown open gallantly; and in the +second button-hole thereof was a moss-rose. The vest was white, and the +trousers a pearl gray, with what tailors style "a handsome fall over the +boot." A blue and white silk cravat, tied loose and debonair; an ample +field of shirt front, with plain gold studs; a pair of lemon-coloured kid +gloves, and a white hat, placed somewhat too knowingly on one side, +complete the description, and "give the world assurance of the man." +And, with his light, firm, well-shaped figure, his clear complexion, his +keen, bright eye, and features that bespoke the courage, precision, and +alertness of his character,--that is to say, features bold, not large, +well-defined, and regular,--you might walk long through town or country +before you would see a handsomer specimen of humanity than our friend +Richard Avenel. + +Handsome, and feeling that he was handsome; rich, and feeling that he was +rich; lord of the fete, and feeling that he was lord of the fete, Richard +Avenel stepped out upon his lawn. + +And now the dust began to rise along the road, and carriages and gigs and +chaises and flies might be seen at near intervals and in quick +procession. People came pretty much about the same time-as they do in +the country--Heaven reward them for it! + +Richard Avenel was not quite at his ease at first in receiving his +guests, especially those whom he did not know by sight. But when the +dancing began, and he had secured the fair hand of Mrs. M'Catchley for +the initiary quadrille, his courage and presence of mind returned to him; +and, seeing that many people whom he had not received at all seemed to +enjoy themselves very much, he gave up the attempt to receive those who +came after,--and that was a great relief to all parties. + +Meanwhile Leonard looked on the animated scene with a silent melancholy, +which he in vain endeavoured to shake off,--a melancholy more common +amongst very young men in such scenes than we are apt to suppose. +Somehow or other, the pleasure was not congenial to him; he had no Mrs. +M'Catchley to endear it; he knew very few people, he was shy, he felt his +position with his uncle was equivocal, he had not the habit of society, +he heard, incidentally, many an ill-natured remark upon his uncle and the +entertainment, he felt indignant and mortified. He had been a great deal +happier eating his radishes and reading his book by the little fountain +in Riccabocca's garden. He retired to a quiet part of the grounds, +seated himself under a tree, leaned his cheek on his hand, and mused. +He was soon far away;--happy age, when, whatever the present, the future +seems so fair and so infinite! + +But now the dejeune had succeeded the earlier dances; and, as champagne +flowed royally, it is astonishing how the entertainment brightened. + +The sun was beginning to slope towards the west, when, during a temporary +cessation of the dance, all the guests had assembled in such space as the +tent left on the lawn, or thickly filled the walks immediately adjoining +it. The gay dresses of the ladies, the joyous laughter heard everywhere, +and the brilliant sunlight over all, conveyed even to Leonard the notion, +not of mere hypocritical pleasure, but actual healthful happiness. He +was attracted from his revery, and timidly mingled with the groups. But +Richard Avenel, with the fair Mrs. M'Catchley--her complexion more vivid, +and her eyes more dazzling, and her step more elastic than usual--had +turned from the gayety just as Leonard had turned towards it, and was now +on the very spot (remote, obscure, shaded by the few trees above five +years old that Mr. Avenel's property boasted) which the young dreamer had +deserted. + +And then! Ah, then! moment so meet for the sweet question of questions, +place so appropriate for the delicate, bashful, murmured popping +thereof!---suddenly from the sward before, from the groups beyond, there +floated to the ears of Richard Avenel an indescribable, mingled, ominous +sound,--a sound as of a general titter, a horrid, malignant, but low +cachinnation. And Mrs. M'Catchley, stretching forth her parasol, +exclaimed, "Dear me, Mr. Avenel, what can they be all crowding there +for?" + +There are certain sounds and certain sights--the one indistinct, the +other vaguely conjecturable--which, nevertheless, we know, by an +instinct, bode some diabolical agency at work in our affairs. And if any +man gives an entertainment, and hears afar a general, ill-suppressed, +derisive titter, and sees all his guests hurrying towards one spot, I +defy him to remain unmoved and uninquisitive. I defy him still more to +take that precise occasion (however much he may have before designed it) +to drop gracefully on his right knee before the handsomest Mrs. +M'Catchley in the universe, and--pop the question! Richard Avenel +blurted out something very like an oath; and, half guessing that +something must have happened that it would not be pleasing to bring +immediately under the notice of Mrs. M'Catchley, he said hastily, +"Excuse me. I'll just go and see what is the matter; pray, stay till I +come back." With that he sprang forward; in a minute he was in the midst +of the group, that parted aside with the most obliging complacency to +make way for him. + +"But what's the matter?" he asked impatiently, yet fearfully. Not a +voice answered. He strode on, and beheld his nephew in the arms of a +woman! + +"God bless my soul!" said Richard Avenel. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +And such a woman! + +She had on a cotton gown,--very neat, I dare say, for an under-housemaid; +and such thick shoes! She had on a little black straw bonnet; and a +kerchief, that might have cost tenpence, pinned across her waist instead +of a shawl; and she looked altogether-respectable, no doubt, but +exceedingly dusty! And she was hanging upon Leonard's neck, and +scolding, and caressing, and crying very loud. "God bless my soul!" said +Mr. Richard Avenel. + +And as he uttered that innocent self-benediction, the woman hastily +turned round, and darting from Leonard, threw herself right upon Richard +Avenel--burying under her embrace blue-coat, moss rose, white waistcoat +and all--with a vehement sob and a loud exclamation! + +"Oh! brother Dick!--dear, dear brother Dick! And I lives to see thee +agin!" And then came two such kisses--you might have heard them a mile +off! The situation of brother Dick was appalling; and the crowd, that +had before only tittered politely, could not now resist the effect of +this sudden embrace. There was a general explosion! It was a roar! +That roar would have killed a weak man; but it sounded to the strong +heart of Richard Avenel like the defiance of a foe, and it plucked forth +in an instant from all conventional let and barrier the native spirit of +the Anglo-Saxon. + +He lifted abruptly his handsome masculine head, and looked round the ring +of his ill-bred visitors with a haughty stare of rebuke and surprise. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," then said he, very coolly, "I don't see what +there is to laugh at! A brother and sister meet after many years' +separation, and the sister cries, poor thing. For my part I think it +very natural that she should cry; but not that you should laugh!" + +In an instant the whole shame was removed from Richard Avenel, and rested +in full weight upon the bystanders. It is impossible to say how foolish +and sheepish they all looked, nor how slinkingly each tried to creep off. + +Richard Avenel seized his advantage with the promptitude of a man who had +got on in America, and was, therefore, accustomed to make the best of +things. He drew Mrs. Fairfield's arm in his, and led her into the house; +but when he had got her safe into his parlour--Leonard following all the +time--and the door was closed upon those three, then Richard Avenel's ire +burst forth. + +"You impudent, ungrateful, audacious--drab!" + +Yes, drab was the word. I am shocked to say it, but the duties of a +historian are stern: and the word was drab. + +"Drab!" faltered poor Jane Fairfield; and she clutched hold of Leonard to +save herself from falling. + +"Sir!" cried Leonard, fiercely. + +You might as well have cried "sir" to a mountain torrent. Richard +hurried on, for he was furious. + +"You nasty, dirty, dusty dowdy! How dare you come here to disgrace me in +my own house and premises, after my sending you L50! To take the very +time, too, when--when Richard gasped for breath; and the laugh of his +guests rang in his ears, and got into his chest, and choked him. Jane +Fairfield drew herself up, and her tears were dried. + +"I did not come to disgrace you! I came to see my boy, and--" + +"Ha!" interrupted Richard, "to see him." + +He turned to Leonard: "You have written to this woman, then?" + +"No, sir, I have not." + +"I believe you lie." + +"He does not lie; and he is as good as yourself, and better, Richard +Avenel," exclaimed Mrs. Fairfield; "and I won't stand here and hear him +insulted,--that's what I won't. And as for your L50, there are forty- +five of it; and I'll work my fingers to the bone till I pay back the +other five. And don't be afeard I shall disgrace you, for I'll never +look on your face agin; and you're a wicked, bad man,--that's what you +are!" + +The poor woman's voice was so raised and so shrill, that any other and +more remorseful feeling which Richard might have conceived was drowned in +his apprehensions that she would be overheard by his servants or his +guests,--a masculine apprehension, with which females rarely sympathize; +which, on the contrary, they are inclined to consider a mean and cowardly +terror on the part of their male oppressors. + +"Hush! hold your infernal squall,--do'." said Mr. Avenel, in a tone that +he meant to be soothing. "There--sit down--and don't stir till I come +back again, and can talk to you calmly. Leonard, follow me, and help to +explain things to our guests." + +Leonard stood still, but shook his head slightly. + +"What do you mean, sir?" said Richard Avenel, in a very portentous growl. +"Shaking your head at me? Do you intend to disobey me? You had better +take care!" + +Leonard's front rose; he drew one arm round his mother, and thus he +spoke, + +"Sir, you have been kind to me, and generous, and that thought alone +silenced my indignation when I heard you address such language to my +mother; for I felt that, if I spoke, I should say too much. Now I speak, +and it is to say, shortly, that--" + +"Hush, boy," said poor Mrs. Fairfield, frightened; "don't mind me. I did +not come to make mischief, and ruin your prospex. I'll go!" + +"Will you ask her pardon, Mr. Avenel?" said Leonard, firmly; and he +advanced towards his uncle. + +Richard, naturally hot and intolerant of contradiction, was then excited, +not only by the angry emotions, which, it must be owned, a man so +mortified, and in the very flush of triumph, might well experience, but +by much more wine than he was in the habit of drinking; and when Leonard +approached him, he misinterpreted the movement into one of menace and +aggression. He lifted his arm: "Come a step nearer," said he, between +his teeth, "and I'll knock you down." Leonard advanced the forbidden +step; but as Richard caught his eye, there was something in that eye-- +not defying, not threatening, but bold and dauntless--which Richard +recognized and respected, for that something spoke the Freeman. The +uncle's arm mechanically fell to his side. "You cannot strike me, Mr. +Avenel," said Leonard, "for you are aware that I could not strike again +my mother's brother. As her son, I once more say to you,--ask her +pardon." + +"Ten thousand devils! Are you mad?--or do you want to drive me mad? +You insolent beggar, fed and clothed by my charity! Ask her pardon!-- +what for? That she has made me the object of jeer and ridicule with that +d---d cotton gown and those double-d---d thick shoes--I vow and protest +they've got nails in them! Hark ye, sir, I've been insulted by her, but +I'm not to be bullied by you. Come with me instantly, or I discard you; +not a shilling of mine shall you have as long as I live. Take your +choice: be a peasant, a labourer, or--" + +"A base renegade to natural affection, a degraded beggar indeed!" cried +Leonard, his breast heaving, and his cheeks in a glow. "Mother, Mother, +come away. Never fear,--I have strength and youth, and we will work +together as before." + +But poor Mrs. Fairfield, overcome by her excitement, had sunk down into +Richard's own handsome morocco leather easy-chair, and could neither +speak nor stir. + +"Confound you both!" muttered Richard. "You can't be seen creeping out +of my house now. Keep her here, you young viper, you; keep her till I +come back; and then, if you choose to go, go and be--" + +Not finishing his sentence, Mr. Avenel hurried out of the room, and +locked the door, putting the key into his pocket. He paused for a moment +in the hall, in order to collect his thoughts, drew three or four deep +breaths, gave himself a great shake, and, resolved to be faithful to his +principle of doing one thing at a time, shook off in that shake all +disturbing recollection of his mutinous captives. Stern as Achilles when +he appeared to the Trojans, Richard Avenel stalked back to his lawn. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +Brief as had been his absence, the host could see that, in the interval, +a great and notable change had come over the spirit of his company. Some +of those who lived in the town were evidently preparing to return home on +foot; those who lived at a distance, and whose carriages (having been +sent away, and ordered to return at a fixed hour) had not yet arrived, +were gathered together in small knots and groups; all looked sullen and +displeased, and all instinctively turned from their host as he passed +them by. They felt they had been lectured, and they were more put out +than Richard himself. They did not know if they might not be lectured +again. This vulgar man, of what might he not be capable? Richard's +shrewd sense comprehended in an instant all the difficulties of his +position; but he walked on deliberately and directly towards Mrs. +M'Catchley, who was standing near the grand marquee with the