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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/39552-8.txt b/39552-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d702264 --- /dev/null +++ b/39552-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6791 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mortomley's Estate, Vol. II (of 3), by +Charlotte Elizabeth Lawson Cowan Riddell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mortomley's Estate, Vol. II (of 3) + A Novel + +Author: Charlotte Elizabeth Lawson Cowan Riddell + +Release Date: April 28, 2012 [EBook #39552] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORTOMLEY'S ESTATE, VOL. II (OF 3) *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Sue Fleming and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + MORTOMLEY'S ESTATE. + + A Novel. + + BY + + MRS. RIDDELL, + + AUTHOR OF + "GEORGE GEITH," "TOO MUCH ALONE," "HOME, SWEET HOME," + "THE EARL'S PROMISE," ETC. ETC. + + _IN THREE VOLUMES._ + + VOL. II. + + LONDON: + TINSLEY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND. + 1874. + + _All rights of Translation and Reproduction are Reserved_. + + + + PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO., + LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. + + + + TO + + Emma Martin, + + OF + + WADESMILL, HERTS, + + THIS STORY IS DEDICATED, + + AS A TOKEN OF THE AUTHOR'S RESPECT AND AFFECTION. + + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + CHAP. PAGE + + I. MR. FORDE AT HOMEWOOD 1 + + II. KLEINWORT AND CO. IN CONSULTATION 18 + + III. MR. DEAN AND HIS FUTURE RELATIVES 50 + + IV. PREVISION 70 + + V. MR. DEAN GLORIFIES HIMSELF 85 + + VI. MR. GIBBONS' OPINION ON THE STATE OF AFFAIRS 107 + + VII. STRAWS 123 + + VIII. MR. SWANLAND STIRS HIS TEA 147 + + IX. IN THE 'TIMES' 169 + + X. MR. SWANLAND WISHES TO BE INFORMED 186 + + XI. MRS. MORTOMLEY'S FORTUNE 208 + + XII. LEAVING HOMEWOOD 223 + + XIII. DOLLY WRITES A LETTER 251 + + XIV. THE BEGINNING OF A NEW LIFE 277 + + XV. MR. FORDE MAKES A MISTAKE 292 + + + + + MORTOMLEY'S ESTATE. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + MR. FORDE AT HOMEWOOD. + + +Said Mrs. Mortomley to Lenore, + +"Run away, love, I do not want you here. I am busy." + +"Shall I take her?" asked Rupert, seeing a little trouble in the child's +eyes, a pucker about the corners of her mouth. + +"Thank you, yes," answered Dolly; and so, without leave-taking of any +kind, the little girl and Rupert departed through one of the French +windows already mentioned. + +"Should you like to go to the Forest with me?" he asked, when they +turned the gable of the house and were sauntering across the side lawn +where the great walnut-tree, which was the talk of all that part of the +country, grew. + +As they walked under the spreading branches, Rupert looked up and +sighed. He had a prevision that no Mortomley for ever should eat of the +fruit again. + +There is an instinct which is as far beyond knowledge as omnipresence is +beyond sight, and from the moment Mortomley succumbed to Mr. Forde, and +adopted his tactics, Rupert felt his uncle's days of prosperity were at +an end. + +Personally, he, Rupert Halling, could do no more good for any one by +intermeddling in his uncle's affairs. + +And it was quite time he considered his own more fully, even than had +been the case latterly. + +In his selfishness, however, he was good-natured, and offered to allow +Lenore to accompany him, while he pursued his meditations and perfected +his plans; at which offer Lenore, who had latterly been somewhat +neglected by every one about the house, delightedly clapped her hands +and shouted for joy. + +There had been a time when Mrs. Mortomley would have dreaded taking upon +herself the responsibility of an interview with Messrs. Forde and +Kleinwort. But that dread was over now. + +She was in the middle of the battle, and the Gerace nature knew no +faltering when the trumpet sounded, and every man (or in default of man, +woman) was called to do his best. + +After Lenore's departure there ensued a moment's silence. + +Mr. Forde was so lost in astonishment at the audacity of the whole +family that he lacked power to give expression to his feelings. + +Mr. Kleinwort, having spoken, was thinking what he should say next, and +Mrs. Mortomley was struggling between her repulsion against the man and +her desire to offer some apology for a rudeness which had been as +involuntary as irresistible. + +"I beg you to pardon my incivility," she began at last, bringing out her +words with a slow reluctance which was almost perceptible. "Trouble does +not tend to increase politeness." + +"That is indeed true," agreed Mr. Kleinwort, "but you must remember, +madam, other people also are troubled with your troubles." + +"What is the use of talking in that way," interrupted Mr. Forde. "Do you +suppose they care for anything or person but themselves? Do you imagine +if Mr. Mortomley had the smallest consideration for us, he would be laid +up at such a time as this?" + +"Do you think he is not really ill, then?" inquired Mrs. Mortomley. + +"I neither know nor care what he is," was the answer. "It is enough for +us to be told we cannot see him,--and he will find it more than enough +for him,--and you can tell him with my compliments that I say so." + +"Yes, bankruptcy is not all pleasure," remarked Mr. Kleinwort with a +solemn shake of his round head. + +"At least it must be freedom," suggested Dolly. + +"You think so?" said Mr. Forde with a nasty laugh. "They'll know more +about that in six months' time. Eh! Kleinwort?" + +"Most like," agreed the German. "No, madame, a man had better by much +be dead than bankrupt. I, Kleinwort, tell you no lie. You do not +understand; how should you? Mr. Mortomley does not understand neither; +how should he? You talk to him. You say, it is best we should use our +two brains to avoid so great disgrace; you think over all the good +friends who you own; you see what money can be found. That will be +better than bankruptcy; that word so ugly, bankruptcy--bad--bad." + +"Let us go into the works, Kleinwort," suggested Mr. Forde at this +juncture, and he walked out into the garden followed by his friend. + +"I will fetch the key," said Mrs. Mortomley, and having done so, she +would have given it to them, but Mr. Forde asked, + +"Is there no person who can go with us?" + +"I--I will go with you myself," she hesitated, not liking to confess +Rupert was not about the grounds, which fact she had learned during her +absence from the room; "I thought perhaps you wished to be alone." + + +Up the laurel walk they paced, Mr. Kleinwort going into ecstasies over +the flowers; Mr. Forde muttering, "Pretty penny it must cost to keep up +this place;" while the scent of heliotrope and late mignonette pervading +the air, made Dolly feel faint and sick as did the very peace and beauty +of the scene. + +"Where are all the men?" asked Mr. Forde, as he beheld the deserted +buildings. + +"They have gone for the evening," Mrs. Mortomley answered. "Excepting at +very busy times, they never work later than half-past five." + +"Nice management!" commented Mr. Forde. + +"I believe that is the usual hour in most factories," she ventured. + +He did not contradict her, but contented himself with shaking his head +as though he would imply that it was useless further to comment on the +bad management of Homewood, and walked about the premises, peering into +this vat and that cask, as if he expected to come suddenly upon a mine +of silver, or a heap of gold dust. + +Anything funnier to an uninterested spectator than Mr. Forde looking +about the colour works, to see what Mortomley had done with his money, +could not possibly be conceived; but, then, there chanced to be no +uninterested spectator,--not even Messrs Lang and Hankins, who happened +to be making up some goods accounts in a little sentry-box of an office +that stood near the outer gates. + +"Who are they?" asked Hankins of his companion, who, while thrusting his +arms into his coat which he had thrown off for greater convenience +during his arithmetical calculations, answered, + +"One of them, the biggest, is Forde. Let me get away before they see us! +he asks as many questions as an Old Bailey lawyer and about as civilly, +and I am afraid his being here means no good to our governor!" + +"Oh! that's the chap, is it?" replied Mr. Hankins. "Well, he may ask me +as many questions as he likes;" and as one who smelleth the battle afar +off, Mr. Hankins stepped out of his sentry-box, and walked in a +_débonnaire_ manner across the yard to meet the visitors. + +"Who was that went out just now?" inquired Mr. Forde. + +"Our manager, sir." + +"Fetch him back. I want him." + +Mr. Hankins went rapidly enough to the outer gate, and passed into the +road, where he saw Lang turning a not remote corner. + +Hearing the gate slam, Lang looked round and would have paused, but +Hankins made him a sign to proceed. Then Hankins, having hurried to the +corner, took up a position which commanded a good view of his friend's +retreating figure; and it was only when Lang was out of sight that he +retraced his steps to the door where, as he expected, Mr. Forde was +waiting for him. + +"I couldn't overtake him, sir," he said, panting a little as if he had +made mighty efforts to do so. + +"Humph!" exclaimed Mr. Forde; "I'll be bound I could have overtaken +him." + +"I don't think you could, sir." + +"And who asked you to think, pray?" inquired Mr. Forde. + +"No one, sir. I beg your pardon; I won't do it again." + +Mr. Forde looked at the man to see if he was making game of him, but +there was not a suspicion of a smile on Mr. Hankins' self-sufficient +face. + +"And who are you, sir?" inquired Mr. Forde, in the tone of a man who +meant, "Now don't try to trifle with me or it will be the worse for +you." + +"Oh! I am foreman here," answered Mr. Hankins. + +When he repeated this conversation afterwards, which he did many and +many a time to admiring and appreciative audiences, he stated that when +Mr. Forde began to "sir" him, he said to himself, "If you are going to +get up it's time I got down, as the Irishman said when his pony got his +foot in the stirrup." + +"This seems a remarkably well-conducted business," observed Mr. Forde +with a sneer. + +"Well, I don't think it is what it once was," admitted Mr. Hankins with +a touching modesty. "We do what we can, but since the governor's health +has taken to failing, I am free to confess our colours ain't what they +used to be." + +And Mr. Hankins picked up a leaf and began to chew the stalk in a manner +calculated to inspire confidence in his companion's bosom. + +"Your colours are not what they used to be, then?" remarked Mr. Forde, +imagining he was leading the man on. + +"No, they ain't, sir. Not a day passes but we have a complaint or +returns or a deuce of a row about the change in quality. And things were +never like that when the governor was at his best. Ay, it was a bad day +for Homewood when he quitted his old connection and took up with new +people." + +Now Mr. Forde believed this remark referred to Mr. Mortomley's new +customers, and Mr. Kleinwort having by this time approached the pair, +drew by a look his attention to the conversation. + +"You don't think the new people so good as the old, then," he said, +italicizing the observation for Mr. Kleinwort's benefit with a wink. + + +"I can't say for the 'people,'" answered Mr. Hankins. "It's the goods +I'm speaking about. We never used to have our materials from any but +tip-top houses, Marshalls, Humphries, and the like, but of late the +governor has dealt at some place in Thames Street, and of all the rot +that ever I saw theirs is the worst. I have often told the governor he +ought not to ask any man to take in the rubbish, but somehow or another +he ain't what he used to be, and there is no use in talking sense to +him." + +With a very red face Mr. Forde turned and walked through the factory all +by himself, while Kleinwort, who enjoyed and appreciated the position as +only a foreigner could, continued to discourse with Mr. Hankins, asking +him about the value of the stock, the cost of the plant, whether the +trade could not be extended almost indefinitely, whether he was aware of +the nature of Mr. Mortomley's illness and so forth, until Mr. Forde, who +soon grew weary of his fruitless search after the concealed treasure, +shouted in his most strident tones, + +"What is the good of talking to that fool, Kleinwort? Let us be getting +back again." + +And he strode through the postern door into the laurel walk without +waiting for Mrs. Mortomley, who stood leaning against a desk in the +office as they passed through. + +"I will follow you in a moment," she said to Mr. Kleinwort, who, all +smiles and politeness, made way hat in hand for her to precede him; +then, as the foreigner passed out through one of the arches into the +pleasant, peaceful-looking garden, she turned to Hankins, and saying, +"Get me some water--quick," fell back in a faint so suddenly that the +man had barely time to prevent her dropping to the floor. + +"By jingo, she's as light as a feather!" exclaimed Mr. Hankins, and the +remark as he uttered it almost attained the dignity of an affidavit. + +As it happened there stood on the desk a water-bath used for copying +letters. The contents of this sprinkled not too carefully over Dolly, +brought her back to consciousness more rapidly than might have been +expected, but she could not stand alone for a minute or so, during +which time she supported herself by clinging to the office stool. + +"Are you better, ma'am?" asked Hankins anxiously. He had beheld his own +wife, when he or worldly affairs did not do according to her mind, taken +with a "turn;" but he had never seen a woman's face look like Mrs. +Mortomley's before. + +"Yes, yes, thank you, I am well," she said. "And if you believe me," +continued Mr. Hankins, addressing a select assemblage of his mates, "she +walked straight out of that office and across the court like a man +blind, it is true, but still straight with a sort of run, and shut the +door after her, and locked it; and that a woman, who looked like a +corpse, and was as near being one as she'll ever be, till she's laid in +her coffin. I wish I had pitched it heavier into Forde. I would if I had +'ave known she was going to turn up in that way." + +Meantime, Mr. Forde was back in the drawing-room pishing and pshawing at +the furniture and effects, and Mr. Kleinwort was walking about the lawn +feeling, spite of his anxiety, almost a childish pleasure in treading +the velvet turf, in looking at the flowers which were still blooming +luxuriantly. + +To him came Mrs. Mortomley. + +"Ah! dear madame," he said, "this thing must not be; such a place, such +a plant, such a business. You think and see what can be done to prevent +so great misfortune. You have but to tell Bertram Kleinwort what to do, +and he will strive his best to fulfil." + +It might have had its effect once, but Dolly, like her husband, was now +too ill to temporize. + +"This must end," she said, "for good or for evil; I say we can strive no +more. We are tired--so tired of pouring water into a sieve." + +"You will not like bankruptcy," he answered. + +"We must take our chance," she said, and then they re-entered the house. + +"Had not we better see those men," asked Mr. Forde of his friend. + +"Well, yes," agreed Mr. Kleinwort. + + +"Shall I tell them to come to you," asked Mrs. Mortomley, but Mr. Forde +put her aside. + +"I will go and find them myself," he answered, evidently under the +impression they were apocryphal creatures conjured up for the occasion. + +Mrs. Mortomley sat down again. For five minutes--five blessed minutes +she imagined Messrs. Forde and Kleinwort were going to pay out the men, +and rid Homewood of their presence. Then romance gave way to reality, +and she heard Mr. Kleinwort ask, + +"Well, what is your say now?" + +"Stop," answered Mr. Forde, drawing on his gloves. + +"You say that?" + +"Yes, but," turning to Mrs. Mortomley, "your lawyer must not take the +order out; ours shall. There is no objection, I suppose?" + +"I suppose not," she answered. + +"If you leave the matter with us, we will not oppose," he observed. + +"That will be a great relief to my husband," she said. "He did not think +any one else would." + +"Well, well, we shall not, I am sure," was the unlooked-for reply. "You +shall hear from me to-morrow." + +"Thank you," was Dolly's humble answer. + +"Good day. I hope we shall all have better times hereafter," and he held +out his hand. + +"Good day, madame," added Kleinwort, dropping a little behind. "Your +dear husband must make health, and, you madame, I shall trust ere long +time, to see red and not white. You must not mind Forde," he said, +almost in a whisper. "He is rough, he is, that is why I comed; but +good--so good when you get under his crust." + +Mrs. Mortomley put her cold hand in Kleinwort's as she had put it into +that of Forde, and said good-bye to the one man as she had said it to +the other, with a wintry smile. + +So they parted. Never--for ever did she see either of the two again. + +Meantime, they drove back to London together in silence--silence broken +only once. + +"What are you doing, Kleinwort; why don't you speak?" asked Mr. Forde. + +"I am thinking--thinking, my friend," was the reply. + +"Then I wish to Heaven you would not think," said the unfortunate +manager. "It is deucedly unpleasant, you know." + +"You are so what you call droll," observed Mr. Kleinwort with cheerful +calmness. + +An Englishman must be artificially iced before he can ever hope to +attain to a foreigner's degree of coolness. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + KLEINWORT AND CO. IN CONSULTATION. + + +Drowning men catch at straws. It is not the fault of the straws that +they fail to save, and assuredly it is not the fault of the drowning men +that they carry the straws to destruction with them. + +The General Chemical Company on that Friday evening when Mr. Kleinwort +was asked to bring his persuasive powers to bear on the recusant family +at Homewood, chanced to be in precisely the state of a drowning man +making frantic clutches at safety, and Mr. Forde's worst enemy might +have pitied him had he understood all Mr. Mortomley's "going" meant to +the manager of St. Vedast Wharf. + +He had driven out to Homewood vowing that Mortomley, willing or +unwilling, should not stop, and it was only when he found affairs had +passed beyond his control, that he began to think whether there was no +way out of the difficulty. + +Like an inspiration the idea of keeping the whole thing quiet, of +hoodwinking his directors, and of holding the ball still at his feet, +occurred to him. + +He had to do with fools, and he humoured them according to their folly, +and indeed the notion of suggesting the substitution of the Company's +solicitor for the solicitor of Mr. Mortomley amounted almost to a stroke +of genius. + +To Kleinwort there was a certain humour in the idea of first gibbeting a +man as a rogue, and then treating him as a simpleton. It was a feat the +German performed mentally every day, but then he kept the affair secret +between himself and his brains. He did not possess the frankness of that +"so droll Forde," and the tactics of his friend tickled him extremely. + +And yet, truth to say, Mrs. Mortomley was not so supreme an idiot as +the autocrat of St. Vedast's Wharf imagined. + +She had her misgivings, which Rupert pooh-poohed, declaring that peace +was well purchased at so small a price, and that for such a purpose one +lawyer was quite as good as another. + +"Still, I should like to speak to Archie's solicitor about it," she +persisted. + +"That is what you cannot do, for he is out of town," answered the young +man; "and very fortunate that he is, for if you went to him and he went +to Forde there would only be another row, and the whole affair perhaps +knocked on the head again." + +"I thought no one could prevent Archie petitioning," she remarked. + +"Neither can any one," was the reply; "but it might be made confoundedly +unpleasant for him after he had petitioned." + +Which all sounded very well, and was possibly very true, but it failed +to satisfy Dolly. + +Sleep had not for many a long month previously been a constant visitor +at Homewood, and whenever Mrs. Mortomley awoke, which she did twenty +times through that night, the vexed question of Mr. Benning's +interposition recurred to her. + +Look at it in whatever light she would, her mind misgave her. If it made +no difference in the end, if it were no advantage to the Chemical +Company, she could not understand the object of so strange a proposal. +Rupert had indeed explained the matter by saying, "Forde wanted the +thing kept quiet;" but then why should the thing be kept quiet. In whose +interests and for whose benefit was it that such secrecy had to be +maintained. Pestered as her husband had been with demands for money, +with writs, and with sheriff's officers and their men, it seemed to Mrs. +Mortomley that all the world must already be acquainted with the +position of their affairs. + +"What can the object be they have in view?" she asked over and over +again whilst she lay thinking--thinking through the long dark hours. +"How I wish Mr. Leigh were in town?" And then all at once she bethought +her that within a walk of Homewood there resided a gentleman with whose +family she had some slight acquaintance, and who chanced himself to be a +solicitor. + +This fact had been stamped on Dolly's mind by hearing of the unearthly +hours at which even in the dead of winter he was in the habit of +breakfasting so as to admit of his reaching his offices, situated +somewhere at the west, by nine o'clock. + +"I will ask him, and be guided by his reply," she decided, and +accordingly she rose at cock-crow and, dressing herself in all haste, +went across the fields, along the lanes to that sweet residence the +lawyer prized so much, and of which he saw so little. + +She met him at his own gate, and asked permission to walk a little way +with him towards the station. "She wanted to ask only one question," she +said, "but it was necessary to preface that by a little explanation." + +In as few words as sufficed for the purpose--and Heaven knows very few +suffice to tell a man is ruined--Mrs. Mortomley laid the state of the +case before her acquaintance. + +"Will it make any difference to my husband if Mr. Benning applies to the +Bankruptcy Court instead of Mr. Leigh?" she finished by inquiring. + +"None whatever," was the unhesitating reply. + +"You are certain?" she persisted. + +"Yes; I cannot see why it should alter his position or injure him in the +slightest degree." + +"Does it not strike you as a very extraordinary proposition?" + +"Well, yes," he agreed, "but no doubt it will be desirable for Mr. +Mortomley to raise no obstacle against their wishes. It is always +advantageous for a man to have a large creditor on his side." + +"Mr. Halling says they want to keep the affair quiet," she went on. "Why +should they want that, and how should employing their own solicitor +enable them to do it?" + +"I can only conjecture," was the answer, "that they desire the extent of +their own loss not to be made public, and by employing their own +solicitor they will manage to keep the application out of the papers." + +"I am very, very much obliged to you," she said as they shook hands. + +"Not at all," he replied. "Command me at any time if I can be of service +to you," and they parted; but she had not retraced a dozen steps before +he ran after her and said, + +"I think, Mrs. Mortomley, were I in your place I should see Mr. Leigh +whenever he returns to town." + +Which in all human probability Mrs. Mortomley would have done without +his recommendation. Nevertheless, the hint was kindly meant, as his +previous opinion, spoken by an utterly honourable man, had been honestly +given. + +Upon the whole, however, I am not quite sure, seeing what one sees, +whether honourable men and thoroughly conscientious lawyers are exactly +the fittest people to help and counsel those who have reached the crises +of their lives. + +Through the years to come, at all events, +Dolly carried a certain agonised memory of that morning walk, and the +consequences her adviser's words ensured to her and hers. + +It was a fine September morning, the last fine morning that month held +in the especial year to which I refer. Had she been able to shake an +instinctive dread off her mind, she would, escaping for the hour from +the sight of sickness and the haunting feeling of men in possession, +have thoroughly enjoyed the calm landscape, the long stretches of +country across which her eyes, wearied though they were with night +watching, could roam freely. To right and to left lay the flat rich +Essex lands on which cattle were browsing peacefully, whilst at no great +distance were patches and pieces of woodland left still to tell Epping +once was more than a near neighbour to all the hamlets that formerly +nestled under its leafy shadows, and which are now becoming part and +parcel of the Great Babylon itself. In the distance she beheld dark +masses of foliage standing out darkly against the sky, showing that +there the monarchs of the forest still held the axe and the lords of the +soil at defiance, whilst ever and anon the light, rapid feet tripping +along field-paths, bordered by grass still wet and heavy with dew, +passed close by some stately park over which the silence and peace of +riches seemed brooding. + +But as matters stood, the fresh morning air and the silence and the +peace conferred upon other people by the riches possessed by them +brought little balm to Dolly. + +She had been told there was but one course for her to pursue, and she +had pursued it. She had been told it would lead to such comfort as was +now an utter stranger at Homewood, but she did not feel satisfied on +that point. + +A woman's instincts are always keener than her reason, and by instinct +Dolly vaguely comprehended there were dangers and difficulties ahead. +Sunken rocks and treacherous sandbanks, of which the amateur pilots +who advised the management of the business craft knew nothing. + +And yet she felt any sacrifice which could rid the house of its late, +and present, unwelcome guests would be worth making. In the centre of a +great field she stood still clasping her hands above her head and +breathed a luxurious sigh of relief at the idea of having Homewood to +herself and family once more. + +"Without those dreadful creatures," she said quite aloud, and then she +gave her fancy wing and planned a course of papering, painting, and +white-washing after their departure, as she might have done had fever or +cholera taken up its abode for a time in the house. + +Which was perhaps ungrateful in Mrs. Mortomley, seeing the obnoxious +visitors had tried to respect her feelings in every possible +manner--kept themselves as much out of sight as possible--smoked their +pipes so as to give the smallest amount of annoyance--offered such +assistance as their physical and mental habits of laziness rendered +available when Cook and Jane departed, and said to each other, they had +never seen a "house go on so regular under similar circumstances as +Homewood, nor a lady who took it all so quiet as the mistress of that +establishment." + +And this was true. No one connected with Homewood "took it so quiet" as +Mrs. Mortomley. + +I have a fancy that on those who turn the bravest and brightest face to +misfortune, the evil presence leaves the most permanent marks of its +passage. I think oftentimes while the face wreathes itself with smiles, +the cruel foot-prints are impressing themselves on the heart. + +Whether this be so or not, it is quite certain that although Dolly never +once, never showed through all that weary campaign a sign of the white +feather, the whole thing was to her as the single drop torture. + +It wore in upon her nature, it made a deep rugged channel through her +soul. And she was powerless to act. When Mortomley consented at Mr. +Forde's bidding to "go on" after he himself had decided to stop, when +Dolly consented that Mr. Benning should step into the shoes of their own +solicitor, they virtually threw up their cards and gave the game to +their adversaries. + +Not less did Samson, when he confided to the keeping of a woman the +secret of his strength, dream of the dungeon and the tormentors than did +Mortomley and his wife, when they so blindly surrendered their future, +dream of the misery and poverty in store. + +And yet Dolly had a prevision that evil must ensue. Well, not even the +gift of second sight can avert a man's doom when the hour draws near, +but it may help him to meet it bravely. + +Mrs. Mortomley herself often thought that vague dread and uneasiness +which oppressed her when all things seemed going as they wished, +prepared her in some sort for the future she was called upon to +encounter. + +Could she have been present at an interview which a couple of hours +later took place in Mr. Kleinwort's offices she would have faintly +comprehended how he and his friends wished to liquidate Mortomley's +estate. + +They desired to get the whole matter into their own hands, and "keep it +quiet," but when the pros and cons of how this could be managed came to +be discussed, unforeseen difficulties arose at each stage of the +conversation. + +"You had better be trustee," said Mr. Forde, turning to Henry Werner, +who for reasons best known to himself and Kleinwort and Co., had been +requested to grace the interview. + +"What the devil should I be trustee for?" asked that amiable individual. +"The man does not owe me sixpence." + +"All the better for you," was the reply, whereat all the rest of those +present laughed. At such times laughter does go round, and it certainly +was not unlike the sound of "thorns crackling under a pot." + +"And all the better for us and those others, the rest of the creditors, +because you must be so much disinterested," added Kleinwort, in his +caressing manner, laying a fat and insinuating hand on Mr. Werner's +shoulder. + +Mr. Werner shook it off as if it had been a toad. + +"Don't be a fool, Kleinwort. You know I am not going to be trustee to +any estate in which the General Chemical Company is interested. And if +that Company had no interest in Mortomley, I still should refuse to take +part in the matter. I have known Mrs. Mortomley ever since her +marriage, and I would have nothing to do with anything in which she is +concerned directly or indirectly. Between her and my own wife, and you +and the other creditors, I should lead a nice life. I thank you very +much, but I do not see it at all." + +"That is all very fine," remarked Mr. Forde, "considering it was through +you I knew this Mortomley, and through him we are all let into this +hole." + +"If you happen to have made a mistake about either statement," observed +Mr. Werner, "you can correct it in a few days. I am in no hurry." + +The manager opened his mouth to reply, but thinking better of the matter +shut it again. Whilst Mr. Benning who had been surveying the trio with +an expression of the most impartial distrust, said sharply, + +"Come, gentlemen, defer the settlement of your differences to some more +suitable opportunity. I cannot stay here all day whilst you discuss +extraneous matters. Whom shall we propose for trustee?" + +"Hadn't we better have Nelson," suggested Mr. Forde, with a quick glance +at Mr. Kleinwort. + +"Who is Nelson," asked Mr. Werner. + +"One of our clerks; don't you remember?" answered the manager +deprecatingly. + +"Hadn't you better recommend the nearest crossing-sweeper?" commented +Mr. Werner. "He would do quite as well, and perhaps be considered far +more respectable." + +"You come here, Forde. I know the very person. I want to tell you. Just +not for more than one second;" and with that Mr. Kleinwort, with an +apologetic smile to his other visitors, drew Mr. Forde out of the +office, and whispered a considerable amount of diplomatic advice in his +ear while they stood together on the landing. + +"I cannot think it is a good thing for you to appear as Mortomley's +solicitor in this, Benning," said Mr. Werner when he and that gentleman +were left alone. + +"I do not see any way in which it can be a bad thing for me," was the +calm reply. "Of course I shall keep myself safe." + +"I am sure you will do that so long as you are able," argued Mr. Werner. +"The question is can you keep your employers safe?" + +"I shall do the best in my power, of course, for Mr. Mortomley," +answered Mr. Benning. + +"Because if there should be any bother about the matter hereafter," +continued Mr. Werner, as coolly as if the lawyer had not spoken, "it may +be deuced awkward for the St. Vedast Wharf folks--and--and--some other +people." + +"I do not imagine there will be any bother," said Mr. Benning. + +"There is no help for it if you allow Kleinwort to dictate to you." + +"I do not intend to allow him to dictate to me," was the reply. + +"It was such folly the pair starting off to Homewood yesterday evening +and setting Mrs. Mortomley's mane up at once." + +"I do not attach much importance to that, but still I am surprised at +Kleinwort committing such a mistake; a man who thinks himself so +confoundedly clever, too." + +"He is clever; he is the cleverest man I knew," commented Mr. Werner. + +"I dare say he is," agreed Mr. Benning; "but you remember those who live +longest see most of the game, and some one, I doubt not, will live to +know how many trumps our little friend really holds." + +Mr. Werner laughed--not pleasantly. + +"You try to see the cards of all other men, Benning, but you do not show +your own." + +"I have none to show," was the reply. "A man in my position cannot +afford to play at pitch and toss with fortune. Great gains and great +losses, great risks and great successes I am forced to leave to--well, +say Kleinwort. His name is as good as that of any other man with which +to finish the sentence." + +"And yet to look at his office," began Mr. Werner. + +Mr. Benning had been in it a dozen times before, and knew every article +it contained. Nevertheless, he apparently accepted his companion's +remark as an invitation to have still another glance, and his eyes +wandered slowly and thoughtfully over every object in the room. + +When he had quite finished his scrutiny, he said, + +"You are quite right. To look around his office, Mr. Kleinwort ought +never to have had a transaction with the General Chemical Company, and +if I had any young client in whom I was interested, I should advise him +never to have a transaction with Mr. Kleinwort." + +"Indeed, you are mistaken," remarked Mr. Werner eagerly. "I never meant +to imply anything of the kind." + +"Oh! indeed," replied the lawyer. "Well, it does not signify, but I +thought you did." + +"I never do attempt conversation with any one of these fellows but I +have reason to repent it," Mr. Werner observed thoughtfully to himself, +and there was a considerable amount of truth in the remark. Conversation +in the City, if a man have anything to conceal, is about as safe and +pleasant an exercise as walking through a field set with spring guns. + +Kleinwort's _pour-parler_ kept him safe enough, skirting with pleasant +phrases and apparently foolish devices round and about dangerous ground, +but Werner did not chance to be quite so great a rogue as his friend, +and he certainly regarded life and its successes much more seriously, +though not more earnestly, than the man who was good enough to "make use +of England." + +Upon the whole Mr. Werner felt relieved that before Mr. Benning could +take up his parable again the door opened, and Messrs. Forde and +Kleinwort reappeared, the latter exclaiming, + +"We have got him now; the right man for the right place; Duncombe, you +know Duncombe." + +"I cannot say that I do," answered Mr. Benning, while Henry Werner, with +an impatient "Pshaw," turned on his heel, and walked to the window, +against the panes of which a fine drizzling rain was beginning to beat. + +"It seems to me, sir," began Mr. Forde irritably, "that as you are +unwilling to make any suggestion yourself, you might find some better +employment than objecting to the suggestions of others." + +"That is enough," was the reply. "Manage the affair after your own +lights, and see where they will ultimately land you." + +"Who is Duncombe?" inquired Mr. Benning. + +"A most respectable man; A1, sir," explained Mr. Forde. "The London +representative of Fleck, Handley and Company, whose works are at +Oldbury, Staffordshire." + +"Oh!" said Mr. Benning. He was beginning to recollect something about +Fleck, Handley and Co., and their London representative also. + +"A large firm in a large way," continued Mr. Forde. "They have extensive +transactions with the G. C. C. Limited." + +"Which fact in itself is a proof of respectability and solvency," added +Werner with his bitter tongue. + +"Ah! but they are not accountants," commented Mr. Benning, affecting +unconsciousness of the sneer. "And we must have an accountant, or we +shall meet with no end of difficulty. The position of affairs, as I +understand it, is this: Mr. Mortomley is either unable to go on or else +wishes to stop. The result is the same, let the cause be which it may. +He wishes the affair kept quiet or some of his creditors do. To effect +this object he wishes me to act for him in the matter. Now, if I am to +do so effectually, it is needful for us to have a trustee about whose +_bona fides_ there can be no question. It is not enough for us that a +man is a very honest fellow or useful or expedient. We must have some +one with a known name accustomed to this sort of work. It is perfect +waste of time racking our brains to think which Dick or Tom or Harry +will answer our purpose best. We can have no Dick or Tom or Harry. This +is not a small affair, and the Court will require some responsible man +to take the management of such an estate." + +"There is no estate to manage," interposed Mr. Forde. "The whole thing +has been muddled away, or made away with." + +"If that be your real opinion, the whole thing had better go into +bankruptcy at once," said Mr. Benning. + +"No--no--no--no, not at all; by no means, no," exclaimed Mr. Kleinwort +as the lawyer rose as if intending to depart. "That must not be. I, +Kleinwort, say no. Forde is rash--rash. He knows not what is good or +best. He talks beyond the mark." + +"Come, Forde, reckon up your respectable acquaintances, and tell us the +name of the blackest sheep you know amongst the accountant tribe," +suggested Mr. Werner. "Your experience has been large enough, Heaven +knows." + +"Will you stop jeering or not?" asked Mr. Forde. "Considering Mr. +Mortomley is your bosom friend, I think the way you talk of this matter +scarcely decent." + +"Nay," answered Mr. Werner. "Mortomley has been your bosom friend it +seems to me. Certainly, had he asked my advice a few years ago, we four +would not have had the arrangement of his destiny to-day. And as for +bosom friends," he added in a lower tone, "a businessman has none, and +no friends either for that matter. Such luxuries are not for us." + +"Do, for heaven's sake, let us keep to the matter in hand," exclaimed +Mr. Benning. "Will you name an accountant or shall I?" + +The manager looked at Mr. Kleinwort, and then once again the German led +his, so good friend, out of the room. + +Mr. Benning watched the pair till the door closed behind them, and then +turning to Mr. Werner, said, + +"Will you allow me to ask you one question? How does it happen so astute +a man as you has anything to do with St. Vedast Wharf?" + +"Trade, like poverty, makes one acquainted with strange bedfellows," was +the reply. + +"That is very true; but why are you mixing yourself up with this man +Mortomley?" + +Mr. Werner paused a moment before he answered, and a dull red streak +appeared on each side his face, while he hesitated about his answer. + +Then he looked his interlocutor straight in the eyes and said, + +"Because I want to keep Forde at St. Vedast Wharf for another +twelvemonth." + +Mr. Benning, between his teeth, gave vent to a low but most +unlawyer-like whistle. + +"That's it, is it," he commented. + +"That is it," agreed Mr. Werner. + +"And Kleinwort ditto?" said the lawyer, inquiringly. + +"So far as I know," was the reply. + +Then observed Mr. Benning, + +"I am infinitely obliged by your frankness. I could not see my way +before, but I think I can discern daylight now." + +"It must be through a very dark tunnel then," remarked Mr. Werner +bitterly. + +"We must keep Mortomley's business moving." + +"That is what Kleinwort says, but I confess I do not see how it is to be +done." + +"Where there is a will there is always a way," was the calm rejoinder. +"Well, gentlemen," he added, as Mr. Kleinwort returned leading his +friend with him. "Have you found a suitable man; because if not, I +must." + +"Yes, yes," answered Kleinwort irritably, for he and Mr. Forde had been +arguing a little hotly over the trustee question. "Do you happen to know +one very good man, one true dear Christian who makes long prayers, and +has snow hair hanging loose, and wears a white neckhandkerchief so pure +and faultless--" + +"What is his name?" interrupted Mr. Benning. + +"Asherill," answered Mr. Forde. + +"You mean the old humbug in Salisbury House I suppose," commented Mr. +Benning, after a moment's pause. "Well, I don't know but that he might +serve our purpose as well as any one if he will undertake the business. +But you know, in spite of its sheep's clothing, what a cunning old wolf +it is. He understands it behoves him to be careful, and he is. Give him +a straightforward case, however small, and he is satisfied. + +"He will strip the debtor clean as a whistle, and then sympathize with +the creditors over the depravity of debtors in general, and that +especial sinner of a debtor in particular. But take any estate to him, +no matter how large the liquidation of which _may_ subsequently be +called in question, and he says, even while his mouth is watering for +the _bonne bouche_, + +"'No, no, thank you, my dear kind friend, very much, but I have my +prejudices, foolish no doubt, but insurmountable. Other men have not +those prejudices, and will do your work better--far better. Thank you so +very, very much. Good-bye. God bless you.'" + +It was not in Kleinwort--who always loved hearing one Englishmen +ridicule or anathematize another--to refrain from laughing at the +foregoing sentence which the lawyer delivered with a solemn pomposity +Mr. Asherill himself might have envied, and even Mr. Werner smiled at +the imitation. But Mr. Forde, who could never see a joke unless he +chanced to be easy in his mind, which of late was an event of infrequent +occurrence, looked upon Kleinwort's merriment as unseemly, and telling +him not to be an ass, took up the broken thread of conversation by +remarking, + +"I do not think Asherill will make any objection in this case. In the +first place there is nothing doubtful about the transaction, and in the +second place Mr. Samuel Witney, who is--in religion--a friend of his, +and who has often done him a good turn, happens to be one of our +directors." + +"I should not feel inclined to place much dependence on either fact," +said Mr. Benning. "But as I suppose you understand your own +business--let us try Asherill. I have to attend a meeting of creditors, +and shall not be able to see him to-day; but you," turning to Messrs. +Kleinwort and Werner, "had better do so, and take a note from me at the +same time." + +"I have got my own business to attend to," remarked Mr. Werner. + +"And so have I in most good truth," echoed Kleinwort piteously. + +"Well, attend to your own and Mortomley's also for to-day. After that I +promise you shall be troubled no more about Mortomley or his estate." So +spoke Mr. Benning, and his words recommended themselves to Henry Werner. + +"On that understanding," he said, "I will do what you wish." + +"I must stay here till twelve," pleaded Kleinwort. "After that, any +time, anywhere." + +"I will be here at quarter past twelve;" and having made this +appointment, Mr. Werner bade good morning to the lawyer and the manager, +and ran down the stone stairs leading from Kleinwort's office as if the +plague had been after him. + +"There is nothing more to say I suppose," nervously suggested Mr. Forde +as the lawyer buttoned up his coat, and requested the loan of an +umbrella. + +"We are going to have a nasty day," he remarked. "I will send the +umbrella back directly I get to my place. No. I don't think there is +anything more to say. I understand the position, and hope everything may +go on satisfactorily." + +Mr. Forde buttoned up his coat, walked to the window, looked out at the +sky, which was by this time leaden, and at the rain, which had begun to +come down in good earnest. Then he grasped his umbrella, and after +saying, "I shall wait at the wharf till I see you, Kleinwort," heaved a +weary sigh, and departed likewise. + +"My dear, dear friend, how I should like to keep you waiting there for +me, for ever," soliloquised Kleinwort, in his native tongue, which was a +very cruel speech, inasmuch as if Mr. Forde had any strong belief, it +was a faith in Kleinwort's personal attachment to himself. + +In moments of confidence indeed he had told those far-seeing friends +whose confidence in the German was of that description which objects to +trust a man out of its sight, "I dare say he is a little thief, but I am +quite sure of one thing; he may swindle other people, but he will never +let in ME." A touching proof of the simplicity some persons are able to +retain in spite of their knowledge of the wickedness of their +fellow-creatures. Faith is perhaps the worst commodity with which to set +up in business in the City, since it is so seldom justified by works. + +When Mr. Werner returned to keep his appointment he found Mr. Kleinwort, +his coat off, a huge cigar in his mouth, busily engaged in writing +letters. + +"Just one, two minutes," he said, "then I am yours to command. Sit +down." + +"No; thank you. I will wait for you outside. I wonder what you think I +am made of if you expect me to breathe in this atmosphere." + +And he walked on to the landing, where Kleinwort soon joined him. + +"I must have some brandy," remarked that gentleman. "I am worn out, +exhausted, faint. Look at me," and he held up his hands, which were +shaking, and pointed to his cheeks, which were livid. + +Mr. Werner did look at him, though with little apparent pleasure in the +operation. + +"Have what you want, then," he said. "Can't you get it there?" and he +pointed to a place on the opposite side of the street where bottles were +ranged conspicuously against the window-glass. + +"There! My good Werner, of what are your thoughts made? The spirits +there sold are so bad no water was never no worse." + +"I should not have thought you a judge of the quality of any water +except soda-water," answered Werner grimly. + +"Ah!" was the reply; "but you are English. You have inherited nothing +good, imaginative, poetic, from your father's fatherland." + +"If by that you mean I have no knowledge of the quality of every tap in +the metropolis, you are right, and, what is more, I do not want to have +anything to do with poetry or imagination if either assumes that +particular development." + +"We put all those things on one side for an instant," suggested +Kleinwort, making a sudden dive into a tavern which occupied a +non-conspicuous position in an alley through which they were passing, +leaving Werner standing on the pavement wet as a brook from the torrents +of rain that were at last coming down as if a second deluge had +commenced. + +When Kleinwort reappeared, which he did almost immediately, his cheeks +had resumed their natural hue, and the hand which grasped his umbrella +was steady enough. + +"If I drank as much as you," commented Mr. Werner, "I should go mad." + +"And if I drank as you so little I should go mad," was the answer. "You +have got in your lovely English some vulgar saying about meat and +poison." + +"Yes, and you will have something which is called _delirium tremens_ one +of these days if you do not mind what you are about." + +"Shall I? No, I think not. When the engine has not need to work no +longer, it will be that I lower the steam. Some day, some blessed day, I +shall return to mine own land to there take mine ease." + +"I wish to God you had never left it," muttered Henry Werner, and it was +after the exchange of these amenities that the pair ascended to the +offices of Asherill and Swanland, Salisbury House. + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + MR. DEAN AND HIS FUTURE RELATIVES. + + +It was quite dark by the time Mr. Swanland's clerks reached Homewood on +the rainy Saturday in question. + +In the first place they lost their train by about half a minute, which +was not of much consequence as another started in less than half an hour +afterwards, but Mr. Bailey chose to lose his temper, and exchanged some +pleasant words first with a porter who shut the door in his face, and +afterwards with a burly policeman big enough to have carried the little +clerk off in his arms like a baby. + +The young gentlemen, engaged at a few shillings a week to perform +liquidation drudgery in Messrs. Asherill and Swanland's offices, were +so accustomed to regard the members of their firm as autocrats that they +affected the airs of autocrats themselves when out of the presence +chamber, and were consequently indignant if the outer world, happily +ignorant of the nature of accountants, treated them as if they were very +ordinary mortals indeed. + +Having nothing to do for half an hour save kick their heels in that +dingy, dirty, fusty, comfortless hall which the Great Eastern Railway +Company generously offers for the use of the travellers on its line who +repair to London Street, Mr. Bailey improved the occasion by delivering +a series of orations on the folly of that old sinner Asherill, who +detained them talking humbug till they lost the train, and having eased +his feelings so far, he next proceeded to relieve them further by +anathematizing Mortomley, who chose Saturday of all days in the week, +and that Saturday of all Saturdays in the year, to take up his residence +in Queer Street. + +"I won't stand it," finished Mr. Bailey, while his eyes wandered over +that cheerful expanse of country which greets the traveller who journeys +by train from London to Stratford, as he nears the latter station. "I'll +give them notice on Monday. They could not get on without me. I'd like +to know where they could possibly find a man able to work as I can who +would put up with such treatment. On Monday I will give them a piece of +my mind they won't relish as much as they will their cut of roast beef +to-morrow." + +Which was all very well, but as Mr. Bailey had been in the habit of +making the same statement about once a fortnight upon an average, since +liquidation came into fashion, his companion attached less importance to +it than might otherwise have been the case. + +"What a day it has turned out!" was all the comment he made. + +"Yes, and they are at home safe and snug before this, or on their way to +it. Well, it is of no use talking." + +"I wonder if we shall have far to walk," said the junior, whose name was +Merle. + +"Miles no doubt," answered Mr. Bailey, "and get drenched to the skin. +But what do they care! We are not flesh and blood to them. We are only +pounds shillings and pence." + +Which was indeed a very true remark, although it emanated from Mr. +Bailey. Had he been aware how exactly his words defined his employers' +feelings, he would not perhaps have been so ready to give utterance to +them. + +As matters stood, he grumbled on until they were turned out in the +drenching rain to get from Leytonstone Station to Whip's Cross as best +they could. Green Grove Lane was still leafy, and flowers bloomed gaily +in the railway gardens, and Leytonstone church stood in its graveyard a +picturesque object in the landscape, and there was a great peace about +that quiet country station with its level crossing and air of utter +repose which might have been pleasant to some people. + +But it did not prove agreeable to Mr. Bailey. A soaking rain. An +indefinite goal. An unknown amount of work to be got through! + +Very comprehensively and concisely Mr. Bailey read a short commination +service over Mr. Mortomley and his affairs, whilst he and Merle stood on +the down platform waiting the departure of the train ere crossing the +line. + +He had got his directions from the station master, and they did not +agree with those issued at head-quarters. + +"He should have gone to Snaresbrook. That was the nearest point, but, +however, he could not miss his way. It was straight as an arrow after he +get to the 'Green Man,' still keeping main road to the left." + +Which instructions he followed so implicitly that the pair found +themselves finally at Leyton Green. + +From thence they had to make their way back into the Newmarket Road, and +as that way lay along darksome lanes under the shade of arching trees, +through patches of Epping Forest, while all the time the rain continued +to pour down, steadily and determinedly, it may be imagined how much +Mr. Bailey was enamoured of Mortomley and his estate by the time the two +clerks reached Homewood. + +But once within the portals of that place, circumstances put on a more +cheerful aspect. A bright fire blazed in the old-fashioned hall, +glimpses were caught of well lighted and comfortably furnished rooms. +Rupert, with a rare civility, addressed them with a polite hope that +they were not very wet, and Mrs. Mortomley, after reading Mr. Swanland's +note, sent to inquire if they would not like some tea. + +With which, Mr. Bailey having readily responded in the affirmative, they +were provided presently. Rupert in the meantime having recommended half +a glass of brandy, which Merle gulped down thankfully, and Mr. Bailey +sipped sullenly, angry a whole one had not been advised. + +When the dining-room door was shut, and the pair had made an onslaught +on the cold fowl and ham sent in with tea for their delectation, Merle +remarked, + +"What a stunning place, ain't it!" + +"Ay, it is a snug crib enough," replied the other, who had already +beheld wreck and ruin wrought in much finer abodes. + +"They don't seem a bad sort," observed Merle, who, being young to the +business, still thought a bankrupt might be a gentleman, and who +moreover was not a tip-top swell like Bailey, whose father rented a +house at fifty pounds a year, and only let off the first floor in order +to make the two obstinate ends meet. + +"What do you mean?" inquired Bailey. + +"Why, asking us to have tea and all that," was the innocent answer. + +"Pooh!" replied his companion. "Why, it is all over now. They don't know +it, but the whole place belongs to us, I mean to our governors. The tea +is ours, and the bread and butter and the ham, and not this fowl alone, +but every hen and chicken on the premises. Hand me over the loaf, I am +as hungry as a hunter." + +Had little Mrs. Mortomley understood matters at that moment as she +understood them afterwards, she would, hospitable as was her +disposition, have turned those two nice young clerks out into the +weather, and told them to make up their accounts in the Works or Thames +Street, as they should never enter the house at Homewood so long as she +remained in it. + +But she did not understand, and accordingly after tea the making out of +the liabilities proceeded under Rupert's superintendence, Mrs. +Mortomley's presence being occasionally required when any question +connected with her own department had to be answered. + +"I do not see why these debts should be put down," said Dolly at last. +"Of course, all household