Pompleys and +the dean's lady. As those personages saw him make thus boldly towards +them, there was a flutter. "Hang the fellow!" said the colonel, +intrenching himself in his stock, "he is coming here. Low and shocking +--what shall we do? Let us stroll on." But Richard threw himself in the +way of the retreat. "Mrs. M'Catchley," said he, very gravely, and +offering her his arm, "allow me three words with you." + +The poor widow looked very much discomposed. Mrs. Pompley pulled her by +the sleeve. Richard still stood gazing into her face, with his arm +extended. She hesitated a minute, and then took the arm. + +"Monstrous impudent!" cried the colonel. + +"Let Mrs. M'Catchley alone, my dear," responded Mrs. Pompley; "she will +know how to give him a lesson." + +"Madam," said Richard, as soon as he and his companion were out of +hearing, "I rely on you to do me a favour." + +"On me?" + +"On you, and you alone. You have influence with all those people, and a +word from you will effect what I desire. Mrs. M'Catchley," added +Richard, with a solemnity that was actually imposing, "I flatter myself +that you have some friendship for me, which is more than I can say of any +other soul in these grounds; will you do me this favour, ay or no?" + +"What is it, Mr. Avenel?" asked Mrs. M'Catchley, much disturbed, and +somewhat softened,--for she was by no means a woman without feeling; +indeed, she considered herself nervous. + +"Get all your friends--all the company, in short-to come back into the +tent for refreshments, for anything. I want to say a few words to them." + +"Bless me! Mr. Avenel--a few words!" cried the widow, "but that's just +what they're all afraid of. You must pardon me, but you really can't ask +people to a /dejeune dansant/, and then--scold 'em!" + +"I'm not going to scold them," said Air. Avenel, very seriously,--"upon +my honour, I'm not. I'm going to make all right, and I even hope +afterwards that the dancing may go on--and that you will honour me again +with your hand. I leave you to your task; and believe me, I'm not an +ungrateful man." He spoke, and bowed--not without some dignity--and +vanished within the breakfast division of the marquee. There he busied +himself in re-collecting the waiters, and directing them to re-arrange +the mangled remains of the table as they best could. Mrs. M'Catchley, +whose curiosity and interest were aroused, executed her commission with +all the ability and tact of a woman of the world, and in less than a +quarter of an hour the marquee was filled, the corks flew, the champagne +bounced and sparkled, people drank in silence, munched fruits and cakes, +kept up their courage with the conscious sense of numbers, and felt a +great desire to know what was coming. Mr. Avenel, at the head of the +table, suddenly rose. + +"Ladies and Gentlemen," said he, "I have taken the liberty to invite you +once more into this tent, in order to ask you to sympathize with me upon +an occasion which took us all a little by surprise to-day. + +"Of course, you all know I am a new man,--the maker of my own fortunes." + +A great many heads bowed involuntarily. The words were said manfully, +and there was a general feeling of respect. "Probably, too," resumed Mr. +Avenel, "you may know that I am the son of very honest tradespeople. I +say honest, and they are not ashamed of me; I say tradespeople, and I'm +not ashamed of them. My sister married and settled at a distance. I +took her son to educate and bring up. But I did not tell her where he +was, nor even that I had returned from America; I wished to choose my own +time for that, when I could give her the surprise, not only of a rich +brother, but of a son whom I intended to make a gentleman, so far as +manners and education can make one. Well, the poor dear woman has found +me out sooner than I expected, and turned the tables on me by giving me a +surprise of her own invention. Pray, forgive the confusion this little +family-scene has created; and though I own it was very laughable at the +moment, and I was wrong to say otherwise, yet I am sure I don't judge ill +of your good hearts, when I ask you to think what brother and sister must +feel who parted from each other when they were boy and girl. To me" (and +Richard gave a great gulp, for he felt that a great gulp alone could +swallow the abominable lie he was about to utter)--"to me this has been a +very happy occasion! I'm a plain man: no one can take ill what I've +said. And wishing that you may be all as happy in your family as I am in +mine--humble though it be--I beg to drink your very good healths!" + +There was a universal applause when Richard sat down; and so well in his +plain way had he looked the thing, and done the thing, that at least half +of those present--who till then had certainly disliked and half despised +him--suddenly felt that they were proud of his acquaintance. For however +aristocratic this country of ours may be, and however especially +aristocratic be the genteeler classes in provincial towns and coteries, +there is nothing which English folks, from the highest to the lowest, in +their hearts so respect as a man who has risen from nothing, and owns it +frankly. Sir Compton Delaval, an old baronet, with a pedigree as long as +a Welshman's, who had been reluctantly decoyed to the feast by his three +unmarried daughters--not one of whom, however, had hitherto condescended +even to bow to the host--now rose. It was his right,--he was the first +person there in rank and station. + +"Ladies and Gentlemen," quoth Sir Compton Delaval, "I am sure that I +express the feelings of all present when I say that we have heard with +great delight and admiration the words addressed to us by our excellent +host. [Applause.] And if any of us, in what--Mr. Avenel describes +justly as the surprise of the moment, were betrayed into an unseemly +merriment at--at--[the dean's lady whispered 'some of the']--some of the +--some of the--" repeated Sir Compton, puzzled, and coming to a deadlock +["holiest sentiments," whispered the dean's lady]--"ay, some of the +holiest sentiments in our nature, I beg him to accept our sincerest +apologies. I can only say, for my part, that I am proud to rank Mr. +Avenel amongst the gentlemen of the county" (here Sir Compton gave a +sounding thump on the table), "and to thank him for one of the most +brilliant entertainments it has ever been my lot to witness. If he won +his fortune honestly, he knows how to spend it nobly." + +Whiz went a fresh bottle of champagne. + +"I am not accustomed to public speaking, but I could not repress my +sentiments. And I've now only to propose to you the health of our host. +Richard Avenel, Esquire; and to couple with that the health of his-- +very interesting sister, and long life to them both." + +The sentence was half drowned in enthusiastic plaudits, and in three +cheers for Richard Avenel, Esquire, and his very interesting sister. + +"I'm a cursed humbug," thought Richard Avenel, as he wiped his forehead; +"but the world is such a humbug!" Then he glanced towards Mrs. M'Catehley +and, to his great satisfaction, saw Mrs. M'Catchley with her handkerchief +before her eyes. + +Truth must be told; although the fair widow might certainly have +contemplated the probability of accepting Mr. Avenel as a husband, she +had never before felt the least bit in love with him; and now she did. +There is something in courage and candour--in a word, in manliness--that +all women, the most worldly, do admire in men; and Richard Avenel, humbug +though his conscience said he was, seemed to Mrs. M'Catchley like a hero. + +The host saw his triumph. "Now for another dance!" said he, gayly; and +he was about to offer his hand to Mrs. M'Catchley, when Sir Compton +Delaval seizing it, and giving it a hearty shake, cried, "You have not +yet danced with my eldest daughter; so if you'll not ask her, why, I must +offer her to you as your partner. Here, Sarah." + +Miss Sarah Delaval, who was five feet eight, and as stately as she was +tall, bowed her head graciously; and Mr. Avenel, before he knew where he +was, found her leaning on his arm. But as he passed into the next +division of the tent, he had to run the gauntlet of all the gentlemen, +who thronged round to shake hands with him. Their warm English hearts +could not be satisfied till they had so repaired the sin of their +previous haughtiness and mockery. Richard Avenel might then have safely +introduced his sister--gown, kerchief, thick shoes, and all--to the +crowd; but he had no such thought. He thanked Heaven devoutly that she +was safely under lock and key. + +It was not till the third dance that he could secure Mrs. M'Catchley's +hand, and then it was twilight. The carriages were at the door, but no +one yet thought of going. People were really enjoying themselves. Mr. +Avenel had had time, in the interim, to mature all his plans for +completing and consummating that triumph which his tact and pluck had +drawn from his momentary disgrace. Excited as he was with wine, and +suppressed passion, he had yet the sense to feel that, when all the halo +that now surrounded him had evaporated, and Mrs. M'Catchley was +redelivered up to the Pompleys, whom he felt to be the last persons his +interest could desire for her advisers, the thought of his low relations +would return with calm reflection. Now was the time. The iron was hot, +now was the time to strike it, and forge the enduring chain. As he led +Mrs. M'Catchley after the dance, into the lawn, he therefore said +tenderly,-- + +"How shall I thank you for the favour you have done me?" + +"Oh!" said Mrs. M'Catchley, warmly, "It was no favour, and I am so +glad--" She stopped. + +"You're not ashamed of me, then, in spite of what has happened?" + +"Ashamed of you! Why, I should be so proud of you, if I were--" + +"Finish the sentence and say--'your wife!'