liabilities I shall defray out of my own +money." + +"No, you won't," replied Rupert brusquely. "You will want every penny of +your money for yourself, or I am much mistaken." + +At length Mr. Bailey bethought him of asking Rupert about the return +trains, and finding that the last was due in three quarters of an hour, +stated that as it seemed impossible the work could be finished then, he +and Merle would be down at about eight o'clock on Monday morning. + +Having given which promise he went out into the night, followed by his +junior, and Homewood was shortly after shut up, and every member of the +household, tired out with the events of the day, went early to bed, and +woke the next morning with a sense of rest and ease as strange as it +proved transitory. + +In the afternoon Mr. Dean called and asked specially for Mrs. Mortomley, +and when Dolly went down to him, she found that he wished to tell her in +his own formal way that the idea of Miss Halling, his promised wife, the +future mistress of Elm Park remaining in a house where bailiffs were +unhappily located, had troubled and was troubling him exceedingly. Of +course, he felt every sympathy for Mrs. Mortomley in her sad position, +and for Mr. Mortomley in his present unfortunate circumstances, but-- + +"In a word," broke in Dolly, "you want Antonia to leave Homewood and go +to your sister. That is it, is it not, Mr. Dean? Of course I can make +no objection, and when affairs are arranged here she can return to be +married from her uncle's house." + +For a moment Mr. Dean was touched. He saw Dolly believed matters would +be so arranged that Homewood should still belong to Mortomley, and that +she offered hospitality to a woman she cordially disliked on this +supposition. And he thought it rather nice of the little woman, whose +face he could not avoid noticing was very white and pinched, though she +carried the trouble lightly, and, in his opinion, with almost unbecoming +indifference. But Mr. Dean quickly recovered his balance. These people +were paupers. Great heavens! literally paupers, except for the few +thousands left of Mrs. Mortomley's fortune. They might ask him to lend +them money. Presuming upon their relationship to Miss Halling, they +might even expect to be asked to stay at his house--at Elm Park--a +gentleman's mansion, across the threshold of which no bankrupt's foot +had ever passed. At the bare idea of such complications, Mr. Dean turned +hot and cold alternately. + +He had done much for these Mortomley people already. He had broke the +news of the impending catastrophe to Mr. Forde, and after that act of +weakness what might they not expect in the future! + +When Mr. Dean thought of this he felt horrified at the possible +consequences resulting from his extraordinary amiability. Indeed, he +felt so horrified that dismay for a minute or two tied his tongue, and +it was Dolly who at last broke the silence. Leaning back in an +easy-chair, her thin white hands clasped together, her eyes too large +and bright, but still looking happy and restful, she said, "I should +like very much, Mr. Dean, to know where your thoughts are wandering?" + +Mr. Dean, thus aroused, answered with a diplomatic truthfulness which +afterwards amazed himself. + +"I was thinking of you and Mr. Mortomley, and Miss Halling and myself." + +"Yes?" Dolly said inquiringly. There had been a time when she would have +remarked all four were interesting subjects, but on that especial +Sunday she was a different woman from the Mrs. Mortomley of Mr. Dean's +earlier recollection. + +"To a lady possessed of your powers of observation," began Mr. Dean, "I +need scarcely remark that difficulties might arise were Miss Halling to +take up even a temporary abode with my sister, and therefore--" + +"I comprehend what you mean, and I know why you hesitate," said Mrs. +Mortomley, as her visitor paused and cast about how to finish his +sentence, "but I really do not see what can be done. I am afraid," she +added, with a pucker of her forehead, which had latterly grown habitual +when she was troubled or perplexed. "Antonia would not like my Aunt +Celia. My aunt is goodness itself, but a very little eccentric. Still, +if she understood the position--" + +"I hope you do not think me capable of adding to your anxiety at such a +time as this," interposed Mr. Dean pompously. + +All unconsciously Mrs. Mortomley had managed to offend his dignity as +she had never offended it before when she suggested the idea of +quartering the future mistress of Elm Park on a spinster living upon an +extremely limited income in some remote wilds. + +"I should not for a moment entertain the idea of asking any of your +relations or friends to receive the lady whom I hope soon to call my +wife. I have anxiously considered the whole matter, and after mature +deliberation have arrived at the conclusion that Mr. Rupert Halling is +the only relative with whom Miss Halling can now with propriety reside +until she gives me the right to take her to Elm Park." + +"You propose then that Rupert shall leave Homewood also," said Mrs. +Mortomley. She wore a shawl thrown over her shoulders, for the rain had +made her feel chilly, and Mr. Dean did not notice that under it she +clasped both hands tightly across her heart as she spoke. + +"With that view," he answered, "I took suitable apartments yesterday in +the immediate vicinity of his studio." + +"I did not know he had a studio," she remarked. + +"With commendable prudence and foresight he secured one a couple of +months back in the neighbourhood of the Regent's Park." + +"And it was there I suppose he painted that picture he sold for twenty +pounds." + +"Twenty guineas," amended Mr. Dean. "A friend of mine did pay him that +very handsome amount for a sketch of a little girl which the purchaser +imagined bore some resemblance to a deceased daughter of his own." + +"His model being Lenore, doubtless." + +"I should say most probably." + +Dolly did not answer. She sat for a minute or two looking out at the +leaves littering the lawn, at the sodden earth, at the late blooming +flowers beaten almost into the earth by reason of the violence of the +rain--then she said, + +"And so they, Antonia and Rupert, go to those lodgings you spoke of?" + +"Yes, on Tuesday next, if Miss Halling can complete her preparations in +the time." + +"Rats leave a sinking ship," murmured Mrs. Mortomley to herself. + +"I beg your pardon," observed Mr. Dean, not catching the drift of her +pleasant sentence. + +"I said," explained Dolly, speaking very slowly and distinctly, "that +rats leave a sinking ship. So the story goes at all events, and I, for +one, see no reason to doubt its truthfulness. If you think of it, what +more natural than that they should go. They are detestable creatures in +prosperity. Why should they alter their natures in adversity?" + +"I am very stupid I fear," said Mr. Dean; "but I confess I fail to see +the drift of your remark." + +"I can make it plain enough," she retorted. "Here are a man and a woman +who must have starved unless we or you had provided them with the +necessaries of life. It was not very pleasant for me to have Antonia +Halling here, but she has had the best we could give her; and never a +cross look or grudging word to mar her enjoyment of the good things of +this life--things she prizes very highly. + +"As for Rupert, he has been treated by my husband as a brother or a son. +We made no difference between them and Lenore, except that I have +denied my child what she wanted sometimes, and they have never been +denied. + +"And the end of it all is that when my husband's affairs go wrong, they +leave us, and allow a stranger to break the tidings. That is why I call +them rats, Mr. Dean--your _fiancée_ and her brother. I am sure heaven +made Antonia Halling a helpmate--meet for you--for she is as selfish, as +worldly, as calculating, and as cold as even Mr. Dean, of Elm Park." + +Having finished which explicit speech, Dolly rose and gathered her shawl +more closely about her figure, bowed, and would have left the room had +Mr. Dean not hindered her departure. + +"Mrs. Mortomley," he said, "I can make allowances for a lady placed as +you are; but I beg leave to say you are utterly mistaken in your +estimate of me." + +"I am not mistaken," she replied. "I understand you better than you +understand yourself. Do you think I cannot see to the bottom of so +shallow a stream? Do you imagine for a moment I fail to understand, that +last Thursday night you turned the question over and over in your mind +as to whether you could give up Antonia Halling when I made you +understand the position of her uncle's affairs? You have decided and +rightly you cannot give her up. No jury would hold the non-success of a +relation a sufficient reason for jilting a woman. + +"And I really believe Antonia is so thoroughly alive to her own +interests that she would take the matter into court. Good-bye, Mr. Dean. +You and your future wife are a representative couple." + +"What an awful woman," said Mr. Dean, addressing himself after her +departure. "I declare," he added, speaking to Rupert, who immediately +after entered the room, "I would not marry Mrs. Mortomley if she had +twenty thousand a year." + +"How rare it is to find two people so unanimous in opinion," remarked +Rupert with a sneer. He did not like Mr. Dean at the best of times, and +at that moment he had a grudge against him, because he knew it was Mr. +Dean who must have told Mr. Forde about that twenty guineas for a +sketch of the small Lenore. "I am sure poor mistaken Dolly would not +marry you if you settled fifty thousand per annum on her. But what has +she been saying to cause such vehement expression of opinion?" + +"She says you and your sister are rats; that you have eaten of the best +in the ship, and leave it now it is sinking." + +"Upon my honour I am afraid Mrs. Mortomley is right," was the reply. +"Hers is a view of the question which did not strike me before; but it +is not open to dispute. Still what would the dear little soul have one +do? Stay with the vessel till it disappears? If she speak the word, I +for one am willing to do so." + +"I hoped to hear common sense from one member of this household at all +events," was Mr. Dean's reply, uttered loftily and contemptuously. + +"So you would from me if I were not in love with my aunt," Rupert +answered tranquilly. "More or less, less sometimes than more, I have +always been in love with Dolly. She is not pretty, except occasionally, +and she can be very disagreeable; and she is some years older than +myself; and she is an adept at spending money; and upon the whole she is +not what the world considers a desirable wife for a struggling man. But +she has--to use a very vulgar expression--pluck, and by Jove if I live +to be a hundred, I shall never see a woman I admire so thoroughly as my +uncle's wife. But this is sentimental," Mr. Halling proceeded. "And I +stifle it at the command of common sense. On Tuesday I leave Homewood +for those desirable apartments in which you wish me to play propriety to +the future lady of The Elms." + +Through the rain Mr. Dean drove away foaming with rage. Could he have +lived his time over again, no Miss Halling would ever have been asked to +grace his abode. No young person, with a vagabond brother in a velvet +suit, should ever have been mistress of The Elms. + +But Mrs. Mortomley had put the case in a nutshell. He must marry +Antonia, though Mortomley were bankrupt ten thousand times over. + +And Antonia knew it, and under the roof which had sheltered her for so +many a long night, she returned thanks for the fact to whatever deity +she actually worshipped. + +It is not for me to state what god hers chanced to be, but certainly it +was not that One of whom Christians speak reverently. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + PREVISION. + + +Along the front and one end of the house at Homewood ran a wide low +verandah, over which trailed masses of clematis, clustres of roses, long +sprays of honeysuckle, and delicate branches of jasmine. In the summer +and autumn so thick was the foliage, hanging in festoons from the tops +of the light iron pillars depending from the fretwork which formed the +arches, that the verandah was converted into a shaded bower, the +sunbeams only reaching it through a tracery of leaves. + +Up and down under the shelter of this verandah, Rupert paced impatiently +for a few minutes after Mr. Dean's departure, the sound of the rain +pouring on the roof making a suitable accompaniment to thoughts that +were about the most anxious the young man's mind had ever held. + +Now that the step had been taken and the die cast, liquidation assumed a +different aspect to that it had worn when viewed from a distance. +Something he could not have defined in the manner of the two clerks +filled him with a vague uneasiness, whilst Mr. Dean's determination that +his _fiancée_ should be exposed no longer to the contaminating +associations of Homewood annoyed him beyond expression. True, for some +time previously he had been drifting away from his uncle. Whilst Dolly +thought he was assisting her husband and still devoting himself to the +town business, he was really working for many hours a week in his new +painting-room, which he reached by taking advantage of that funny little +railway between Stratford and Victoria Park, which connects the Great +Eastern and the North London lines. + +He had never entered the offices of the General Chemical Company since +the day when he opened his lips to warn his uncle of the probable +consequences of that weakness which induced him to struggle on long +after he ought to have stopped. He very rarely honoured the Thames +Street Warehouse with his presence, and he never interfered in the +business unless Mortomley asked him to arrange a disputed account or +call upon the representative of some country house who might chance when +in town to take up his quarters at a West-end hotel. + +Nevertheless, he did not like the idea of cutting himself utterly adrift +from his relatives. Homewood had been home to him, more truly home than +his father's house ever proved. Spite of all the anxiety of the later +time, his residence under Mortomley's roof had been a happy period. He +liked his uncle and his wife, and the little Lenore, and--well there was +no use in looking back--the happy days were gone and past, and he must +look out for himself. He could not afford to quarrel with Mr. Dean, and +Dolly's bitter speech still rankled in his memory, but yet he had not +meant to give up Homewood entirely, and Mr. Dean must have blundered in +some way to leave such an impression on Mrs. Mortomley's mind. + +"I will have it out with her at once," he decided, and he threw away his +cigar, girt up his loins for the coming struggle, and re-entered the +house. + +He found Dolly in the library writing a letter. When he entered, she +raised her head to see who it was, but immediately and without remark +resumed her occupation. + +There was a bright red spot flaming on each cheek, and a dangerous +sparkle in her eyes, which assured Rupert the air was not yet clear, and +that the storm might come round again at any moment. + +But he knew the sooner they commenced their quarrel the more speedily it +would be over, and so plunged into the matter at once. + +"Dolly, what have you been doing to Mr. Dean? He has gone off looking as +black as a thunder-cloud." + +"I have been giving him a piece of my mind," she answered without +looking up, and her pen flew more rapidly over the paper. + +"Your explanation is not lady-like, but it is explicit," remarked +Rupert, "I am afraid you will soon not have any mind left if you are so +generous in disposing of it." + +"If my mind proves of no more use to me in the future than it has in the +past, the sooner I dispose of it all the better," was the reply. + +"Do you think you are wise in commencing your present campaign by +quarrelling with everybody?" he inquired. + +"Yes, if every one is like Mr. Dean and--and other people." + +"Meaning me?" + +"Meaning you, if you choose to take the cap and wear it." + +"Do you know Mr. Dean says he would not marry you if you had twenty +thousand a year?" + +"It is a matter of the utmost indifference to me what Mr. Dean says or +thinks either." + +"He told me you considered Antonia and myself little, if at all, better +than rats." + +"Did he happen to tell you what I thought of him?" + +There was no shaming or threatening Dolly into a good temper when a mood +like this was on her. So Rupert changed his tactics. + +"Do put down your pen and let us talk this matter over quietly +together." + +"You had better go away and not ask me to talk at all," she answered; +but she ceased writing nevertheless. + +"Do you want that letter posted?" he inquired. + +"No, I shall send it by a messenger." + +"It is not to Mr. Dean, is it?" + +"To Mr. Dean," she repeated. "What should I write to Mr. Dean for? It is +to no one connected with Mr. Dean or you." + +"Well, lay it aside for a few minutes and tell me in what way we have +annoyed you." + +"You have annoyed me by want of straightforwardness. Mr. Dean has +annoyed me by his insolence, unintentional though I believe it to have +been. But that only makes the sting the sharper. Who is he that his +future wife should be taken away from Homewood the moment misfortune +threatens it? What is Antonia that she should be treated as though she +were one of the blood royal?" + +"Mr. Dean is one of the most intolerable bores I ever met," replied +Rupert calmly. "And Antonia is, in my opinion, an extremely calculating +and commonplace young person. But Mr. Dean has money and his prejudices, +and I am sure you do not wish to prevent Antonia marrying the only rich +man who is ever likely to make her an offer. + +"Now Mr. Dean regards a man who fails to meet his engagements as a +little lower than a felon. I believe he would quite as soon ask a +ticket-of-leave fellow to Elm Park as a merchant whose affairs are +embarrassed, and there is no use in trying to argue him out of his +notions. We must take people as they are, Dolly." + +"Yes, if it is necessary to take them at all," she agreed. + +"It is very necessary for me," he said. "I cannot afford to quarrel with +Mr. Dean, or to have Antonia thrown on my hands, as she would be if he +refused to marry her." + +"He will not refuse," observed Dolly. "He has thought that subject over, +and decided it is too late to draw back now." + +"How do you know?" asked Rupert in amazement. + +"Because I taxed him with having done so, and he could not deny it. Pray +assure him next time you meet he need not fear Archie or myself +presuming on the relationship and asking him for help, and scheming for +invitations to Elm Park. So far as I am concerned I should be glad never +to see him or his wife (that is to be) again." + +"Good heavens!" ejaculated Rupert. Over what awful perils he had been +gliding all unconsciously. If her conversation were as she reported it, +might not Mr. Dean well call little Mrs. Mortomley a dreadful woman. +Certainly the sooner Antonia was away from Homewood, the better for all +parties concerned. + +He had been imprudent himself, but how could he imagine the nature of +the interview which preceded his own; he must see Mr. Dean again +immediately. He must carry a fictitious apology from Dolly to that +gentleman, and then arrange for their eternal separation. All these +things raced through his mind, and then he said, + +"You are a perfect Ishmael, Dolly." + +"Am I?" she retorted. "Well I am content. The idea pleases me, for I +always considered Ishmael's mother a much more attractive sort of woman +than Sarah, and I have no doubt Abraham thought so too." + +She was recovering her good temper by slow degrees, it is true; but +still Rupert understood that the wind was shifting round to a more +genial quarter. + +"Why should we--you and I--quarrel?" he suddenly asked, stretching out +his hand across the table towards her. + +She did not give him hers as he evidently expected she would, but +answered, + +"Because I do hate people who are secret and deceitful and not +straightforward." + +"You mean about that picture?" he said. + +"Yes," she agreed; "the picture was the first thing which shocked me, +and since that you leave a stranger to say you intend that I shall be +all alone through this trouble--all alone!" + +There was an unconscious pathos in the way she repeated those two last +words which wrung Rupert's heart. + +"I never intended to leave you alone," he replied. "I do not intend to +do so now. I must go to these confounded lodgings with Antonia, because +the powers that be insist on my going, but neither she nor Mr. Dean can +expect me to stay with her the whole day. She must get some one of her +innumerable female friends to bear her company; and I shall be here +almost continually. Upon my soul, Dolly, if I dare offend Mr. Dean, +nothing should induce me to leave Homewood at this juncture; indeed, I +told him in so many words, that if you wished me to stay I would +remain." + +She did not answer for a few moments, then she said, + +"You were quite safe in telling him that, Rupert. You knew I would +never ask anyone to sacrifice his own interests to my fancies." + +"You are angry with me still!" he remarked, then finding she remained +silent, he went on, + +"I confess I did wrong about that picture, but I did not sin +intentionally, with any idea of concealment, or separating my interests +from yours. I only held my peace, because I did not want Forde to know; +and no harm would have been done had that pompous old idiot held his +tongue, and not considered it necessary to explain that the brother of +his future wife was able to earn money for his own wants. + +"The moment this liquidation business was settled, I meant to tell you +concerning that and the studio, but I was so vexed about Dean's wish for +Antonia to leave here, that I felt I could not talk to you freely. Do +you believe me? Indeed what I have said is the literal truth." + +"It may be," she answered, "but it is not quite the whole truth. However +that does not signify very much. No doubt you are wise in making +provision for yourself,--but oh!" + +And covering her face with her hands, she ended her sentence with a +paroxysm of tearless grief. + +In a moment Rupert was beside her, "What is it, what is the matter, +Dolly? Dolly, speak to me; there is nothing on earth I will not do for +you if you only tell me what you want." + +She lifted her head and looked at him as a person might who had just +returned from a journey through some strange and troubled land. + +For many a day that look haunted Rupert Halling; it will haunt him at +intervals through the remainder of his life. She put back her hair which +had fallen over her face, with a painful slowness of movement foreign to +her temperament. She opened her lips to speak, but her tongue refused +its office. + +Then Rupert frightened ran into the dining-room, and brought her wine, +but she put it aside, and he fetched her water, and held the tumbler +for her to drink. + +As if there had been some virtue in the draught, her eyes filled with +tears--heavy tears that gathered on her lashes and then fell lingeringly +drop by drop; but soon the trouble found quicker vent, and she broke +into an almost hysterical fit of weeping. + +"Cry, dear, cry, it will do you good," he said as she strove vainly to +check her sobs. "Do not try to speak at present, you will only make +yourself worse." + +But Dolly would speak. + +"I am so sorry you should have seen me like this" she panted. "I did not +mean to be so stupid." + +He was standing beside her bathing her hair and forehead with _eau de +cologne_, but his hand shook as he poured out the scent, and he felt +altogether, as he defined the sensation to himself, "nervous as a +woman." + +"Dolly," he began when she grew calm again, "what was the trouble--the +special trouble I mean--which caused all this. Do try to tell me. If it +was anything I said or did, forgive me; for I never meant to say or do +anything to hurt you." + +"It was not that," she replied; then after a moment's hesitation she +went on. "A dreadful feeling came over me, Rupert, that this liquidation +will turn out badly. I have had the feeling at intervals ever since +Friday evening, and it seemed just then to overwhelm me. It may be +folly, but I cannot shake off the notion that my poor husband will be +ruined. If liquidation is what we thought, why should Mr. Dean want +Antonia to leave here? Why, if we are only asking for time in which to +pay our debts, should such disgrace attach itself to us?" + +Now this was just the question Rupert had been vainly asking himself, +and he stood silent, unable to answer. + +"Think it over until to-morrow," she added, noticing his hesitation. "I +am afraid you are worldly and selfish, Rupert, but I do not think you +are unfeeling, or quite ungrateful. Think it over for the sake of poor +Archie and me and little Lenore, and--I won't insult you by saying for +your own sake too. Put yourself quite out of the question, and consider +us alone. There was a time when we considered you, and though that time +is past, still I hope you can never quite forget." + +She rose and stretched out both hands to him, in token of reconciliation +and her own woman's weakness which dreaded facing the dark future all +alone. + +"Dolly dear," he answered, holding her hands tight, "you are so true, a +man must be a wretch to cheat you." + +For evermore till Eternity Rupert Halling can never quite forget +uttering those words, nor the way in which he failed to keep the promise +they contained. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + MR. DEAN GLORIFIES HIMSELF. + + +For the sake of the servants an early dinner on Sunday had always been a +custom at Homewood, and although other customs might be broken through +or forgotten in consequence of Mortomley's illness and the troubles +surrounding the household, this still obtained. + +Therefore Rupert Halling had to make no comment on his intended absence, +to leave no message about his return being uncertain, when, after making +his peace with Dolly, he went straight from the library to a sort of +little cloak-room, where he donned knickerbockers, a waterproof coat, a +stiff felt hat, and selected a plain light riding-whip. + +Thus armed against the weather he walked round to the stables, clapped a +saddle on the back of Mr. Mortomley's favourite black mare, Bess, +unloosed her headstall, put on her bridle, led her through the side +gate, which he closed behind him, looked once again to the girths and +drew them up a hole tighter; then after a pat and a "Gently, my beauty, +stand quiet, pet," he put one foot in the stirrup, and next instant was +square in his seat. + +Madam Bess hated rain as cordially as some human beings, and tossed her +head and made a little play with her heels, and quivered a little all +over with indignation at being taken out in such weather by any one +except her master; but Rupert was a good as well as a merciful rider, +and he humoured the pretty creature's whims till she forgot to show +them, and after plunging, shying, cantering with a sideway motion, +intended to express rebellion and disgust, she settled down into a long +easy trot, which in about three quarters of an hour brought Rupert to +the gates of Elm Park. + +There, one of the ostlers chancing to be at the lodge talking to the +old woman whose duty and pleasure it was to curtsey to Mr. Dean each +time he came in or went out, he dismounted and gave Bess to the man, +with strict orders to rub her down and give her a feed. + +"I must take her a good round after I leave here," he remarked, "and it +is nasty weather for horses as well as men." + +Now Master Rupert had always been very free of his money at Elm Park, +and no rumours of coming misfortune at Homewood had reached the people +connected with Mr. Dean's elegant mansion, so Bess was rubbed till her +coat shone like a looking-glass, and she herself kicked short impatient +kicks with one heel at a time; and she had a great feed of corn and a +long draught of water, and her heart was refreshed within her. + +Meantime her rider, instead of proceeding along the avenue, which took +many and unnecessary turns, so as to give the appearance of greater +extent to Mr. Dean's domain, selected a short cut through the shrubbery +and flower-garden, finally reaching the west front of the house by +means of a light iron gate which gave entrance to a small lawn, kept +trim and smooth as a bowling-green. + +At a glass door on this side of the house Rupert caught sight of a +familiar face, which brightened up as its owner recognised in the +half-drowned visitor a favourite of the house. + +"Well, Mr. Housden, and how are you?" said the young man, standing +outside and shaking the wet off him after the fashion of a Newfoundland +dog. + +"I keep my health wonderful considering, thank you, Mr. Rupert," +answered the butler, for it was that functionary who stood at the glass +door contemplating the weather. "And how is the family at Homewood, +sir?" + +"My uncle is very ill," was the reply; "he has not been able to be out +of his room for the last three weeks. Mrs. Mortomley and my sister and +Miss Lenore are as usual. Governor is at dinner I suppose?" + +"No, sir, Mr. Dean has finished dinner, or I should not be disengaged. +He is sitting over his dessert, sir, with a bottle of his very +particular old port." + +"The thermometer was so low it took that to raise it," muttered Rupert +to himself; then added, "Ask Rigby to step this way and take these +dripping things of mine, will you, Housden? I want to see Mr. Dean." + +"Allow me, Mr. Rupert. Let me relieve you of your coat." And Mr. +Housden, who would have been grievously insulted had the young man +seemed to suppose he could condescend so far, took the waterproof, and +the knickerbockers, and the hat, and the whip, and conveyed them himself +to Rigby, after which he announced Mr. Halling's arrival to his master, +and received orders to show him in. + +What with dinner and its accompaniments, Mr. Dean had been half dozing +in his arm-chair when his butler informed him of Mr. Halling's presence, +and he arose to meet his visitor with a stupid confusion of manner which +at once gave Rupert an advantage over him. + +If he had not dined and been quite awake, and in full possession of his +business senses, he would not have greeted Rupert with that awkward-- + +"Yes, to be sure, Mr. Halling. Did not expect to see you again so soon; +not such an evening as this I mean." + +"Oh! I don't care for rain," Rupert answered. "I ride between the +drops." + +"Will you take a glass of port or what?" asked Mr. Dean, touching the +wine decanter tenderly. + +"Thank you," the young man answered, "I will have some, or 'what,' +supposing it assume the shape of a tumbler of hot brandy-and-water, if +you have no objection, for I have still far to ride to-night, and I do +not want to be laid up; and besides," he added with a smile, "your port +is too strong for me, my head won't stand it." + +"Housden, bring the brandy and some boiling water, boiling remember, at +once," said Mr. Dean relieved that his visitor refused to partake of the +wonderful port for which he had paid such a price per bottle that +ordinary mortals would not have dared to swallow it except in +teaspoonfuls. + +"You are really very good and very generous to receive me so courteously +after the way in which we parted," remarked Rupert when they were left +alone. "The fact is I was put out to-day and I said what I ought not to +have said, and Mrs. Mortomley was put out and she said what she ought +not to have said, and we both want to apologise to you. She is sorry and +I am sorry, and I think, sir, as it was you who told Mr. Forde about +that picture your friend kindly purchased from me, which confidence in +fact caused the whole disturbance, you ought to forgive us both." + +Even Mr. Dean could not swallow this sentence at one gulp. + +"Do you mean," he asked doubtfully, "to say Mrs. Mortomley has expressed +her regret for the improper--yes,"--continued Mr. Dean after a pause +devoted to considering whether he had employed the right word,--"most +improper remark she made this afternoon." + +"I mean to say," returned Rupert, "that Mrs. Mortomley has retracted +those observations which pointed to my being a rat, that I have +explained everything in our conduct which seem to need explanation to +her satisfaction, that we are now perfectly good friends again, and that +she has commissioned me to say she hopes you will not attach any +importance to words spoken in a time of great trouble by a woman placed +in a position of such difficulty as she is at present." + +"Then upon my honour," exclaimed Mr. Dean, "the message does Mrs. +Mortomley credit. I could not have believed her capable of sending it." + +"Neither could I," thought Rupert, but he added aloud. "You do not quite +know Mrs. Mortomley yet, I see. She is very impulsive, and often says a +vast deal more than she really means; but when she calms down, she is as +ready to confess she was wrong as she proved to give offence. I do not +think any human being could live in the same house with my uncle's wife +and not love her." + +"Young man," said Mr. Dean with a solemn shake of his head while he +poured himself out yet another glass of that particular port, "were I in +your place I should not talk so glibly about love. There are people--yes +indeed there are who might think you meant something not quite right." + +If Rupert had yielded to the impulse strongest upon him at that moment, +he would have leaned back in his chair and laughed aloud at the idea +this moral old sinner evidently attached to his words, but he had a +purpose to serve, and so with surprise not altogether simulated he said, + +"Is that really your opinion, sir? then I will never use the expression +again. Esteem is a good serviceable word. Do you approve of it." + +Mr. Dean looked hard at Rupert to ascertain whether the young man were +making game of him or not, but no sign of levity rewarding his scrutiny, +he answered, + +"It is a very good word indeed, but one I do not consider applicable in +the present case. I am perfectly well aware that I do not possess that +facility of expression and power of repartee possessed by those persons +whose society Mrs. Mortomley at one time so much enjoyed, but I can see +as far through a millstone as any one with whom I am acquainted, and +esteem is not the word I should employ myself in this case." + +"Perhaps you are right," replied Rupert carelessly; "but to return to +the original subject, she is sorry for having said what she did, and so +am I, and I have come here to apologise. When, however, I stated that if +Mrs. Mortomley wished me to remain at Homewood I would do so, I spoke +even at the risk of offending you, the literal truth. We have been +treated generously at Homewood, and on thinking the matter over, it +seemed to me that I at all events ought not to desert the ship if Mrs. +Mortomley wished me to remain on board. + +"But," he continued seeing Mr. Dean's face grow dark with passion at the +prospect of his will being disputed, "she does not wish me to remain. +She sees the reasonableness of your wishing Antonia to leave Homewood +immediately, and she feels it only just that you should know she +considers under my uncle's altered circumstances, it would be better for +all communication between Elm Park and Homewood to cease." + +Mr. Dean paused before he answered. Of course if he married Antonia +Halling, this was precisely the point he wished to carry, and yet there +was something in this sudden change of policy which filled him with +doubt and surprise. + +Had Rupert said in so many words that Mrs. Mortomley declared she never +wished to see the owner of Elm Park again, the position would not have +been so unintelligible; but this tone of submission and conciliation was +so unlike anything he had ever associated with Mrs. Mortomley that he +could not avoid expressing his astonishment at it. + +"I am quite at a loss," he said at length, "to understand the reasons +which could have induced Mrs. Mortomley to alter her course of conduct +and withdraw her expressed opinions with such rapidity." + +In a moment Rupert saw his error, and hastened to repair it. + +"To be quite frank," he confessed, "I put the matter rather strongly to +her, and not to weary your patience, if Mrs. Mortomley can on occasion +be stormy she can also be unselfish. She does not want to mar my +sister's prospects. She does not desire that my uncle's past kindness to +us shall ever be considered to constitute a claim upon _you_ in the +future. There is the case in a nutshell. Of course we had a much longer +conversation than that I have condensed. In a word, till my uncle has +paid his creditors and is prosperous again, you need never fear that he +or his wife will wish to renew their acquaintance with you." + +Mr. Dean shook his head. + +"Your uncle will never be prosperous again," he remarked. + +"I hope matters are not so bad as that," answered Rupert. + +"When a man," continued Mr. Dean, "lets things go so far as he has +done, he is, to all intents and purposes, commercially dead. No, Mr. +Mortomley will never hold up his head again in the business world. It is +well he has his wife's money to fall back upon, and I hope her friends +will advise him to use it prudently--" + +"Do you really say, sir, you think my uncle will not be able to pull +through?" + +"I do not exactly understand what you mean by pulling through," answered +Mr. Dean, "but if you have any expectation of seeing his creditors paid, +and he occupying his old standing, you will be very much disappointed, +that is all." + +"But, good heavens! the business is a fine business, and there is stock +and plant and book debts, and--" + +"I don't care what there is," interrupted Mr. Dean, "once an estate goes +into liquidation or bankruptcy, stock and plant and good-will and book +debts and everything else are really as valueless as old rubbish. What +is the good of machinery if it is standing still? What is the use of a +business unless it is worked, and that by somebody who understands it? +What do you suppose Homewood, and every stick of furniture in the house, +and every ounce of stock in the works would fetch under the hammer? +Pooh! don't talk to me about creditors ever being paid when once affairs +pass out of a man's own hands. There is where your uncle made his +mistake. If he had come to me for advice a couple of years ago, I could +have told him what to do." + +"What ought he to have done?" asked Rupert. + +"Why, faced his affairs, and then called a private and friendly meeting +of his creditors. If there were one or two who opposed, he should, with +the consent of those who did not oppose, have offered a sum to be rid of +them altogether. He should then, furnished with authentic data, have +said, "Now, here is a business worth so much a year. In so many years +you can be paid in full. I must have a small income out of the concern +for my services, and you can appoint an accountant to examine the books, +check the accounts, and divide the money every three months." He would +have been as much master in his own works as a man ever can be who is in +debt. All these writs and other disgraceful embarrassments would have +been avoided; but what is the use of talking of all this now? +Mortomley's Estate has been allowed to go to the dogs, and the dogs have +got it, and it will be a very clever creditor indeed who manages to +snatch even a morsel out of their mouths." + +"But, sir," pleaded Rupert, "you advised the present course to be +adopted." + +"I said there was no other course now to be adopted," amended Mr. Dean. +"Could any man in his right senses say there was another way out of the +difficulty, with men in possession and hungry creditors waiting +impatiently to sweep the place clear? It is better that none should have +money than that one should, to the exclusion of others; and this is +where your uncle will be blamed, for paying out the men who proceeded to +extremity, and not paying those who were patient and gave him time. No +doubt he will get his discharge in due course, but how will that benefit +him? He is done for commercially. He can never do any more good for +himself or those belonging to him." + +"I cannot see that exactly," answered Rupert. "If he were stripped +to-morrow of every worldly effect, he could, given ordinary health, earn +a very respectable income by means of his genius." + +"What is genius?" inquired Mr. Dean, who was by this time standing +before the fire and laying down the law in that manner which makes so +many very commonplace gentlemen considered oracles by their wives and +acquaintances. "Ah! you cannot tell me, I see; but I can tell you. +Genius is success. It is of no use declaring a man is clever or has +great talents or exceptional abilities. I say prove it. How are you to +prove it? Show me his banker's book, show me the receipts signed by his +tradesmen, show me the style in which he lives, show me these things, +and I will then believe he has possessed either the genius to make money +or the genius to keep money when made by his father before him." + +"Then you think the man who paints a picture can have no genius unless +he is able to sell it likewise?" + +"I am sure of it. That person is an idiot who, possessing a certain +amount of sense, requires as much more to make use of it. Take your +uncle's case. According to your statement he possesses genius. Well, +what has it done for him, wherein is he better at this moment than one +of his own workmen? He began life with a good business. Where is that +business now? He had a respectable connection, and what must he do but +allow himself to be drawn into a connection--pray do not suppose I mean +to speak harshly of your father, who first introduced him to it--which +seems to have been anything but respectable. Once entangled, his genius +failed to show him any way out of the net he had allowed to enclose him. +His genius cannot enable him to make good articles out of bad. He +marries a woman with money, and he tries to patch up his tottering +credit with part of her fortune. If that is what genius does for a man, +better have none say I. Now look at me," added Mr. Dean, after he had +paused to take breath, and Rupert did look at him with as strong a +feeling of repulsion as Dolly had ever felt. "No one ever accounted me +clever. My father called me plodding Billy, and said I would never do +much for myself or anybody else. What has the result been?" + +If all his future had depended upon holding his peace at that moment, +Rupert must have answered, + +"That you seem to have done remarkably well for yourself at any rate." + +"You are right," said Mr. Dean briskly, appropriating the remark as a +compliment. "And in doing well for myself, I have done well for others. +I have employed clerks and servants. I have paid good salaries. I have +never set myself up as being ashamed of my business, and my business has +not been ashamed of me. I have never tried to push out of my own rank in +life, but I have sat at banquets side by side with a lord, and many a +time I have spoken after an earl at a public meeting. I might have stood +for member of parliament, and may yet be in the House if after a year or +two I feel disposed to interest myself in politics. Contrast my position +with that of your clever uncle and say whether you do not agree with me +that the true meaning of genius is success. Will not your sister be a +vast deal better off at Elm Park with everything money can buy, than +your little Mrs. Mortomley at Homewood with the sheriff's officer in +possession? Am not I right in what I say? Have not I reason on my side?" + +"You have so much reason," answered Rupert a little sadly, "that before +long I shall come and ask your advice as to how I am to compass success. +To-night I have to take Leytonstone on my way back to Whip's Cross, a +ride all round Robin Hood's Barn, is it not?" + +"What are you going to Leytonstone for?" asked Mr. Dean. + +"I--I have to see a man about a picture he wants me to paint for him," +hesitated Rupert, for he did not wish to state the real errand on which +he was bound, and, plausible romancer though he could be on occasion, +Mr. Dean's question took him by surprise. + +"Ah!" remarked Mr. Dean, a comfortable feeling of conscious +righteousness diffusing a heightened colour over his face, already +highly coloured with the glow of virtue and thirty-four port. "You must +give up all that sort of work if you wish to be successful. I have never +opened a ledger on Sunday, and I have tried to put business out of my +mind altogether. If a man is to be successful, he must conform to all +the usages of the country in which he happens to be placed. Now we are +placed in England, and I do not know any country in which religion is +made so easy; and if you think of it, religion is a most useful +institution. It teaches the poor their proper place, and--" + +Rupert could stand no more of this. "I have lived in a house, Mr. Dean," +he answered, "where, I think, there was one genuine Christian at any +rate, and I agree with you and him, that Sunday labour for gentle or +simple is a thing to be avoided; but my work to-night is a work of +necessity, and the Bible pronounces no curse on our performing it in +such a case as that!" + +"No, no, certainly not; I suppose you are short of money. Well, good +evening; tell Mrs. Mortomley I will try to forget all she said to-day." + +"Yes, I will tell her," answered Rupert, "and thank you very much for +your kindness. Don't come out with me pray," he added,--which was an +utterly unnecessary entreaty as Mr. Dean had no intention of doing so. +"I can find my way quite well. Good-night," and he went. + +But when he had reached the middle of the hall, he paused, and drew a +long deep breath. + +"If I were in Antonia's place," he murmured, "sooner than marry that +self-sufficient cad, I would go down to the Lea and drown myself, or +else take poison." + +Rupert really felt at the minute what he said, but the worst of it was +that such minutes never, in the young man's nature, lengthened +themselves into hours. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + MR. GIBBONS' OPINION ON THE STATE OF + AFFAIRS. + + +Furnished by Rigby with his coat and hat, assisted by that personage to +put on his knickerbockers, Mr. Rupert Halling stood at the hall door +waiting for Madam Bess to be brought round. + +He had wished to mount in the stable-yard, but neither Housden nor Rigby +would hear of such a thing. + +"Well, it is coming down," ejaculated the butler; "Mr. Halling, sir, why +don't you send the mare back to her comfortable stall, and stay here for +the night." + +"I do not mind the weather," answered Rupert, which was fortunate, for +the rain was pouring in such torrents that the noise made by the mare's +hoofs was inaudible through the rushing tempest, and it was only by help +of the ostler's lanthorn that Rupert could tell where Bess stood +shivering and cringing, as the drops pelted like hail-stones upon her. + +But if the night had been ten times worse than was the case, Rupert +would still have persisted in his intention of riding round by +Leytonstone. Comfort and assurance he felt he must have, some accurate +knowledge of their actual position he was determined to obtain for +Dolly, and so he proceeded through the darkness, with the rain sweeping +in gusts up from the south-east, and expending the full force of its +fury upon horse and horseman wherever an opening in the forest glades +exposed both to its violence. + +A lonely ride, lonely and dreary, the road now winding through common +lands covered with gorse, and broom and heather, now leading through +patches of the forest, now skirting gravel and sand pits, and again +passing by skeletons of new houses run up hastily and prematurely by +speculative builders. + +And wherever any other road which could possibly lead back to Homewood +crossed that Rupert desired to pursue, a difference of opinion took +place between him and Bess, she being quite satisfied that the way they +ought to go was the way which led to her stable; Rupert, on the +contrary, being quite determined that she should carry him to +Leytonstone. + +At length the violence of the storm somewhat abated, and as he passed +the 'Eagle,' at Snaresbrook, from behind a bank of wild watery-looking +clouds the moon rose slowly and as if reluctantly, whilst the wind grew +higher and swept over the lonely country lying towards and beyond +Barkingside in blasts that almost took away the young man's breath. + +On the whole he was not sorry when he reached that great public-house +which stands where three roads meet near the pond at Leytonstone. There +he dismounted, and giving Bess in charge of a man who knew the mare and +her rider well, he walked on past the church, down the little bye-street +leading to the picturesque station, across the line, and so to a new +road intersecting an estate that had been recently cut up for building, +and where already houses were dotting the fields, where two or three +years previously there was no sign of human habitation. + +One of these houses belonged to Mr. Gibbons; he had bought it for a very +low price, and nobly indifferent to the horrible newness of its +appearance, to the nakedness of its garden, and that general misery of +aspect peculiar to a suburb while in its transition state from country +to town, he removed his household goods from Islington, where he had +previously resided, and set himself at work to make a home in the +wilderness. + +He was a man content to wait for trees to grow, and shrubs to mature, +and creepers to climb. His was the order of mind which can plant an +asparagus bed and believe the three years needful for it to come to +perfection will really pass away in regular course. He procured a +mulberry-tree and set it, and he would have done the same with a walnut +had the size of his garden justified the proceeding. + +As it was, he looked forward to eating fruit grown on his own walls and +espaliers; he directed the formation and stocking of his garden with +great contentment. He built a greenhouse; he ordered in a Virginia +creeper and a Wistaria, which he hoped eventually to see cover the front +of his house; he put up a run for his fowls; and he talked with +unconcealed pride of his "place near the forest," where his children +grew so strong and healthy, he declared that the butcher's bills +frightened him. + +To men of this sort, men who are willing to sow in the spring, and +patient enough to wait for the ripening in the autumn, England owes most +of her prosperity; but ordinary humanity may well be excused if it +shrink from the idea of settling down in a spic-and-span new house in an +unfinished neighbourhood. + +Rupert's humanity, at all events, accustomed as it was to the wealth of +foliage at Homewood, to the stately trees and bushy shrubs, and matured +gardens, and lawns covered with soft old turf, recoiled with horror +from the naked coldness of Mr. Gibbon's residence, and his teeth +chattered as the uncertain moonbeams glanced hither and thither over new +brick walls, and stuccoed pillars, and British plate-glass, and all +those other items which go to compose a British villa in the nineteenth +century. + +The wind, sweeping over the Essex marshes and across Wanstead flats, +brought with it heavy gusts of showers, and one of these pursued Rupert +as he ploughed his way over the loose stones and gravel which had been +laid upon the road. + +"It is a nice night and a nice hour for a visit," he reflected. "I +wonder what Gibbons will say to my intruding on his privacy on the +Sabbath-day." And he paused for a moment before applying his hand to the +knocker, and listened to the vocal strength of the family, which was +employed at the moment in singing psalms in that peculiar style which +the clergy assure us is especially pleasing to the Almighty. + +They, it is to be presumed, must know something about the matter. +Certainly, the performance affords pleasure to no one of God's creatures +except to the vocalists themselves. In a lull of the wind Rupert could +hear the shrill trebles of the young ladies, the cracked voice of their +mother, the gruff growling of the two sons, and the deep bass of Mr. +Gibbons himself, all engaged in singing spiritual songs in unison. + +"It will be a charity to interrupt that before they bring the ceiling +down," said the visitor, and he forthwith gave such a thundering double +knock that the music ceased as if a cannon had been fired amongst the +vocalists. + +Miss Amy's hands dropped powerless from the keyboard of the piano, and +Mr. Gibbons, forgetful of the sacred exercises in which he had been +engaged, first exclaimed, + +"Who the devil can that be?" and then proceeded to ascertain who it was +for himself. + +"I beg ten thousand pardons for intruding upon you," Rupert was +beginning, but Mr. Gibbons would listen to no apology. + +"Bless my soul!" he exclaimed, "what can have brought you out such a +night? Come in and have some supper. We were just going to have supper. +The rain came down in such buckets we could not get to church, so the +young people were having a little music. ("Music!" thought Rupert.) Come +in, there is no one here except ourselves." + +"You are very kind," Rupert answered, "but I cannot stop. I am wet, and +have had a long, miserable ride. I only want to ask you half-a-dozen +questions, and then I must get home. I left my mare at the 'Green Man,' +and she is drowned, poor old girl." + +"Well, you must take something," said Mr. Gibbons, who in trade insisted +upon his pound of flesh if he saw the slightest hope of getting it, but +who out of trade was liberal and hospitable to a commendable degree. + +"I will take nothing, thank you," Rupert replied decidedly, "except +hope, if you are able to give me that. I have been drinking +brandy-and-water at the house of my respected brother-in-law that is to +be, and I can't stand much of that sort of thing. I wonder how it is +prosperous men are able to drink what they do after dinner and never +turn a hair, whilst poor wretches who never knew what it was to have a +five-pound note between them and beggary are knocked over by a few +glasses." + +They were standing by this time in a small room covered with oil-cloth, +which Mrs. Gibbons, who was a notable manager, used for cutting out her +children's garments. She neutralised the cold of the oilcloth by +standing on a wool mat; and then, as she remarked to her friends, there +was no trouble in sweeping up the clippings, as there would have been +had she laid down a carpet. + +The apartment did not look cheerful. It was on a piece with the outside +of the house; but Rupert had a confidence in Mr. Gibbons which proved +more consolatory at the moment than any amount of luxurious furniture +could have done. + +"What is the matter? What has gone wrong now?" asked Mr. Gibbons, +ignoring the young man's irrelevant statement, which, indeed, having a +wider experience, he did not in the least believe. + +In a few sentences Rupert told him the events of the last two days. +There was no person living to whom Rupert Halling could talk so freely +as to this sharp, shrewd man of business, whom he did not like, with +whom he had not an idea in common, who he knew could, to quote an old +proverb, "lie as fast as a dog can trot," but in whose judgment he +trusted as if he had been a prophet. + +Mr. Gibbons sat beside the table, his arms crossed on it, looking at +Rupert, and Rupert sat at a little distance, and spoke right on, never +stopping till he had said his say. + +When the story was told Mr. Gibbons rose and took a few turns up and +down the room. + +"If you think of it, Forde has not made a bad move," he remarked at +last, stopping in his walk. "He can keep the matter as quiet as he +likes, he can tell his directors what he pleases, and if there is any +game left to play he can play it without much interference. I did not +think he had it in him to devise such a scheme, but perhaps it was not +he, only Kleinwort. There is nothing that little thief could not do +except be honest." + +"Will it make any difference to us?" asked Rupert, impatient of this +digression. + +"That is just what I have been wondering," answered Mr. Gibbons. "I +don't see that it can. I know nothing of Swanland personally (of course, +everybody knows his partner, Asherill, the most thoroughfaced old humbug +in the City), but in his position he dare not play into Forde's hand. It +is impossible for him to make fish of one creditor and fowl of another. +Had they chosen a creature of their own for trustee, the case would have +been different; but, upon my honour, I think the matter could not stand +better than it does. If Forde does not oppose, nobody else will, I +should imagine; and all your uncle has to do now is to get well as fast +as he can, so as to push business along and pay us all a good dividend." + +"Mr. Gibbons," said Rupert slowly, "what is liquidation?" + +"That is rather a difficult question to answer," was the reply. "I have +understood that its object is to enable a man who really means honestly +to repay his creditors to do so. You see, the new Bankruptcy Act has +been passed so recently that we have not much knowledge of its working. +In the only case of which I have had experience, it seems to go smoothly +enough. A pianoforte-maker, who had taken out some new patent got +himself into difficulties, and the creditors asked me to look into his +affairs, and see what chance there was of their ever being repaid. I did +so, and found the estate could never pay sixpence if it was compulsorily +realised, but that there was a probability of twenty shillings if the +man could be allowed to work on without the fear of writs. + +"The fellow seemed honest enough, and the creditors were inclined to be +patient--all except one fellow, who wanted to get the business into his +own hands. I soon shut his mouth; and we arranged to throw the payment +of ten shillings in the pound over three years; the rest was left to his +honour. Well, so far as I can see, every creditor will get his money in +full, and the debtor is as happy as possible, working away to pay all he +owes. He is allowed so much out of the business for his household +expenses; and, of course, I do not look him and his books up for +nothing, but still when the affair comes to be closed, it will prove +better than bankruptcy for every one concerned; and if I had been +appointed trustee to your uncle's estate, I have no doubt we might, out +of such a business as his, have arranged ten pounds a week for his +services, and paid everybody in full, with interest, in four years." + +"I wish to God you had been the trustee," said Rupert earnestly. + +"I echo the wish. I could have made it easy for your uncle and +beneficial to myself; but Forde does not like me. He can't take me in as +he takes in other people. However," added Mr. Gibbons, "it is a great +matter to have him with you, since, unless you were able to produce good +proof of what you have hinted to me, his opposition might be dangerous." + + +"Do you know," said Rupert, "Mr. Dean really frightened me to-night. He +declared my uncle was commercially dead, that he could never hold up his +head again in the City, that his estate had been allowed to go to the +dogs, and that the dogs had got it, with much more to the same effect." + +"Mr. Dean is a pompous old ass," commented Mr. Gibbons. + +"Please remember he is going to marry my sister," entreated Rupert. + +"In that at all events he shows his sense," returned Mr. Gibbons with +ready courtesy, "but what should he know about liquidation? If Mr. Dean +thought a poor wretch were shaky, he would serve him with a trading +debtors' summons at once, and if the amount were not paid, make him +bankrupt before he could know what had happened. That is how Elm Park is +maintained. Please heaven," added Mr. Gibbons piously, "a more liberal +policy shall supply the more modest requirements of Forest View." + +Which was the appropriate name of the spic-and-span new mansion, since +not a glimpse of the forest could be obtained even from its attic +windows. + +"Thank you," said Rupert, rising and holding out his hand to Mr. +Gibbons, "you have relieved my mind greatly. I do not know I ever felt +more miserable than I have done to-night. Mrs. Mortomley quite unnerved +me. She has a fancy that her husband is going to be ruined." + +"My dear fellow," was the reply, "when you have lived as long as I have +lived, and been married as many years as I have been married you will +know women are always having fancies. No better creature than my wife +ever breathed, but she has a prophetic feeling about some matter or +person every day of her life." + +"It is quite a new thing for Dolly to be among the prophets, however," +remarked Rupert almost involuntarily. + +"I beg your pardon," said Mr. Gibbons, not understanding. + +"Oh! I was speaking of Mrs. Mortomley. We always call her Dolly. Absurd, +is it not? but it is better than Dollabella." + +The connection of ideas between her name and her fortune did not seem +very plain, nevertheless, as if one suggested the other, Mr. Gibbons +said, + +"I suppose Mrs. Mortomley's money is all right." + +"What do you mean," Rupert inquired. + +"Settled on herself of course." + +"Of course," the young man answered. + +"That is well," answered Mr. Gibbons. "I wish you would stay and have +some supper. No? Then good night and keep up your spirits, all will turn +out for the best, be sure of that." + +And so they shook hands and parted. Mr. Gibbons to return to his +psalmody, and Rupert to retrace his steps to the 'Green Man,' where he +re-mounted Bess and rode back, moonlight accompanying him, drifting rain +following his horse's heels to Whip's Cross. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + STRAWS. + + +When Rupert reached Homewood he rode direct to the stables, expecting to +find a groom waiting his arrival. + +Disappointed in this expectation he hitched the mare's bridle to a hook +in the wall, flung a cloth over her, and walking round the house entered +it through the conservatory doors, which always remained hospitably +unlocked. + +As he entered the hall, Esther was crossing from the direction of the +kitchens. At sight of him she started back with a "Lor', Mr. Rupert, how +you did frighten me; who ever would have thought of seeing you!" + +"Why, who did you expect to see?" retorted Mr. Rupert, "and where, when +all that is settled, is Fisher?" + +"He left at seven, sir. He came in to do up the horses as usual, and he +said, sir, when he was going out that he should not be back again, for +that Hankins had seen you on the road to Elm Park, and you were sure not +to be back such a night as this." + +"I wish Hankins would attend to his own business and not attempt to +manage mine," muttered Rupert. "Get me a lantern, Esther. I must see to +that unfortunate mare myself." + +Esther fetched him a lantern, and one of the men in possession, who had +himself formerly been the owner of some livery stables, offered to see +to the well-being of Madam Bess, but Rupert would not hear of it. + +"You can bring the light if you will be so good," he said, for it was no +part of the policy at Homewood for the inhabitants to give themselves +airs above those sent to keep watch and ward over their chattels. + +"But I will rub her down myself; I should not care about it, only I am +so confoundedly wet," he added, with his frank pleasant laugh. + +"However, she is wetter, poor beast;" and as he spoke he passed his hand +over the mare's neck and shoulder, which attention she acknowledged by +trying to get it in her mouth. + +"Frisky still, old lady," Rupert remarked; "I should have thought your +journey to-night might have taken that out of you. Come on," and he +slipped off her bridle, and holding her mane walked beside her into the +stall, where he put on her halter. + +"It is too wet still to make your toilette out of doors," he went on; +"so you must be quiet while I rub you down here." + +And after having taken off his hat and coat and waistcoat, Rupert set +too and groomed that mare "proper," to quote the expression of Turner, +the man who held the light. + +And then he brought her a warm mash, and forked her up a comfortable +bed, which Bess at once devoted herself to pawing out behind her; having +accomplished which feat, and vaunted herself to her stable companions +about the evening's work she had performed, she lay down to sleep on the +bare pavement. + +This was her pleasant fancy, which is shared by many a dog. + +After all, there was much of a dog's nature about Bess--notably as far +as faithfulness and affection were concerned. + +Rupert walked back to the house and asked Esther to make him some +coffee. Whilst she was preparing it, he went softly to his own room, +changed his wet clothes, washed, brushed his curly hair, and otherwise +made himself presentable; then he went downstairs again and entered the +library, where he found coffee awaiting his arrival. + +"My sister is gone to bed, I suppose," he said to Esther. + +"Yes, sir, Miss Halling was very tired, and thought you would not be +back to-night." + +"And Mrs. Mortomley?" + +"She is up still, sir." + +"I must see her to-night. Will you tell her that I want to speak to her +very particularly." + +"Yes, sir." + +"What have you been crying about?" asked Rupert suddenly, but the girl +turned her head away and made no answer. + +"Has Mrs. Mortomley been scolding you?" he persisted. At this question +Esther broke down altogether. + +"It--it--is--th--first time my--mistress ever spoke cross to me, sir--," +she sobbed. + +"Well, you needn't allow that fact to vex you," Rupert answered, "for if +things go on as they have been doing, you may be very sure it will not +be the last. Now go and give her my message, and you will sleep all the +better for seeing your mistress again. Depend upon it, she is far more +sorry than you by this time." + +"What a spit-fire temper Dolly is developing," thought the young man, +looking uneasily into the blazing fire. "Though it is rather turning the +proprieties upside down, I fear I must lecture my aunt," but when Mrs. +Mortomley came into the room there was an expression on her face which +changed his intention. + +She had taken off the elaborate dress in which he last beheld her, and +exchanged it for a dressing-gown of brilliant scarlet, confined round +the waist by a belt of its own material, and showing, in every fold and +plait which hung loosely about her figure, how the plump shapeliness +which once needed no padding, no adventitious assistance from her +dressmaker, had changed to leanness and angles. + +She had unloosed her hair, she had taken away the great pads and +enormous frizettes in which her soul once found such pleasure, and the +straight locks fell over her shoulders in a manner as natural as it was +unwonted. + +"Good Heavens, Dolly," exclaimed Rupert, at sight of her, "why do you +ever wear scarlet, it makes you look like a ghost, or a corpse." + +"It is warm," she answered, "and I was very cold. You wanted to see me +and I wanted to see you; but tell me your story first." + +"I have been to Elm Park," he replied, "in order to make up friends with +that whited sepulchre, Mr. Dean; and I have succeeded. So much for that +which immediately concerns Antonia and myself. After I left Elm Park, I +rode round by Leytonstone and called upon Mr. Gibbons. He says that +Swanland must act fairly by you and all the creditors; that, in fact, so +far as that goes we need feel no uneasiness." + +"Then, where is the cause for uneasiness?" she enquired. + +"Nowhere so far as he can see," Rupert answered evasively, "but I will +tell you what I have been thinking as I came home. Of course, once this +order, whatever it may be, is taken out, we shall have no more trouble +from writs and so forth, and we need not be anxious about the business, +but we shall, I fear, want ready money. Of course there will be an +allowance to Archie, but we may not be able to get that immediately. Now +we had better look this matter in the face. How much money is there in +the house?" + +Dolly put her hand in her pocket and pulled forth her purse, turning its +contents out on the table. + +"I had the June interest from my money on Friday night," she remarked. +"For the first time I wrote to ask for it, and I was so thankful it +came, as otherwise the wages here could not have been paid yesterday." + +"Surely, Dolly, you never paid them out of your money?" + +"Not the whole amount. Lang told me he was five-and-twenty pounds short, +so I sent him to town to get the cheque changed, and gave him what he +required." + +"I must see Lang about this the first thing to-morrow," Rupert remarked. +"Dolly, give me your money and let me keep it." + +She gathered up the notes and gold and handed them to him. He counted +both over. "Why, Dolly," he said, "there is only thirty pounds left." + +She laughed, in reply, that frank guileless laugh which never rings out +save when a woman has concealed nothing--has nothing she wishes to +conceal. + +"Oh! I paid off such a number of worries yesterday. Of course, had there +been enough to get rid of even one of our distinguished visitors, I +should have done so, but as there was not, I killed such a host of +gnats. See," and going to her desk she produced a perfect packet of +receipts. "I am so thankful those little things are settled," she went +on, "if I had kept the money it would only have gone somehow--not this +'how,' I am quite certain." + +"Will nothing teach her common sense?" but even as he thought, Dolly's +eyes suddenly uplifted surprised his--her brown eyes looking out from a +very white face and a confused mass of dark hair. + +"What is the matter," she inquired; "of what are you thinking?" + +"Of you," he answered; "I wish you were more prudent." + +"I wish I were--perhaps I shall be some day," she said humbly. + +Thinking of the manner in which she had without question turned her +money over to him Rupert felt doubtful. + +"You had better keep two or three sovereigns," he observed. + +"I fancy so," she agreed. "There is always money wanting now, and you +might not be in the way." + +He looked at her across the table, and then bent down his head over the +notes and gold. + +Incredible as it may seem, there was something in the woman's +face--though she was utterly ignorant of its presence--which touched +Rupert's nature to its best and deepest depths, wringing his +heart-strings. + +If he had known what that something prefigured, if God had only for one +moment given him prescience that night, the man's memory might have +failed to hold something which shall never depart from him now till life +is extinguished with it. + +As it was he exclaimed, + +"I would to Heaven, Dolly, I had passed all my life with you and Archie. +I should in that case have been as unmercenary and unselfish as you." + +"Rather," said Dolly sententiously, "you should thank Heaven for having +placed you in one of this world's strictest schools. Otherwise you might +have been a simpleton like myself, or a clever idiot like dear Archie, +but you would never have been a man who shall make his way to success as +you intend to do." + +"How shall I make my way to success?" he inquired. + +"I do not quite like to say out my thought," she replied. "It is Sunday +night, and what I feel may seem profane when rendered into speech. +Nevertheless, Rupert, Providence does take care of men like you. I +cannot at all tell why, since I know you are no better, indeed a great +deal worse than myself. You will get on, never fear; just as if the +vision were realized, I can see you now in a fine place, with a rich +wife." + +"Stay," interrupted Rupert; "wherein this vision comes the skeleton?" + +"To my imagination," she answered, "the skeleton ceases not by day or +night; it is ever present,--it is Homewood with you and your sister, +prosperous in your plans, and my husband, who sheltered you--dying." + +"How you talk, Dolly? Archie is no worse." + +"Is he not?" she replied. "If things do not soon change here, the whole +question will be settled in the simplest manner possible. He will die, +and there will be a funeral, and people will say, + +"'Poor fellow! he held out as long as he could, and died just in the +nick of time.'" + +"I know one man, at any rate, who would say nothing of the kind," +remarked Rupert, "who would be quite certain to observe, 'Have you heard +about that fellow Mortomley? No. Well, he has taken it into his head to +die, and left me in the lurch. And after all my kindness to him too. I +declare, sir, if that man had been my brother, I could not have done +more for him--but there, that is just the return I meet with from, every +one.'" + +The imitation was so admirable, and the words so exactly similar to +those she had heard used, that Dolly could not choose but laugh. + +Then she stopped suddenly and said, "It is no laughing matter though." + +"What makes you think Archie is worse?" asked her companion. + +"He would try to get up for a short time this afternoon, and +unfortunately elected to have his chair wheeled up close to the side +window. He had not been seated there ten minutes before he saw one of +those men crossing from the kitchen-garden. He asked me who he was, and +I was obliged to tell him. He did not make any remark at the time, but +shortly afterwards said he would lie down again, and since that time he +has not dozed for a moment; he has refused to touch any nourishment, and +he scarcely answers when I speak to him. After the doctor saw him, he +asked me whether Archie had received any shock, and when I explained the +matter to him, he looked very grave and said, + +"Unless his mind can be kept easy, I will not answer for the +consequences." + +"Then he was an idiot to say anything of the sort," Rupert angrily +commented. "Never mind, Dolly, such a _contretemps_ shall not occur +again. I will warn these fellows that if I catch one of them prowling +about the grounds, I will horsewhip him, let the consequence be what it +may. Now, have you anything more to say, for it is growing late?" + +"Yes," Mrs. Mortomley answered. "I am going to send Lenore away +to-morrow; my aunt Celia will take charge of her until things are +settled here." + +"Surely this is a very sudden idea." + +"It never occurred to me until this afternoon. She has wearied and +worried me, poor little mite; but I did not know what to do with her, +and I probably never should have known what to do with her, had Mr. +Dean's effusion about the impossibility of his future wife remaining at +Homewood, not opened my eyes." + +"I understand," remarked Rupert. "You decided at once that if Homewood +were an unfit residence for Miss Halling, it was still more unfit for +Miss Mortomley, and I really think you are right. But who is to go with +the child; am I?" + +"No, Esther is to take her. I have arranged all that. They start by an +early train to-morrow, and I hope Esther may be able to get back +to-morrow night." + +"Why cannot I take Lenore?" he asked. + +"Because you ought to be here," Mrs. Mortomley replied. "Those two young +men have to finish the accounts remember, and I know little or nothing +about our affairs." + +"I had forgotten," he remarked. "Perhaps I ought not to be away. Now, +Dolly, have we finished business for to-night?" + +"No, I have something more to tell you," she answered. "After you went +out this afternoon, and while I was finishing my letter to aunt Celia, +Esther came in and said 'Mr. Turner hoped I would excuse the liberty, +but could he be allowed to speak to me?' + +"Naturally I asked who Mr. Turner was, when it transpired that one of +those creatures is so named. I did not know what he might want, and so +told her to send him in. + +"'I trust you will pardon me, ma'am,' he began, 'I have not always been +in as low a position as that I now occupy, and--' + +"I misunderstood his meaning, and told him that of course he must know +the whole affair was miserable for us, but that I was aware if a man +chose such a vocation, he must discharge the duties connected with it; +and that we did not want in any way to make the discharge of those +duties unpleasant to him. He waited quietly and respectfully till I had +quite finished, when he first thanked me for my kindness, and then said +I had mistaken his meaning. + +"'I understand' he finished, 'that Mr. Mortomley intends to go into +liquidation.' + +"I was a little surprised at this, but told him yes, Mr. Mortomley did. +There was nothing secret about the matter. + +"Then in so many words he told me he was bound to write and inform his +employer that such was the case; but he went on and then paused, while +I waited curiously, I must confess, for the man's manner and the +expression of his face perplexed me. + +"'The truth is, ma'am,' he gathered up courage to say at last, 'I have +been very well treated here, and I am very sorry to see things going +wrong in a house like this, and as I have seen a great deal of +bankruptcy and arrangements and all the rest of it, I thought I would +just make so bold as to say that if there are any things about the house +for which you have a particular fancy, the sooner you put them on one +side or ask some of your friends to take charge of them for you the +better.' + +"I declare, Rupert, I did not comprehend at first what he meant, and +when at last he explained himself more at length, I was so amazed I +could only say we did not think of leaving Homewood or selling the +furniture, that all Mr. Mortomley wanted was time, and of course things +would remain as they were and the business be continued just as usual. + +"He said he was sure he hoped all might turn out as I expected, but that +he trusted I would excuse his still recommending me to make +arrangements for the worst. + +"'And do you propose that we should do that by stealing from ourselves?' +I asked. + +"'Well, everything in the place is yours to-night, ma'am, certainly,' he +answered; 'that is, except for the amounts I and my companion are here +for, but that will not be the case for long when once the other man +comes in.' + +"'What other man?' I said. + +"'Why the trustee's man.' + +"Then I got annoyed and told him he was talking nonsense, that once the +petition was granted there would be no more 'men' at Homewood; that +since the passing of the new Bankruptcy Act everything was made +comparatively pleasant for people who wanted to act honestly. + +"'If you will excuse my saying so, ma'am,' he persisted, 'I think you +know even less about the working of the new Act than I do.' + +"At that point I lost my temper. + +"'Whether I do or not I shall not follow your advice, though I suppose +you mean it kindly. If my husband's creditors want every article in +Homewood, why, they must take even to the last chair, that is all. If I +had to turn out to-night without a shelter or a penny I would not do +what you suggest.' + +"He bowed and went away without speaking another word, and of course I +thought the subject was ended. + +"Quite by accident I went an hour ago to Lenore's room, and there to my +astonishment I found piled up on the drawers and tables all the +knick-knacks out of the drawing-room; the timepieces, the vases, the +statuettes, the little genuine silver we have not parted with, and a +whole tribe of other articles. + +"Then I rang for Esther and asked what it meant. Turner, it appeared, +after leaving me, told her I understood nothing whatever of our real +position, and that the greatest service she could do me was to send as +much as possible to some safe place of keeping without mentioning the +matter to me. + +"And acting on this, she had intended to get up about four o'clock and +pack up all she could, and take the spoil with her to Great Dassell. + +"I was so angry I said sharp things to the girl I ought not to have +said. I believe I frightened her to death, and I know I have made myself +quite ill and hysterical with the passion I got into." + +"Esther is happy enough now. She did it all for the best, and I have +told her how sorry I am to have spoken sharply; but, Rupert, Rupert, +what is the meaning of all this? There is something in liquidation we do +not understand." + +"I do not think there is," was the reply. "This man only spoke according +to his light, which seems to be a very poor one. He simply advised that +course to be taken which would be taken by ninety-nine people out of a +hundred." + +"Then if such is the case, I cannot wonder at Mr. Forde's idea that +debtors are thieves." + +"And at the same time there may be some reason for the debtors' belief +that creditors are robbers." + +"Oh!" cried Dolly, "that it were all ended." + +"It will be some day, please God," he answered. "And now, Dolly, do get +to bed; your white face will disturb my dreams. When had you anything to +eat?" + +"I don't think I have eaten anything since Thursday," she answered; +"anything, I mean, worth calling a meal." + +"You will kill yourself if you go on as you are doing," he said, but she +shook her head. + +"I am going to live to a hundred and forty, like the Countess of +Desmond, who died in consequence of a fall from a cherry-tree," Dolly +explained. "I shall be a great-great-great-grandmother, and I shall +inculcate upon the first, second, third, and fourth generations the +truth of that old proverb, 'Take care of the pence, and the pounds will +take care of themselves.'" + +"Never mind pence or pounds either, Dolly. I wish you would take care of +yourself." + +"Why?" she asked; then went on, "I wonder if on the face of the earth +besides Archie and Lenore, and Esther and Mrs. Werner, and perhaps my +Aunt Celia, there is a creature who would be really sorry if I died +to-night?" + +"Do you exclude me?" Rupert marvelled. + +"You have not lived long enough to be very sorry about anything except +your own affairs--about any trouble coming to those connected with you +unless their sorrow means loss of comfort to yourself." + +"Do you think I am not sorry for Archie and you now?" + +"I am quite sure you are," she replied bitterly. "Homewood has been a +pleasant house for you to live in; far pleasanter than Elm Park can ever +prove." + +"Dolly," he interrupted, "I do not mean to call you ungrateful, but +considering how I have been working on your behalf to-day--" + +"We need not discuss the question," she remarked as he stopped and +paused. "There is no necessity now for us to go into our accounts and +put down, 'I have done this, and Archie has done the other.' Before +this liquidation business is ended we shall have ample opportunity of +doing full justice each to the other--only--Rupert, I do not think you +would have been quite so ready to leave Homewood had your opinion and +that of the man Turner not to a certain extent coincided." + +"You wrong me greatly," he answered, "but as you say there is no +necessity for us to discuss these questions now. Do go to bed, dear; you +will knock yourself up if you neither rest nor sleep, and then who can +see to Archie?" + +"Good night," she said holding out her hand, "if I have misjudged you I +am sorry." + +He held the door open for her to pass out, and watched her as she +flitted up the staircase. + +Had she misjudged him Rupert wondered. No. Her instinct guided her +aright when reason might have failed to do so. + +"I suppose I am a rat," he thought, "and that by some curious intuition +I did guess the ship was sinking. Knowledge and calculation had, +however, nothing to do with the matter. That I can declare. Now it will +perhaps be well for me to calculate. I do not much relish hearing a list +of benefits conferred, recited at