--there, it is out. My dear +madam, I am rich, as you know; I love you very heartily. With your help, +I think I can make a figure in a larger world than this: and that, +whatever my father, my grandson at least will be--but it is time enough +to speak of him. What say you?--you--turn away. I'll not tease you, +--it is not my way. I said before, ay or no; and your kindness so +emboldens me that I say it again, ay or no?" + +"But you take me so unawares--so--so--Lord! my dear Mr. Avenel; you are +so hasty--I--I--" And the widow actually blushed, and was genuinely +bashful. + +"Those horrid Pompleys!" thought Richard, as he saw the colonel bustling +up with Mrs. M'Catchley's cloak on his arm. "I press for your answer," +continued the suitor, speaking very fast. "I shall leave this place to- +morrow, if you will not give it." + +"Leave this place--leave me?" + +"Then you will be mine?" + +"Ah, Mr. Avenel!" said the widow, languidly, and leaving her hand in his, +"who can resist you?" + +Up came Colonel Pompley; Richard took the shawl: "No hurry for that now, +Colonel,--Mrs. M'Catchley feels already at home here." + +Ten minutes afterwards, Richard Avenel so contrived that it was known by +the whole company that their host was accepted by the Honourable Mrs. +M'Catchley. And every one said, "He is a very clever man and a very good +fellow," except the Pompleys--and the Pompleys were frantic. Mr. Richard +Avenel had forced his way into the aristocracy of the country; the +husband of an Honourable, connected with peers! + +"He will stand for our city--Vulgarian!" cried the colonel. "And his +wife will walk out before me," cried the colonel's lady,--"nasty woman!" +And she burst into tears. + +The guests were gone; and Richard had now leisure to consider what course +to pursue with regard to his sister and her son. + +His victory over his guests had in much softened his heart towards his +relations; but he still felt bitterly aggrieved at Mrs. Fairfield's +unseasonable intrusion, and his pride was greatly chafed by the boldness +of Leonard. He had no idea of any man whom he had served, or meant to +serve, having a will of his own, having a single thought in opposition to +his pleasure. He began, too, to feel that words had passed between him +and Leonard which could not be well forgotten by either, and would render +their close connection less pleasant than heretofore. He, the great +Richard Avenel, beg pardon of Mrs. Fairfield, the washerwoman! No; she +and Leonard must beg his. "That must be the first step," said Richard +Avenel; "and I suppose they have come to their senses." With that +expectation, he unlocked the door of his parlour, and found himself in +complete solitude. The moon, lately risen, shone full into the room, and +lit up every corner. He stared round bewildered,--the birds had flown. +"Did they go through the keyhole?" said Air. Avenel. "Ha! I see! the +window is open!" The window reached to the ground. Mr. Avenel, in his +excitement, had forgotten that easy mode of egress. "Well," said he, +throwing himself into his easy-chair, "I suppose I shall soon hear from +them: they'll be wanting my money fast enough, I fancy." His eye caught +sight of a letter, unsealed, lying on the table. He opened it, and saw +bank-notes to the amount of L50,--the widow's forty-five country notes, +and a new note, Bank of England, that he had lately given to Leonard. +With the money were these lines, written in Leonard's bold, clear +writing, though a word or two here and there showed that the hand had +trembled,-- + + I thank you for all you have done to one whom you regarded as the + object of charity. My mother and I forgive what has passed. I + depart with her. You bade me make my choice, and I have made it. + + LEONARD FAIRFIELD. + +The paper dropped from Richard's hand, and he remained mute and +remorseful for a moment. He soon felt, however, that he had no help for +it but working himself up into a rage. "Of all people in the world," +cried Richard, stamping his foot on the floor, "there are none so +disagreeable, insolent, and ungrateful as poor relations. I wash my +hands of them!" + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY NOVEL, BY LYTTON, V5 *** + +****** This file should be named 7706.txt or 7706.zip ****** + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. 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