each interview." + +In his heart Rupert felt very angry. An individual must be remarkably +good looking to approve of a mirror which reflects him feature by +feature, wrinkle by wrinkle, exactly as he is! + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + MR. SWANLAND STIRS HIS TEA. + + +At a few minutes before six next morning, as Messrs. Lang and Hankins +were coming up the road, still sleepy after the long rest afforded by +the previous day, they saw Rupert Halling advancing to meet them. + +It was a miserable morning, raining a fine drizzling rain with a cold +wind blowing at the same time, but Rupert, careless as usual of the +state of the weather, walked along under the trees, his cap a little on +one side, his shooting-jacket flying open, whistling a low soft melody +confidentially to himself. + +"Good morning," he said to the men. "No one could call this a fine one. +Lang, give the keys to Hankins and walk with me a little way; I want to +speak to you." + +In a few words Mr. Halling explained his difficulty, and asked Lang to +help him out of it. + +"I can manage that easily enough," was the answer. "Luckily I did not +make up my books on Saturday as I generally do. Now, sir, remember you +know nothing except that you understood I was short twenty-five pounds +for the wages. Leave all the rest to me." + +"You are sure, Lang, you do not mind interfering in this." + +Mr. Lang laughed a short laugh, more like a snort than an evidence of +merriment. + +"Mind!" he echoed, "have I not been through the fire myself? but then I +knew what was coming and arranged accordingly. Otherwise me and my wife +and the children would not have had a bed to lie on. Mind! If the +governor or you had only told me things were coming to this pass, we +might have had a snug business at work some place else by this time, and +snapped our fingers at them all. By Heavens, to think of it!" added Mr. +Lang, stopping to look at Homewood. "I wish it had been bankruptcy +though, if it must be anything, and then we should have had some chance +of speaking out our minds about that rubbish from the General Chemical +Company." + +"I did not know you had ever been bankrupt," said Rupert. + +"Yes, sir; I had to fail; after the old gentleman's death," with a jerk +of his head he indicated that he meant Mr. Mortomley, senior. "I must +needs go as working partner into a firm who promised to do wonders for +me. When they had picked my skull clean, they wanted to pitch me over, +and they did pitch me over, thinking to have all the road to themselves, +but that was not good enough for me, not at all," added Mr. Lang +sarcastically. "I had a little money and I got a place and I set to +work, and I could have done well only there was not an article I dealt +in they did not offer at a lower price. + +"Seeing their game I lowered my prices, then they cut theirs still +lower, and so we went on till at last what we charged did not pay men's +wages, let alone material and rent and all the rest of it. + +"I being a practical man, and able to work myself, had a little the +advantage of them; and besides I knew what must come, sooner or later, +and so managed matters that when the brokers came in at last--and I was +sick to death of expecting them before they did come--there was not +enough in my house to pay the expenses of levying. + +"At the works of course everything remained as usual, for there was not +an article in them ever likely to be of use to me again. + +"My old partners and me smashed up about the same time, and they have +never done any good since. I met one of them only the other day and he +says, + +"'Lang,' he says, 'I wish we could have agreed and stayed together,' he +says, 'we might all have been independent by this time.' + +"'I wish,' I says, 'you could have acted honourable by me. It might have +been better for you in the long run. For myself, I'm pretty +comfortable, thank you. I have a good berth at Mortomley's, and needn't +lie awake half my nights thinking about the wages for Saturday.' + +"And then I asked him if he would take a glass of sherry; and though he +was once a high and mighty sort of gentleman, he thanked me and did take +it. That's the fruits of competition, sir, which some people think is so +good for trade." + +Turning the corner of the road sharply at this juncture, they came upon +a man who stood leaning over the close fence which on that side enclosed +the kitchen gardens at Homewood. + +It was early to meet a stranger in such a neighbourhood, more especially +a stranger who not being a working man had evidently no better +employment than to stand out in damp weather surveying local landmarks. + +He did not take any notice of either Rupert or his companion, continuing +to lounge against the fence and contemplate vegetable-marrows, cabbages, +and parsley. + +Rupert, however, turned twice or thrice and took a long steady survey +on each occasion. + +"Who is that man, Lang?" he inquired. + +"Never saw him before. He looks up to no good," answered Mr. Lang. + +Rupert and the manager walked a few steps further, and then began to +retrace their steps. + +As they did so, they beheld the stranger lounging slowly before them, +stopping at intervals to inspect the appearance of Homewood from +different points of view, and giving the two an opportunity to pass him +again. + +"Beg pardon," he said, when they were close upon him, "but can you +oblige me with a light?" + +He addressed Lang, but Rupert answered him by producing a box of +matches. + +"I wonder who that man can be," remarked Rupert once they were out of +earshot. + +"He _is_ up to no good," said Mr. Lang emphatically. + +"I don't think he is," agreed Rupert uneasily, but neither he nor Lang +could have defined the precise form of evil they believed the stranger +had set himself to compass. + +Had any one at Homewood kept a diary, however, which no one did with the +exception of Lang, who prided himself not a little on the neatness and +accuracy of his day-book, there would have been little in the events of +the next eight-and-forty hours worth chronicling. + +The clerks arrived as arranged, and before they had finished their work +Mr. Benning appeared to see how they were getting on and have a look +round the place, and ask a few questions of Rupert and Mrs. Mortomley, +and a great many when he got the chance of wandering about the works +unaccompanied, of Lang, Hankins, and even the rank and file of the +working men. + +He came, though Rupert was unaware of the fact, to try and find out +something, but whatever that something might be he failed to make any +discovery, excepting that the extent of Mr. Mortomley's trade had not +been exaggerated, and that about the serious and possibly dangerous +nature of his illness no rational doubt could be entertained. + +Having satisfied his mind on these points, he and the clerks returned +to town, taking as accurate a list of the liabilities as could be +prepared in the time with them. + +The same night Esther returned from Great Dassell, eloquent in praise of +Miss Gerace, who had sadly wanted her to remain at all events till the +following morning, and from whom she brought a very kind little note, +saying she would gladly take charge of Lenore until Mr. Mortomley was +better, and their difficulties of whatever nature they might be, +overcome. + +Next day Mr. Benning reappeared, accompanied by a Commissioner, to take +Mr. Mortomley's affidavit that to the best of his belief the accounts +furnished were accurate. + +This ceremony occupied about half a minute, but under the circumstances +it did prove an exhilarating performance, and to any one superstitious +about such matters, the steady downfall of rain which had commenced on +the previous Saturday, and never really left off since it began, was +suggestive of a considerable amount of bad weather in the business +journey Mortomley had been compelled to undertake. + +Late in the afternoon Miss Halling and her brother took their departure. +The young lady's luggage had all been despatched earlier in the day, and +Rupert's seemed to consist merely of a black leather bag. Nevertheless, +when Dolly went into his room she found it stripped of every article +belonging to him, even to the sketch of Lenore at five years of age +which always hung over the mantel-piece. + +The young man had made sure of the safety of his own possessions, and +Mrs. Mortomley had sense enough to commend his wisdom. + +Nevertheless there is a wisdom which hurts, and Rupert's hurt her. + +"I was right," she thought, "they are rats and the ship is sinking." And +from that hour she braced up her courage to meet whatever fate might be +coming, bravely--as she certainly would have done had she in fact stood +on the deck of a vessel foundering in the midst of a wild and cruel sea. + +Towards evening there arrived at Homewood a respectable looking sort of +individual, who announcing that he was the bearer of a note from Mr. +Swanland to Mrs. Mortomley, was asked without delay into the library. + +Mrs. Mortomley looked at him and felt relieved. Here was a middle-aged +confidential clerk, not at all like a man in possession, and she greeted +him with civility, not to say cordiality. + +"Pray sit down," she said, and Mr. Meadows seated himself with an +apparent show of deference, all the time he understood quite as well as +Mr. Bailey, there was not a chair in Homewood which did not already +belong of right, not exactly perhaps to him, but his employer. + +Then Mrs. Mortomley opened the note and read-- + + "Dear Madam, + + "The bearer, Mr. Meadows, will inform you that everything is going + on satisfactorily. He may be able, I trust, to relieve you from all + anxiety and responsibility, and I have directed him to make his + presence as little irksome as possible. To-morrow, if possible, I + hope to call at Homewood, in order to make arrangements for the + future. In the meantime, dear madam, + + "I have the honour to remain, + "Yours faithfully, + "V. S. SWANLAND. + + "To Mrs. Mortomley, + "Homewood, + "Whip's Cross." + +Mrs. Mortomley read this epistle over three times. If she had not been +enlightened on the point, it would never have occurred to her that Mr. +Meadows was to be located at Homewood. + +Having been enlightened, however, she asked, + +"Do I understand you are to remain here?" + +"It will be necessary for me to do so, madam," he answered, "until the +preliminaries are settled. In fact, it is quite possible I may have to +stay here until after the meeting of creditors." + +Mrs. Mortomley paused and reflected. She did not know he was letting her +down easily, and there was a feasibility about his statements which to +her mind stamped them with a certain authenticity. + +"Should you like tea or supper?" she asked after that mental +conference--unconscious still, poor Dolly! that there sat the +representative of the legal owner of Homewood and all it contained. +"Either can be sent to you here immediately." + +"If you have no objection ma'am," he answered, "I will go into the +kitchen out of the way--and I can take share of what is going--" + +"You are very thoughtful," said Mrs. Mortomley, "but I could not really +think of allowing such a thing. You can have your own rooms here and--" + +"I would rather go into the kitchen, ma'am," he persisted. "In these +cases I like to be out of the way and give no trouble." + +"That's extremely kind of you," said Mrs. Mortomley, and he failed, for +a reason, to hear the ring of sarcasm in her tone. "You shall be made +comfortable wherever you are, for I suppose now you are come--the men in +possession will go out." + +"Not to-night," he answered; "I have no instructions in the matter. +To-morrow, Mr. Swanland purposes to be here, and then no doubt, +everything will be gone into and arranged." + +So on Tuesday evening a third man joined the kitchen family circle at +Homewood, and added the smoke of his pipe to the smoke of those already +in possession. Wednesday came, the morning and the noon and the +afternoon passed without incident. + +Dolly had been much with her husband. Mr. Meadows took occasion to +wander into the works, and was treated at first with much respect. +Really anywhere Mr. Meadows might have passed--to those who did not know +he elected to live in the kitchen--for a small manufacturer--for a +master reduced to take a clerk's place. + +And Mr. Meadows had once occupied a very different position to that of +an accountant's bailiff, and how he ever chanced to occupy himself in +Mr. Swanland's service astonished all the people employed about +Homewood. + +He had a good, not to say superior, address. He spoke very fair English, +he wrote a capital hand, and possessed a considerable amount of +education. The routine of business was evidently familiar to him, though +he was of course utterly ignorant of every detail of the colour trade. +Still he asked a sufficient number of pertinent questions, to convince +Lang he felt determined to acquire such a smattering of knowledge as +might enable him to talk glibly on the subject hereafter to people who +did understand about the matter. + +At the end of two days Mr. Lang had taken the "new man's" measure, but +still he was puzzled to imagine what he could have been originally, and +how he ever came to adopt so low a calling. + +With Hankins the first question of interest was, whether the chemicals +were still to be had from St. Vedast Wharf. + +"You had better ask Mr. Swanland about that," was the answer. "He will +be here this evening." + +"What does he know about chemicals or colours either?" inquired Hankins. + +"Well, he is obliged to know something about everything," replied Mr. +Meadows. "He is an uncommonly clever gentleman." + +"One of those who can learn without being taught, I suppose," suggested +Hankins. + +"You have hit it pretty nearly," answered the other, in a tone which +checked any further inquiries at that moment on the part of Mr. Hankins. + +In the evening Mr. Swanland accompanied by Mr. Benning arrived, to make, +in his double capacity of trustee and manager, arrangements for carrying +on a business of which he knew almost as much as Mrs. Mortomley did of +algebra. + +Lang and Hankins and a subordinate foreman had been instructed to wait +his coming, and perhaps to this trial of patience the remark of the +latter, that "Swanland was the greatest swell for a man in possession he +had ever seen," might be ascribed. + +And indeed in one way his observation was strictly true, for whereas the +individuals sent from time to time by descendants of all the twelve sons +of Jacob, to keep watch and ward over the Mortomley goods and chattels, +only came in for a slice of the estate, Mr. Swanland came for all. + +At one swoop he had everything in his hand; without inventory or +formality of any kind, save announcing himself as manager and trustee, +he took a comprehensive grasp of Homewood and all it contained. The +horses in the stables, the chemicals and colours in the works, the bed +the sick man lay upon, the flowers in the garden, the exotics in the +greenhouse, the cat curled up before the hall fire, the dogs raving at +the length of their chains at the intruder, the pigeons in the dovecote, +and the monarch of the dunghill, all belonged to Mr. Swanland. On the +Saturday morning previously he had scarcely been aware that such a man +as Mortomley was in existence. If he had accidentally heard his name, no +memory of it remained; whilst as for Homewood, the place might have been +a station in Australia for aught he knew about it. + +And now he was master. Nominally the servant of the creditors, and +ostensibly acting for the bankrupt, he was as truly the lord of +Mortomley, the controller of his temporal destiny, as any southern +planter ever proved of that of his slaves. + +Whether the gentlemen, commercial and legal no doubt, who concocted the +Bankruptcy Act of 1869, and the other gentlemen of the Upper and Lower +Houses who made it law, ever contemplated that an utterly irresponsible +person should be placed in a responsible position it is not for me to +say, but I cannot think that any body of men out of Hanwell could have +proposed to themselves that the whole future of a bankrupt's life should +be made dependent on the choice of a trustee, since it is simple +nonsense to suppose a committee selected virtually by him and the +petitioning creditor have the slightest voice in the matter. + +And if any man in business whose affairs are going at all wrong should +happen to read these lines, which unhappily is not at all probable, +since literature at such a time chiefly assumes the form of manuscript, +let him remember liquidation means no appeal, no chance of ever having +justice done him, nor even, remote contingency,--supposing the trustee a +cool hand like Mr. Swanland,--of setting himself right with the business +world. + +He who goes into liquidation without first being sure of his trustee, +his lawyer, and his committee passes into an earthly hell, over the +portals of which are engraved the same words as those surmounting +Dante's 'Inferno.' + +He has left hope behind. God help him, for nothing save a miracle can +ever enable him to retrace the path to the spot where she sits immortal. + +At Homewood Mr. Swanland was in possession, and yet Dolly never +suspected the fact. Her first uneasiness arose from a few words uttered +by Mr. Benning. + +"I suppose the business will be carried on," he remarked, sitting in the +pleasant drawing-room with his feet stretched out towards the fire and +his hands plunged in his pockets. Dolly could not avoid noticing that +all these dreadful men did keep their hands in their pockets, as if they +had no use for them anywhere else. "We must get a manager, I suppose." + +Now was Dolly's opportunity. + +"The business cannot be carried on except by some one who understands it +thoroughly," she said. + +"I do not suppose there will be any difficulty about that," he answered. +"Competent people are always to be had if one knows how to look for +them." + +"Do you mean," she inquired, "that my husband will not have the +management of his own business. Under Mr. Swanland I mean of course," +she added. + +"Mr. Mortomley's health seems quite broken up," said Mr. Benning. "It +would be simple cruelty to ask him to attend to business. After the +meeting of creditors the best thing he can do will be to go to some +pretty seaside place in Devonshire or Cornwall, and live there +comfortable upon your money." + +For a minute the wretched woman sat silent facing her misery. Leave +Homewood! leave the business of which her husband thought so much! +Perhaps it was not true, perhaps she had not understood him. + +"Do you really think we had better go away, away altogether," she +gasped. + +"Certainly," he answered. + +At that moment, that critical moment, when she was about to ask if such +a proposal were possible what the meaning of liquidation could be, Mr. +Swanland, pale, bland, pleasant, courteous, Mr. Asherill's perfect +gentleman the accountant cat, with his claws sheathed in velvet, folded +in his muff, purring complacently, re-entered the room. + +"Well, Mrs. Mortomley," he said, "everything seems most satisfactory. +The trade appears good and the men employed respectable. Yes, thank you; +I will take a cup of tea." + +This was between the lines, and when Mrs. Mortomley handed him the tea +she noticed how he stirred it, not at all as Mr. Asherill's perfect +gentleman should have done, but holding the spoon upright. + +"It is a shame for me to be so hypercritical," she thought. "I dare say +he is a far honester man than this dreadful lawyer." + +And so she inclined her ear to his pleasant words. + +"Do not think, Mrs. Mortomley," he said, as he was leaving, with a +sudden uplifting of his Albino eyes, "that because I am placed here in a +disagreeable position I wish to make matters disagreeable to you. Pray +let me hear from you when you want anything, and be quite sure it is my +desire to act towards you as a friend in every way." + +And he put out his hand. + +Dolly took it, and thought she must by some accident have got hold of a +frog. + +Kleinwort was right. Mr. Asherill's partner had no digestion and no +heart. + +The more Mrs. Mortomley thought about Mr. Swanland the less she +believed in him, spite of his plausible manner and his pleasant +utterances, and when she crept into bed that night she caught herself +wondering whether there could be any good in a person whose hand was +like wet clay and who stirred his tea as the accountant stirred his. + +Mr. Swanland left Homewood with an instinctive knowledge that the +_quondam_ mistress of that place disliked him, which knowledge touched +the trustee in no vulnerable point. + +It made, however, some slight difference to Mrs. Mortomley in the +future, that future which, lying awake in the darkness, she vainly tried +to forecast. + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + IN THE 'TIMES.' + + +If there was trouble at Homewood on that especial Wednesday, it had not +been a day of unmixed pleasure to two people in the city. + +His worst enemy might have pitied Mr. Forde when on opening the 'Times,' +lying over the back of the official chair at St. Vedast Wharf, the first +sentence which met his eye was, + +"Before Mr. Commissioner Blank." "_Re_ Archibald Mortomley," and all the +rest of it. + +The paragraph was not altogether an inch long, but it proved enough to +make Mr. Forde turn as faint and sick as many a man brave enough and +honest enough had turned before in that very office. + +In imagination he saw looming in the distance ruin and beggary. He heard +the gates of St. Vedast Wharf close behind him for the last time. Things +were worse with him, much worse than they had been when Mortomley's +nephew came to say his uncle meant to go into liquidation, and Mr. Forde +felt impelled once again to take his hat. + +"I wish I had left then," he muttered. + +If a house be tottering, the removal of even a single stone may hasten +the impending catastrophe. As Mr. Forde believed, Mortomley was a most +important stone in the edifice of his own safety, and yet even at that +juncture it never occurred to him it was his own mad sledge-hammer blows +had driven it so completely out of place that no one could ever hope to +make it available at St. Vedast Wharf again. + +Really the manager was to be pitied. If there chanced to be one thing +more than another on which he piqued himself, it was his genius for +diplomacy, and, as Mr. Gibbons said, he had done a neat thing when he +employed his own solicitor to do Mortomley's work. + +If everything could have been prevailed upon to work as he intended it +should, Mr. Forde would have been comparatively at ease; but edged tools +have sometimes a knack of cutting those who play with them, and already +one of Mr. Forde's tools had inflicted upon him a nasty wound. + +"I will go round to Basinghall Street," he said almost aloud, as though +some balm of Gilead might be extracted even from Salisbury House, and he +went round to find Mr. Swanland out, Mr. Asherill urbane and unctuous as +ever. + +Deriving little consolation from his unsatisfactory interview with the +latter gentleman, he walked on to Kleinwort's office, only to find him +absent also, and the time of his return uncertain. + +Then, because he was able to think of no other person to whom he could +speak on the subject, he turned into Werner's counting-house. + +As usual, Mr. Werner was within and visible. + +"Have you seen the 'Times'?" asked Mr. Forde, after the first greetings +were exchanged. + +"Yes," was the short reply. + +"Were you not surprised?" + +"I do not know. I suppose I was. I thought you would have expressed your +wishes more clearly." + +"Clearly!" No italics and no number of interjections could convey an +idea of the tone in which Mr. Forde uttered this word. "Why, sir, I told +Benning as plainly as I could speak I wanted the matter kept out of the +papers, and if that was not sufficiently explicit, I repeated the same +thing to Swanland, and now just see the mess they have got me into." + +"What do your directors say?" + +"I have not seen any of them yet. What I shall say to them I cannot +imagine." + +And Mr. Forde beat a dismal tattoo on the corner of the desk as he +spoke. + +Then ensued a pause, during which Werner looked out at the weather, +which was wet and cheerless, and Mr. Forde looked at him. + +"What do you think?" asked the manager at length. + +"I do not think. What is the good of thinking? If you had not been so +decided on having your own way and insisting on Benning taking out the +order, this need never have happened; but you always imagine yourself +cleverer than anybody else, and so overshot the mark. Have you been to +Swanland?" + +"Yes, he was out. I saw Asherill, however, who repudiated all knowledge +of Mortomley and his affairs and Swanland and his doings. He blessed me +and gave me a tract, and said he was going to speak at a meeting this +evening on behalf of a mission to some hopeful heathens in Africa. He +presented me with tickets and asked me to give them to any friend if I +could not make use of them myself. Here they are." + +Henry Werner took the tickets and tore them into small atoms, flinging +these contemptuously into his waste basket. + +"If he would speak on behalf of a mission to the heathens of the City of +London, I could furnish him with some anecdotes calculated to adorn his +address," he remarked. "But to return to Mortomley. In your place I +should meet the difficulty boldly. There is nothing disgraceful about +Mortomley's debt to you; nothing disgraceful about the man, spite of all +the mud with which you have been pleased to bespatter him. His worst +crime is illness, and that illness leaves you at liberty to make good +any story you like to tell. If it were Kleinwort now--" + +"Kleinwort would never serve me as Mortomley has done," interrupted Mr. +Forde. + +"It is very hard to tell what any man would do till he is tried," said +Mr. Werner sententiously. + +"_You_ would not fail me. _You_ would always consider me. _You_ would +remember I have a wife and family depending upon me," observed Mr. Forde +entreatingly. + +"If I were in a corner myself, I am quite certain I should do nothing of +the kind," was the frank reply. "My dear fellow bring the case home. Do +_you_ never fail other people? Do _you_ always consider me for instance? +Have _you_ given throughout the whole of this affair of Mortomley's one +thought to his wife or child? No you have not, and no man in business +does. You would pitch Kleinwort and me and a score more over to-morrow +if you could do so safely, and we would pitch you over if any +extraordinary temptation came in our way. You do not believe in us, and +we do not believe in you; but we do believe we have amongst us got into +such a cursed muddle we cannot afford to throw anybody overboard who +might swim to land and tell the story of our voyage. That is the state +of the case, my friend. It is not a cheerful view of the position, but +it is the true one." + +"I have no doubt you would throw anybody overboard and jeer him while he +was drowning," said Mr. Forde bitterly. "Now let Kleinwort be what he +may, he has a heart. He is not like you, Werner." + +"Well that is a comfort at any rate," remarked Mr. Werner. "I do not +think I should care to be like Kleinwort." + +Mr. Forde did not reply. He always got the worst of the game when he +engaged in a verbal duel with Mr. Werner, so he remained leaning against +the corner of the desk for a minute or so in silence thinking how +extremely disagreeable Werner was and how hardly every one dealt with +him. + +At length he roused himself and said, "I suppose there is no good in my +staying here any longer." + +"You are quite welcome to stay" was the reply; "but I agree with you +that there is no good purpose to be served by your doing so." + +"What a Job's comforter you are," sighed poor Mr. Forde. + +"Job came all right in the end, if you remember," Mr. Werner replied. +"If you only fare ultimately half so well as he did you will not have +much cause to complain." + +"Yes, to-morrow must come, no matter how much sorrow to-day holds," +answered Mr. Forde unconsciously paraphrasing one of Kleinwort's +utterances. "If you see any of my people, Werner, do try to make things +a little pleasant for me." + +"You had better explain what you propose telling them, so that I may +know the statement I am expected to back up," said Mr. Werner. "These +things ought to be arranged beforehand." + +But Mr. Forde had already banged the door and departed, so that the last +utterance failed to reach his ears. + +When Mr. Werner went out during the afternoon he met Mr. Kleinwort. + +"Have not you some shares in that Spanish mine Green promoted," he +inquired. + +The German nodded. + +"Well, I heard this morning from good authority that the mine will never +pay, that the whole thing is a swindle, and was a swindle from the +beginning." + +"Ah! what a world is this," said Kleinwort with a pious and resigned +expression of countenance. + +"I do not think it is too late for you to sell," suggested Mr. Werner. + +The German shrugged his shoulders. + +"It matters not to me," he replied. + +"I thought you said you had shares," remarked his companion. + +"So I have; but they are in pledge don't you call it. That dear Forde +wanted them and he has got them. How nice it is when a man has got what +he wants." + +"Kleinwort, I am afraid you are a great rogue," observed Mr. Werner +severely. + +"Ditto to you half countryman of mine own," answered the other raising +his hat with a gesture of mock deference. "Have you been to St. Vedast +to-day? No. Neither have I. Seemed best, I thought, to leave poor Forde +to digest that neat little paragraph in the 'Times' without +disturbance!" + +"It will be a bad thing for him, I am afraid," remarked Werner. + +"It will be a bad thing for me, which is matter of much more interest to +Bertram Kleinwort," was the answer. "That accursed Benning and +thrice-accursed partner of the Christian wolf,--how I wish they were +both hanging on a gibbet higher than Haman's, and that I was big man +enough to pull their legs!" + +Having giving utterance to which Christian desire Mr. Kleinwort +departed, leaving even Werner astonished at the tone of deadly hatred he +concentrated in one sentence. + +"I believe you would do it too, you little devil," he decided. "Well, I +will go and tell Forde about the mine, and give him a chance of +selling." + +But Mr. Forde was not at the wharf. + +"He had received a letter by the second post," explained one of the +clerks, "which obliged him to start at once for Newcastle." + +Mr. Werner smiled. He understood the cause of that sudden journey, but +he only said, "I will look round again on Friday." + +But when Friday came, it was useless for him to do so. The shares in +that especial mine were a drug in the market. Every one was hastening to +sell, and no man could be found to buy. + +Meantime, however, fortune, which never proves more utterly capricious +than when we believe ourselves down for life in her black books, had +relented and done Mr. Forde a gracious turn. + +On the occasion of that meeting in behalf of the heathen, to which Mr. +Forde referred so contemptuously, Samuel Witney, Esq., took the chair, +and after various missionaries and others interested in the good work +had addressed the assemblage, and votes of thanks had been returned to +everybody for something, proposed to his dear brother in religion that, +as they must return to their respective homes from the Waterloo Station, +they should walk thither together. + +Perfectly well Mr. Asherill understood the reason of this suggestion, +and for one moment he hesitated whether he should not charter a cab to +the City and tell Mr. Witney the literal truth, namely, that he +generally travelled to and from his snug villa residence _viâ_ the North +London Railway. + +But immediately he decided to face the difficulty. Sooner or later his +fellow Christian was certain to question him about Mortomley, and the +sooner he did so, the less difficulty there might be in answering his +inquiries. + +"I was very much surprised to see in the 'Times' this morning that Mr. +Mortomley had gone into liquidation," began Mr. Witney. + +"Sad affair, is it not?" said Mr. Asherill, feeling his way. + +"It is sad for us. We are creditors, as of course you are aware." + +"I have been given to understand as much, but I am glad to know that you +are not creditors for any large amount, that is, I mean for anything +serious. A few thousands is of course a bagatelle, to a great concern +like the General Chemical Company." + +"Humph!" ejaculated Mr. Witney. He did not care to say the loss if total +would mean half dividend or none at all, and yet still he was too much +exercised in spirit to be able to remain silent under the grievance. +"One does not like to lose even a comparatively small sum," he observed +at length. + +"That is quite true," agreed Mr. Asherill, casting about in his own +mind to find the real reason why Forde, Werner, and Kleinwort had all +been so desirous to keep Mortomley on his feet. + +According to Mr. Witney, the state of whose feelings Mr. Asherill read +like a book, the colour-maker did not owe the Company such an amount as +to warrant the fuss made over and the anxiety exhibited about his +affairs. + +"What is your opinion on the subject of dividend?" asked Mr. Witney +after a pause. + +"Well, I can scarcely be said to have an opinion," was the reply. "I +have nothing to do with the matter. My young partner has it all in his +own hands. I did not wish our firm to undertake the management of the +affair." + +"Why?" inquired Mr. Witney. + +"I really could scarcely tell you why," answered Mr. Asherill, "except +that I have my whims and fancies, as some people would call them. +Mortomley's father was a friend of mine, and although a member of the +Church of England, a thorough Christian. He was, I assure you," +continued Mr. Asherill, as his companion shook his head in a manner +which might either have expressed disbelief or a desire to imply that +wonders would never cease. "He gave me a helping hand once, when help +meant more than it usually does" ('more than you would have given your +brother,' added Mr. Asherill mentally) "and I did not like the notion of +winding up the son. One never knows how sadly these things may end, and +of course a trustee ought to have no personal feeling towards a +bankrupt. He ought to be as impartial as justice herself. Mr. Swanland, +however, has got the management of the estate, which from what I hear is +a good estate, a very good estate indeed," finished Mr. Asherill +unctuously, as though he were saying grace before partaking of a +plenteous and well-served dinner. + +"You think there will be a good dividend then?" suggested Mr. Witney. + +"Well, I did hear," was the cautious answer, "some talk of twenty +shillings in the pound, but that I do not credit. The expenses, go to +work as we may, must be considerable, and then things may not fetch the +prices expected; and, further, poor Mortomley is ill, and that is always +a drawback; but if you get fifteen shillings, come now, you would not +grumble then?" + +"No, certainly; but we should like to see twenty," said Mr. Witney. "I +will call round and have a talk with Mr. Swanland on the subject." + +"Do," said Mr. Asherill cordially. "He will be able to tell you all +about it, much better than I," and the two men having by this time +arrived at Waterloo, they shook hands and blessed one another and +proceeded to their respective trains, Mr. Asherill thinking as he went, +"You do not know any more than I why your manager wanted this affair +kept quiet, but you will know to your cost some day, or I am greatly +mistaken." + +After all, it is never the straws which know so well the way the wind is +blowing as those who see them swept along with the gale. + +"I give the Chemical Company another year," went on Mr. Asherill, +mentally continuing the subject. "That I fancy will be about long +enough for them." + +And then he fell to considering whether he should like to have the +winding up of the St. Vedast Wharf estate, and decided he should not, +for the simple reason that he did not think there would be much estate +left to wind up. + +There is often a touching directness about the secret motives of +professing Christians. Perhaps this may be the reason why carnal and +unconverted creatures love so little those who love themselves and +worldly prosperity so much. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + MR. SWANLAND WISHES TO BE INFORMED. + + +Meantime at Homewood a nice little storm was coming up against the wind. + +Concerning misfortune, Kleinwort's theory may be accepted as correct. It +is rarely the expected rain-fall, rarely the anticipated storm, which +beats down the hopes of a man's life, destroys all the fair prospect of +his future. In nine cases out of ten the tempest creeps out of some +totally unlooked-for quarter; and behold ere one can quite understand +that the morning sunshine is overcast, or the mid-day glory clouded, the +heavens are opened, and out of them proceed lightnings and thunder and +blinding tempests which blast every bud and flower and fruit a man has +looked on with hope and pride, before he can realise the nature of the +misfortune that has fallen upon him. + +Now something of this kind occurred at Homewood, and it assumed the +shape first of a most polite note from Mr. Swanland, asking Mrs. +Mortomley if she could oblige him by calling at his office at eleven +o'clock on the next morning, Saturday, as he was unable to go to +Homewood, and there were two or three matters about which it was +necessary for him to see her, and next of the following: + + "St. Swithin's Lane, E.C. + "September 29th, 187--. + + "Mrs. Mortomley, + "Homewood. + + "Madam, + + "A Mr. Benning has been with us to make some inquiries concerning + the moneys bequeathed to you by Miss Dollabella Chippendale, of + which our Mr. Daniells is trustee. In Mr. Daniells' absence we have + deferred answering these inquiries, but we think it might be + advisable for you to request your solicitor to call upon us with + reference to this matter, Mr. Benning, as we understand, being only + engaged about some liquidation affair in which Mr. Mortomley is + concerned. + + "Your obedient Servants, + "HERSON, DANIELLS, AND CO." + +Dolly sat and pondered over these letters as she had sat and pondered +over the letter signed John Jones, mentioned in a very early chapter. + +That epistle she had regarded in the light of a gratuitous piece of +impertinence emanating either from Mr. Kleinwort or Mr. Forde, and under +this impression she worded the advertisement which so annoyed Mr. +Asherill; but when the last post of the next day brought those two +missives, she began to wonder whether John Jones might not really have +been some humble friend gifted with greater prescience than she +possessed, who, unknowing of the remnant of her quarter's income she +still possessed, might imagine her so short of money that even two +pounds four shillings might prove acceptable. + +Moved by some incomprehensible impulse, she, the most careless of +created beings, searched for that letter and locked it away in her +dressing-case. + +There was no Rupert to talk to now. Twice since his departure he had +appeared at Homewood, the first time to say Antonia was busy purchasing +her trousseau, and that old Dean had acted most generously in the matter +of money, on the next occasion to ask Dolly not to expect to see him +before Monday, as he was obliged to go down to Bath; the real truth +being Rupert had thought the Homewood matter over, and decided that +until Antonia had become Mrs. Dean, the less he saw of that place the +better. + +On the occasion of his first visit, Turner, the man already mentioned as +having incited Esther to remove those vases and statuettes which seemed +to them both desirable possessions, stopped him on his way to the gate. + +"You and Mr. Lang, sir, saw a man the other morning looking over the +fence, I believe?" + +Rupert nodded assent. + +"And you asked Lang who he was, and Lang could not tell you?" + +"Yes," agreed Mr. Halling. + +"Well, I know, sir; he's a detective, and there are more of them about." + +Rupert stepped back as if he had received a blow, he stepped back so far +he was brought up by a tree of _arbor vitć_, out of which he emerged +dripping with wet. + +"Detectives?" he repeated, taking off his hat and smoothing it +mechanically. "What can they want here?" + +"If I am not greatly out in my calculation, sir, there are those in this +business who would cheerfully give a hundred pounds to catch Mr. +Mortomley tripping, or to be able to prove he ever did trip." + +"Mr. Mortomley may safely defy them then," said Rupert, but he did not +turn back and warn Dolly there were spies round and about watching the +old familiar place. + +Mr. Turner stood contemplating his retreating figure. + +"A fine young man," he thought, "but cut out and made up after the +world's pattern. And so he won't tell her. Well, then, I will; for a +lady like Mrs. Mortomley ought not to be kept in the dark. And her +husband too ill to look after aught for himself," added Mr. Turner, who +in truth was with the Mortomleys heart and soul, so far as the +exigencies of his delightful profession allowed him to have sympathy for +any one beyond the "one" who had put him in possession. + +So he told Esther, who told her mistress, who was naturally incredulous +of, and indignant at, Turner's statement. + +"Detectives!" she repeated scornfully. "Does the man suppose we are +thieves or murderers?" + +"No, ma'am, but I--I do really think he is sorry for you--and--the +master." + +Esther was brushing Mrs. Mortomley's hair, as she uttered this sentence +slowly, and with considerable hesitation. + +In the glass she could see reflected her mistress's downcast face--the +sudden compression of her lips--the quiver about her mouth. + +They had sunk very low Dolly felt, when even the bailiffs pitied them! + +That was her first thought. Her next was, that in his way Turner was +trying to do his best for her and her husband, but she could not trust +herself to speak upon the subject, so she refrained from answering, and +the brushing proceeded in silence. + +Next morning Esther detected some white hairs amongst the brown. Of late +this had been a matter of no rare occurrence. + +"What does it signify?" Mrs. Mortomley exclaimed. "If these men stay +here much longer my hair will be white as snow. Oh! I wish!--I wish--I +wish!" she added passionately, "we had a house to ourselves once again. +If it were the humblest cottage in England in which I could shut the +door and feel we were alone, I should thank God for his mercy--" + +"It cannot be for long, ma'am, Turner says--" Esther was beginning, +when Mrs. Mortomley faced round upon her. + +"If you mention that man's name again, I will give you notice." + +Which certainly most servants so situated would have taken without +further ceremony on the spot. + +If Mrs. Mortomley had possessed the wisdom of the serpent, she would not +have arrayed herself in the gorgeous attire she selected as especially +suitable for a visit to Mr. Swanland's offices; but Dolly could not yet +realize the fact that her husband was bankrupt, that a trustee ruled at +Homewood, that the last man in possession was his lord-lieutenant, that +the men were no longer Mortomley's men, but belonged to Mr. Swanland, as +did the works and everything else, themselves scarcely excepted, about +the place. + +So, arrayed like the Queen of Sheba, Dolly started away on foot to catch +the train from Leytonstone which should enable her to reach Mr. +Swanland's office by eleven. + +There were horses in the stable, but Mrs. Mortomley forbade them being +harnessed for her benefit. + +"It was a fine morning and she preferred walking," she said; though Mr. +Meadows with some effusion of manner assured her, if she wished, he +would have the carriage brought round directly, and he continued to +press his offer till she cut him short by saying, + +"As it seems I can no longer order my carriage for myself, I shall walk. +You have taken very good care, Mr. Meadows, during the course of the +last two days to let me know I am not mistress here or my husband +master. Kindly stand aside and let me pass. I have to see your employer +at eleven o'clock." + +And she opened the gate for herself, and walked out into the road as if +not Homewood alone but all the stately homes of England had belonged to +her of right; walked out to hear the worst which could befall. + +It was a splendid morning. After raining for a whole week with scarcely +a moment's intermission, the weather that day seemed to have made up +its mind to turn over a new leaf and to be bright for evermore. + +Athwart all the forest glades sunbeams fell in golden bars on the vivid +turf; the trees were still in full leaf, the songs of birds sounded in +Dolly's ears; all nature seemed careless and happy and prodigal; and as +the woman upon whom such trouble had fallen so suddenly looked first on +this side and on that, she thanked God involuntarily for the beauty of +this beautiful world, and then exclaimed almost aloud, + +"And there _must_ be some way into the sunshine for us, if I could only +see which turning to take." + +There was, my dear, and you had taken the turning. All unconsciously +your feet were already treading a path leading into the +sunshine--through dreary wastes it is true--along places stony and +thorny; across wilds hard to traverse, but still a path conducting to +the sunshine, out of the blind, maddening, perplexing darkness, into +light. + +It has always been a puzzle to me why the newest offices in London are +those which seem most frequently under the hand of the house decorator. + +If you happen to have an account at an old banking establishment, to +have entrusted your affairs to the management of an old-fashioned +solicitor, or to be acquainted with a broker who is one of a firm known +in the City for years, you may call upon each and all of them, season +after season, without fearing to encounter that villainous smell of +paint which meet those who do business with new people at every turn, on +every landing. + +As for Salisbury House, painters, white-washers, paper-hangers, and +varnishers pervaded it with a perpetual presence. + +A man given to punning once suggested the reason for this was--the +dreadful cases taken in there--but Mr. Asherill, to whom the remark was +made, would not see the intended joke, and observed it might be well for +some people, who did not possess a saving faith, if men were able to +perform a similar cleansing operation on their souls. + +On the occasion of Mrs. Mortomley's first visit to Salisbury House, Mr. +Swanland's own office was undergoing a course of purification, and he +was therefore compelled to receive her in the room where a week +previously Messrs. Kleinwort and Werner had been admitted to an audience +with the senior partner. + +In acknowledgment of his own comparatively subordinate standing in the +firm, Mr. Swanland's papers were ranged upon a table covered with green +baize, drawn close beside the window, while Mr. Asherill maintained his +position at the ponderous mass of mahogany and morocco leather which +occupied the centre of the room. + +When Mrs. Mortomley entered, Mr. Asherill rose, and, with a profound bow +and studied courtesy of manner, handed her a chair. + +Mr. Swanland availed himself of this opportunity of feebly indicating +his senior as "my partner;" then, while Mr. Benning who was present +advanced to shake hands, Mr. Asherill resumed his seat and his +occupation with an air which said plainly to all who cared to +understand, + +"Now don't interrupt me or trouble me about your trumpery business. Here +am I with the whole future of mercantile London on my shoulders, and it +is absurd to expect me to give the smallest attention to this +ridiculously poor affair." + +At intervals he touched his office bell, and sent the clerk who appeared +in answer, to Mr. So-and-So, to know about such and such an affair; or +had a book big enough to have contained lengthy biographies of all the +Lord Mayors of London from the time of Fitz Alwyn downwards brought in, +from which he made a feint of extracting some useful information; but +really all the time he was watching Mrs. Mortomley. + +Without appearing to do so, he took her in from the enormous rolls and +plaits on the very summit of which her bonnet was perched to the +high-heeled boots, the tops of which reached high above her ankles. +There was not a flower or ruche or frill or furbelow or bow about her +dress of which he did not make a mental inventory. He noted the lace on +her mantle, and the fit and colour of her gloves; and while he thus +noticed her face, dress, manner, and tried to piece a consistent whole +out of the woman's appearance, her position, and Kleinwort's account of +her, the talk went on smoothly and easily enough at first. + +"It will be necessary for us, Mrs. Mortomley, to know something about +your own money in the event of any questions being asked at the meeting +of creditors," began Mr. Swanland, after he had asked after Mr. +Mortomley and apologised for bringing her to town. "It was left to you +by a relation, I believe?" + +"No," Dolly explained, "not a relation exactly. By my godmother, Miss +Chippendale." + +"Before or after your marriage?" + +"You need not trouble Mrs. Mortomley with all those questions," Mr. +Benning here interrupted. "I have been to Doctors' Commons and +ascertained all the particulars." + +Dolly turned and looked at him as he said this; turned sharply and +suddenly, and then for the first time Mr. Asherill decided she was not +a person whom it might be quite safe to offend. + +Already he saw that there was secret war between her and Mr. Benning; +already he understood she scented danger afar off, and was standing at +bay waiting for its coming. + +"I am sure," said Mr. Swanland in his smoothest tone, with his blandest +and falsest smile, "I do not want to trouble Mrs. Mortomley +unnecessarily about anything; but it is for the interest of all +concerned that we should know at first precisely how we are placed. How +we are placed," repeated Mr. Swanland with some self-satisfaction at the +neatness of his sentence. + +"That is just what I want to know," agreed Dolly, "though it seems to me +we could scarcely be in a more miserable position than is the case at +present." + +At this juncture Mr. Asherill cleared his throat vehemently. Mr. Benning +seated with his legs stretched out crossed one foot over the other and +contemplated the polish on his boots while Mr. Swanland remarked, +"Ladies are always so hasty. They jump at conclusions so rapidly, and I +must say, if you will forgive me, Mrs. Mortomley, frequently so +erroneously." + +"You mean, I suppose, that we may find ourselves in a more miserable +position still?" said Dolly flushing a little. "If that be your meaning, +let me know at once whether this fresh trouble refers to my money." + +"I assure you--" began Mr. Swanland. + +But she interrupted him by a quick impatient gesture. + +"Why did you ask me to come here this morning? What is it you wish to be +told that Mr. Benning cannot tell you better than I?" + +Mr. Asherill laid down his pen and began to turn over the leaves of his +diary softly and with a great show of interest. Mr. Benning lifted his +eyes from his boots to stare at Mrs. Mortomley, while Mr. Swanland +looking across at him asked, + +"Was there anything to that effect in the will?" + +"No. If you had given me five minutes' interview, as I asked, I could +have told you there was not." + +"And Herson?" + +"Knows nothing, or will know nothing, except the fact that money has +been withdrawn for business purposes, and that Daniells refused to allow +any more to be used, which all tallies with Forde's statements." + +"Mrs. Mortomley," asked Mr. Swanland, "you can save us a vast amount of +trouble if you will kindly inform us whether there has been any +settlement made upon you of this money." + +"I do not know," she answered. "I suppose so; however, the money is +mine, it was left to me." + +"Of course, of course, we understand all that," said Mr. Swanland. "What +I want you to tell me is whether Mr. Mortomley ever made any settlement +of this money on you." + +"No. It did not come from any of his relations or friends; it was +bequeathed to me as I have already stated by--" + +"She does not know," suggested Mr. Swanland, speaking across Dolly to +Mr. Benning. + +"No; but I think we may draw our own conclusions. Was the subject of +settlements ever discussed between you and your husband?" he inquired, +turning to Mrs. Mortomley. + +"No; certainly not. We never had separate purses, we never could have. +What was his was mine, and what is mine shall of course always be his." + +"We do not mean to suggest that you and Mr. Mortomley ever were or ever +will be on other than the most affectionate terms," retorted Mr. Benning +with a slight sneer. + +"Fortunately the domestic happiness or unhappiness of our clients is not +a matter we are called upon to investigate," said Mr. Swanland with a +light laugh. "Eh, Asherill?" + +Mr. Asherill looked up with an expression of face which implied he had +come up from the profoundest depths of thought to hearken to his +partner's babble. + +"No, no, no," he agreed hastily. "Matrimony is an account out of which +it would take wiser heads than ours to make a fair balance-sheet," and +he was resuming his occupation, when Mrs. Mortomley addressed him. + +"Sir," she said, his white hair and large head inspiring her with a +momentary confidence in his integrity and straightforwardness, "you look +like a gentleman who might have daughters of your own, daughters as old +as I am, and who may yet be--though I earnestly hope not--in as great +difficulty and perplexity as I am this day. Will you tell me what is the +meaning of all this--why do they ask so many questions about my money?" + +"I do not know anything about the matter, my dear," he answered, in his +most patriarchal manner. "I have not the faintest idea what it is my +young partner has in his mind, but you may be quite certain it is +nothing except what will turn out for your good eventually. You may +trust him implicitly." + +Dolly surveyed the trio while Mr. Asherill was speaking, and when he +finished she felt she had never seen at one time three men together +before less calculated to inspire confidence. + +"The days of highwaymen are over," she said when describing the +interview subsequently to Mrs. Werner, "but I felt instinctively I had +got amongst banditti." + +"Supposing," she said, turning to Mr. Swanland, "that there were no +settlements, how will it affect me?" + +"How will it affect Mrs. Mortomley, Benning?" inquired Mr. Swanland +innocently. + +"What is the use of asking such a question of me?" exclaimed Mr. Benning +irritably. "You know as well as I that in such a case what is hers is +her husband's, and--" + +"Go on please," said Dolly, as he paused. + +"And what is your husband's, I was going to say," he proceeded, spite of +Mr. Swanland's look of entreaty, "is his creditors'." + +"Then you mean to have my money?" she said, "you mean to take the only +thing left to us?" + +"There may be a settlement you know," observed Mr. Swanland in a +soothing voice. + +"There is not, I feel there is not," she interrupted. + +"And in any case," continued Mr. Swanland, "it is not we who take, but +the law; it is not we who have, but the creditors. We must hope for the +best, however, Mrs. Mortomley. No one will be more truly rejoiced than I +to know this money is secured to you." + +She seemed as if she had not heard his sentence, but sat for a minute +like one stunned. Then she said bitterly, + +"A 'Well Wisher' sent me two pounds four the other day, and I forwarded +the amount to the London Hospital. It seems to me I may yet have reason +to repent of my haste at my leisure." + +In an airy manner Mr. Swanland, apparently treating her words as a mere +jest, remarked, "I am not quite sure, Mrs. Mortomley, that in my +capacity as trustee the two pounds four you mention ought not to have +been handed over to me." + +If his words conveyed any meaning to her she made no sign of +understanding it. After sitting for a few moments lost in thought she +rose, and saying "I shall go at once to a solicitor," inclined her head +to the accountants and Mr. Benning, and left the office, before Mr. +Asherill could open the door for her to pass out. + +That same evening Mr. Meadows received a note from his employer +containing various directions and instructions. After the signature came +a postscript, "How does it happen _Mrs._ Mortomley's letters have not +been forwarded to me? See to this _at once_, and never let me have to +complain of such negligence again." + +For with all the flocks and herds of the Mortomley +Estate held in his hand, Mr. Swanland's +soul sickened, because of that two pounds four +shillings he could never now hope to liquidate. + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + MRS. MORTOMLEY'S FORTUNE. + + +Mr. Leigh, Mortomley's solicitor, was all that in an early chapter of +this story Mr. Asherill stated him to be, and perhaps a little more. + +He was honest and honourable, a kind father, a devoted husband, an +affectionate son, and a staunch friend, but he was human, and being +human his reception of Mrs. Mortomley proved cool and formal. + +No one knew more of Mortomley's estate than he--not even Mortomley +himself. His father had managed the legal affairs of Mortomley's father, +and he personally had been _au fait_ with every in and out of the son's +hopes and disappointments, successes and failures, gains and losses, +liabilities and expectations, until the death of Richard Halling. + +At that time, some outspoken advice was given on the one side, which +caused a certain amount of vexation on the other; and although Mr. Leigh +had never ceased to act as the colour-maker's solicitor, still from the +day that grievous connection--so madly continued with the General +Chemical Company began--he knew so little of the actual position of his +former friend, that when Mortomley walked into his office, out of which +he was subsequently dragged by a clerk from St. Vedast Wharf, and stated +it was absolutely necessary for him to lay the state of his affairs +before his creditors, the lawyer stared at him aghast. + +Then after that patched up truce with fate, the terms of which were +evolved out of the workings of Mr. Forde's ingenuity, things went on as +before, and he had no more idea his client was on the verge of +bankruptcy, until he saw that paragraph previously mentioned in the +'Times,' than he had of going into the 'Gazette' himself. + +Well might Mr. Leigh consider he had been hardly done by. At least he +was an honest man, and yet Mr. Mortomley evidently preferred that a +black sheep should manage his affairs. + +Faithfully, through every chance and change of life, he had dealt by his +client; and now when he really might have made some amount of money +worth having out of his estate, that client pitched him over. + +And finally, as if all these injuries were not enough, here was Mrs. +Mortomley herself, a woman he had never taken to or understood, sitting +in his office, dressed out as if liquidation by arrangement meant +succession to an earldom and a hundred thousand a year. + +He sat and looked at her, not speculatively, as Mr. Asherill had done, +but disapprovingly. + +Mr. Leigh entertained some old-fashioned ideas, and one of these +happened to be that a woman who, at such a juncture, could think of her +dress, was not likely to be of much assistance when the evil days +arrived in which pence should take the place of pounds,--and stuffs, of +silks and satins. + +Nor did he, of course, incline more favourably to Mortomley's wife, when +she explained how small a share her husband had in the selection of Mr. +Benning. + +If Mortomley had not been ungrateful, she had proved herself so little +better than a simpleton, that he could not find an excuse for her folly, +in her ignorance. + +All this made it hard for Dolly to tell her tale; indeed for ever Mr. +Leigh had only a hazy idea that, in the event of his having happened to +be in town instead of absent from it, things might have turned out +differently. + +A week only had elapsed since Mrs. Mortomley took her early walk to seek +that vague advice and assistance, which last is never given, which first +is always utterly useless; but so many events had crowded themselves +into the space of eight days, that the incident slipped out of the +sequence of her story, and was only mentioned accidently by her. + +Indeed, she was so full of the horrible idea suggested by the interview +at Salisbury House that she began at the end of her narrative, instead +of the beginning. She asked questions, and failed to answer questions +which were put to her. + +"What was a settlement--had any been made--was it true, as Mr. Benning +said, that if there were no settlement, everything went to the +creditors. If so, what was to become of her husband, Lenore, and +herself?" + +Mr. Leigh replied to her last inquiry first. + +"There will be an allowance made out of the estate, of course," he said. + +"Are you certain," she persisted; "for if they can avoid doing so, I am +sure we shall not have a penny." + +Whereupon, Mr. Leigh read her a mild lecture warning her of the danger +of being prejudiced, and making enemies instead of friends. He gave her +to understand that Mr. Swanland was a member of a most respectable +profession, and that she had not the smallest reason to suppose he was +inimical to her husband, or disposed to act in other than the kindest +and most honourable manner. + +With an impatient gesture Mrs. Mortomley averted her head. + +"I shall never be able to make any one comprehend my meaning," she said +wearily, "until events have verified my forebodings. It seems of no use +your talking to me, Mr. Leigh, or my talking to you, for you think me +foolish and prejudiced, and I think you know just about as much of what +liquidation by arrangement really is as I did a week ago." + +"In that case--" he began coldly. + +"You think I ought to say good morning, and refrain from wasting your +valuable time," she interrupted. + +"My dear Mrs. Mortomley," he said gently, for he saw that her eyes were +full of tears, and that her trouble was very genuine, "pray compose +yourself, and try to look calmly at your situation. You are frightening +yourself with a bugbear of your own creation, I assure you. The new +Bankruptcy Act was framed for the express purpose of relieving honest +debtors from many hardships to which they were formerly exposed, and to +assist creditors to obtain their money by a cheaper and more simple mode +than was practicable previously. You cannot suppose a trustee has the +power to act contrary to law, and the law never contemplated beggaring a +man merely because he chanced to be unfortunate. You may make your mind +quite easy about money matters. I do not say you will be able to have +the luxuries you have hitherto enjoyed;" here he made a slight stop, as +if to emphasise the fact on her comprehension, "but you will have +everything needful for your position. And with respect to your own +fortune, which I am afraid cannot be saved, there are two sides to +everything, and there are two sides to this. As a lawyer of course I +think every husband ought to secure the pecuniary future of his wife and +family, but really my unprofessional opinion is that settlements which +place a woman in a position of affluence, and consequently provide a +handsome income for a man, no matter how reckless or improvident he has +been, can scarcely be defended on any ground of right or reason. Do you +follow my meaning?" + +She looked up at him as he made this inquiry, and answered, + +"Do not think me rude. I cannot give my mind to what you are saying. +Possibly you are right. I heard your words, and I shall remember them +sufficiently, I have no doubt, to be able to argue the matter out by +myself at some future time--if--if we ever get into smooth water again; +but I cannot think of anything but ourselves now, I cannot. While you +are speaking my thoughts run back to Homewood, and I wonder what has +happened there, and whether, if I told this great trouble to Archie, it +would kill him outright. Through everything, I know, he has calculated +on that money for me and Lenore. If he had not been satisfied, if he had +ever doubted my right to it for a moment, do you suppose he would have +run such a risk? Do you think he would have failed to make any necessary +arrangement to keep us beyond the possibility of want?" + +"I am certain he would if he could have foreseen a time like this," the +lawyer answered. "But you must remember men do not anticipate bankruptcy +as a rule. When they do, it is far too late to talk of settlements. If +every one were prudent and foreseeing, misfortunes such as these could +not occur; but bankruptcy is not a pleasant eventuality for a person to +contemplate, though it is undoubtedly true that every business man ought +to order his course just as if he expected to go into the 'Gazette' +within a week." + +"We hear something like that every Sunday about living as if we were +dying, don't we, Mr. Leigh?" she asked, with a little gasping sob, "but +we none of us practise what we are told. I wonder now," Dolly added, +addressing no one in particular, but speaking her thoughts out loud, +"whether the clergy are right after all, whether, if we all go on as we +are going, we shall, men and women alike, prove utter bankrupts at the +Judgment-day. An immortality of insolvency is not a pleasant future to +contemplate; but it may be true. I dare say it will be perfectly true +for some of us." + +Mr. Leigh was eminently a safe man--safe in morals, religion, politics, +and money matters, and nothing offended his ideas more than wild +utterances and random talk, for which reason Mrs. Mortomley's last +sentence proved more distasteful than even her candidly expressed doubt +as to his thorough acquaintance with the new Bankruptcy Act. + +But he was kind, and if his visitor had occasionally a curious and +unpleasant way of communicating her ideas, he could see underlying all +external eccentricities that she was in fearful trouble, not because she +dreaded being unable to renew her laces and replace her silks--truth +being, Dolly had never descended even mentally to such details--but +because she had taken a phantom to nurse and reared it into a giant. + +Some one, it was necessary, should adopt measures to destroy the giant, +he decided, ere it destroyed her. + +"Mrs. Mortomley," he began, "you ought to get out of town for a short +time--" + +"And leave my husband?" + +"No, take him with you." + +She shook her head. "You do not know how ill he is. No one knows how ill +he is but me, not even the doctors." + +"He would get stronger if he were away, and he must be strong before the +meeting of creditors. Ask the doctors, and be guided by their advice. +Now let me entreat of you to be influenced by what they may say." + +"If it were possible to move him it might be better," she said +thoughtfully, "but he could not go without me, and I suppose I ought to +be at Homewood." + +"Why, are Miss Halling and her brother and all those men you told me +about not sufficient to take care of the place?" asked Mr. Leigh. + +She opened her lips to tell him that Rupert and Antonia had left, but +closed them again, feeling ashamed to say how utterly desolate she and +her husband were in their extremity. + +"I think I ought to stay," she remarked at last. + +"Really I cannot see the necessity. The presence of Mr. Swanland's clerk +of course relieves you from all real responsibility." + +"I suppose so--but still--" + +"But still what?" + +"When we leave Homewood we shall leave it for good. I feel that. I mean +we shall leave it altogether, whether for good or for ill, whichever may +befall." + +"If you were to go from home for a few weeks, you would look at your +position much more cheerfully," answered Mr. Leigh, who was not himself +utterly unacquainted with some of the moods and tenses of a woman's +mind. + +"Mr. Benning said we should be quite free to go when once the meeting of +creditors was over," Mrs. Mortomley remarked. + +"That was an absurd observation," returned Mr. Leigh, "for you are +perfectly free to go now." + +"Yes; but he meant _for ever_," Dolly explained. "I am not mistaken," +she went on. "He said they could get a manager, that my husband's +health was broken, and that the best thing we could do was to go to some +pretty seaside place and live there comfortably upon my money." + +Mr. Leigh's face darkened. "I must see to this," he said, speaking +apparently to himself; then added, "Trust me, Mrs. Mortomley, I will do +all in my power for you. I am afraid you have made one false step, but +we must try to remedy it as far as possible. In the meantime most +certainly I should get Mr. Mortomley away for a time. The state of his +health complicates matters very much. Have you--excuse the question, but +I know how suddenly these things sometimes come upon men of +business--have you money?" + +"Yes, thank you," she answered. "I have enough for the present; at +least, Rupert has money of mine, and I can get it from him." + +"And you will try to remove Mr. Mortomley," he went on, "and pray let me +hear from you, and send me your address. Do not be so despondent, Mrs. +Mortomley. Only get your husband well and everything will yet be right." + + +She smiled, but shook her head incredulously. + +"You are very kind, Mr. Leigh," she said, "and I only hope your pleasant +words may prove true prophecies. If they do not, when once we know the +worst, whatever that may prove, we must try to bear it. I think we shall +be able," added Dolly a little defiantly, drawing herself up about a +quarter of an inch. She was so little she had generally to go about the +world stretched out as much as possible. + +"She is not a bad specimen of a woman, if she only knew how to dress +herself suitably," thought Mr. Leigh after her departure, "but I am +afraid she is not the wife poor Mortomley ought to have had at a crisis +like this." + +Which was really very hard upon Dolly, who had not the slightest +intention of ever reproaching Mortomley--as a model wife might have +done--because of the ruin that had come upon them. + +Rather she was considering as she walked to Fenchurch Street how she +should keep knowledge of this latest misfortune from him. + +And then as regarded her dress, so objectionable in the eyes of a man +who knew exactly the sort of sad-coloured garments appropriate for such +an errand as Mrs. Mortomley's, does any intelligent reader suppose it +was one atom too rich or too rare in the opinion of those four young +ladies from Chigwell with whom Mrs. Mortomley travelled on her return +journey? + +Nay, rather they reported when they reached their own home, that Mrs. +Mortomley looked nicer than usual, was pleasanter and more talkative +even than her wont, and _beautifully dressed_, they added as the +crowning point in her perfections. + +If they had known what Dolly thought about them, they might not have +been so enthusiastic in her praise. + +Having no one near at hand in whom she could confide, she marvelled to +herself, + +"I wonder whether on the face of the earth there is any creature so +utterly wearisome as a human being." + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + LEAVING HOMEWOOD. + + +Days passed--days longer than had ever previously been known at +Homewood--the weather, which brightened up for Mrs. Mortomley's visit to +Salisbury House, became on the Sunday as bad as ever again, and +continued rainy and miserable during the early part of the week. The men +in possession did not leave. It was understood they were to be paid. Mr. +Swanland had hoped to get rid of them without going through this +ceremony, but finding the law against him, and having an objection to +part with money, arranged for them to stay on till he had "sufficient in +hand," to quote his own phrase, to settle their claims. + +Meantime on the Saturday there had been almost a turn out of the +workmen, who were kept waiting for their wages until it suited Mr. +Bailey's convenience to go down from London to pay them. + +They grumbled pretty freely concerning this irregularity; so freely, +indeed, that Mr. Bailey told them if they did not like Mr. Swanland's +management they had better leave. Whereupon they said they did not like +Mr. Swanland's management if it kept them kicking their heels for five +hours when they might have been at home, and that they would leave. + +On hearing this, Mr. Bailey drew in his horns, and said they had better +not be hasty, and that he would speak to Mr. Swanland. To both of which +suggestions they agreed somewhat sullenly, and so ended that week. + +The next opened with the valuation of the Homewood furniture and other +effects--as a "mere matter of form," so Mr. Swanland declared--but, like +the trustee's, the auctioneer's men took possession of the place as if +it belonged to them, and without either with your leave or by your +leave, walked from room to room making their inventory. + +Up to the time of their arrival Dolly had entertained hopes of inducing +her husband to make an effort to get downstairs. For days previously she +had been artfully striving to make him believe his presence in the works +was earnestly needed. She had suggested his spending an evening in the +drawing-room. She had on Sunday drawn a picture of the conservatory +sufficient to have tempted any ordinary invalid to hazard the +undertaking, but Mortomley's malady was as much mental as physical, and +not any medicine she could administer was able to cure that mind +diseased, which, no less than bodily illness, had stricken him with a +blow so sudden and so sharp. + +"We will see to-morrow, dear," was all the answer she could ever elicit. + +All in vain she guaranteed him immunity from indignant creditors, who +would persist in visiting Homewood in order to recite their wrongs, and +to hope Mr. Mortomley would see _them_ safe at all events; in vain she +promised that not a man in possession should cross his sight; in vain +she spoke of the brighter days dawning before them; in vain she employed +eloquence, and it may be a little deceit. + +It was always, "We will see to-morrow;" but once the morrow came, the +evil hour was again deferred when Mortomley should look on the face of +his fair house dishonoured, when he should nerve himself up to pass +where sacrilegious feet had trodden down the beauty and the grace, +destroyed all the sweet memories which once clustered round and about +the place where his father had lived, where he himself was born. + +And sometimes Dolly felt angry and sometimes sad, but she never felt +hopeless until those men intruding into the very room where Mortomley +sat listlessly looking out at the gloomy sky, taught him the precise +position he occupied. + +With a white face Dolly watched their movements, and when in a short +time they shut the door behind them, she went up to her husband and +kissed his forehead. + +"Should you not like to be away from all this?" she asked. + +"Yes, if there were any place to which we could go away," was the +answer. + +"We must leave," said Dolly, and then--for she was growing wise--she sat +down to calculate the cost. + +She wanted to take him to the seaside, but she failed to see how that +was to be managed. + +She could have done it by running into debt, for her credit was good at +those seaside places where she had been the idol of landlords and where +tradespeople had delighted at her reappearance. But she had no intention +of going into debt unless she saw some means of being able to repay +those who put trust in her honesty. + +She could not take her husband to the seaside, and yet she felt he must +be got away from Homewood. The changed atmosphere of that once charming +home was killing him. With the rare sympathy which women like Dolly, +capable of putting themselves and their interests entirely on one side, +possess, she understood that air breathed by those dreadful men was +death to a person in his state of health; and she racked her brains to +think of some plan by which she might get him away, even for a +fortnight, from the sound of strange voices, from the haunting presence +of Messrs. Turner and Meadows, and the other more insignificant +sheriff's officer. + +Not in the worst time they ever previously passed through, had Mrs. +Mortomley experienced such utter misery as that which fell to her lot +after Mr. Swanland took the reins of government. + +She knew utter anarchy prevailed in the works. She knew the men were at +daggers drawn with each other, unanimous only in one desire viz., that +of circumventing Mr. Meadows and outwitting his vigilance. She knew the +horses were not properly attended to; and when Lang justly indignant at +the proceeding, told her Bess had been put in one of the carts and sent +out with a load for the docks, Mrs. Mortomley was fain to make an excuse +to get rid of the man, that he might not see the passion of grief his +news excited in her. + +Helpless they were, both Mortomley and his wife. Ciphers where they had +once had authority; mere paupers, living on sufferance in a house no +longer theirs; by rapid degrees Dolly was learning what liquidation by +arrangement really meant, and why Mr. Kleinwort had said her husband +would find bankruptcy not all pleasure. + +While she was pondering how to get away from it all, how to escape from +the sight of ills she was powerless to cure, and the sound of complaints +to which she was weary of listening, Thursday came, and with a, to her, +startling discovery. Mr. Meadows, who after the first morning or so, +decided it was more comfortable to lie in bed late than to get up early, +had on the Wednesday evening left on Mr. Lang's desk a memorandum +concerning some account-books which he wished sent up to Salisbury +House, said memorandum being pencilled on the back of part of the very +note at the end of which Mr. Swanland had made that inquiry concerning +Mr. Mortomley's letters previously recorded. + +This precious morsel Lang carried to Esther, who carried it to her +mistress, who in her turn demanded from Mr. Meadows an explanation as to +how it happened his employer dared to intercept her letters. + +Mr. Meadows was civil but firm. He told her Mr. Swanland had a right to +everything about the place or that came into the place. He had a right +to Mr. Mortomley's letters, and inclusively Mrs. Mortomley's. Mr. +Meadows did not think it was usual for a lady's letters to be opened; +but Mr. Swanland had law on his side. He had also law on his side when +he refused to pay the corn-chandler for oats sent in for the horses the +day before the petition was presented. Mr. Meadows had no doubt the man +thought himself hardly done by in the matter, but he must be regarded as +a creditor like every one else. + +Further, Mr. Meadows admitted--for Mrs. Mortomley having at length +commenced to speak concerning her grievances, thought it too good an +opportunity to be lost about airing them all--that there might be an +appearance of injustice in setting down small country traders who had +paid for their colours in advance as creditors, but Mr. Swanland could +only deal with the estate as he found it, and if he sent on the goods +ordered, he might have to make up the different amounts out of his own +pocket. Moreover, after various indignant questions had been asked and +answered in a similar manner, Mr. Meadows professed himself unable to +imagine why Mrs. Mortomley had paid, and was paying for the maintenance +of himself and the other two gentlemen in waiting. He was quite certain +Mr. Swanland would not be able to satisfy the creditors if he repaid her +the amount so disbursed. + +"I assure you, ma'am," finished Mr. Meadows, "I have often felt that I +should like to mention this matter to you, and would have done so, but +that I feared to give offence. I know you imagine I have taken too much +upon me since I came here; but indeed I have endeavoured to keep +unpleasantnesses from you. In cases like these, if a lady and gentleman +will remain in the house, as you and Mr. Mortomley have done, it is +impossible they should find things agreeable. As I have often said to +your servants, you ought to have left the morning after Mr. Swanland +came down, and then you would have been out of the way of all this." + +Having delivered himself of which speech, spoken quietly and +respectfully, Mr. Meadows waited for any observation which it might +please Mrs. Mortomley to make. + +She made none. She stood perfectly silent for about a minute. + +Then she said--"You can go," and quite satisfied with his morning's +work, Mr. Meadows bowed and--went. + +When he had closed the door after him, Mrs. Mortomley rang the bell. + +"Esther," she began as the girl appeared, "directly you are at leisure +begin to pack." + +"You are going to leave then, ma'am?" said Esther interrogatively. + +"Yes, at once. I do not know where we shall go," she added, +understanding the unspoken question. "I must think, but upon one thing +I am determined, and that is not to stop another night in this house +until Mr. Mortomley is master of it again. And if he never is again--" + +"Oh! ma'am," exclaimed the girl in protest, and then she burst into +tears. + +"Don't cry," commanded her mistress imperiously. "We shall all of us +have plenty of time for crying hereafter; but there are other things to +be done now. Pack your own clothes as well as mine. I will see to your +master's, and tell Susan to put up hers also." + +"Do you mean, ma'am, that you mean to leave the house with no one in it +but those men. What will become of all the things?" + +"I do not care what becomes of them," was the answer. "Now go and do as +I have told you." + +On her way upstairs Esther encountered Mr. Meadows, who about that house +seemed indeed ubiquitous. + +"She is a good deal cut up, ain't she?" he said confidentially. + +"It is no business of yours whether she is or not," Esther retorted +indignantly. + +"Whether she is or not," mimicked Mr. Meadows, "you need not fly out at +a fellow like that. It is none so pleasant for me being planted in such +a beastly dull hole as this. The governor might as well have sent me to +take charge of a church and churchyard. That job would have been about +as lively as this precious Homewood place." + +"Pity you and your governor are not in a churchyard together," said +Esther, with her nose very much turned up, and the corners of her mouth +very much drawn down, and her cheeks very red and her chin held very +high. "If there wasn't another trade in the world, I would rather starve +than take to yours." + +Having fired which shot--one she knew would hit the bull's eye--Esther +went swiftly on her way, while Mr. Meadows proceeded, the weather being +still wet, to solace himself by smoking a pipe in the conservatory; the +consequence being that when Mrs. Werner, a couple of hours later came to +call upon Mrs. Mortomley, she found the drawing-room reeking of +tobacco. + +"They will bring their beer in here next," observed Dolly when she +entered the apartment, and then she flung open the windows and commenced +telling her story, for which Mrs. Werner was utterly unprepared. + +She told it with dry eyes, with two red spots burning on her cheeks, +with parched lips and a hard unnatural voice. + +She did not break down when Mrs. Werner took her to her heart and cried +over her as a mother might have done. + +"Oh! Dolly," she sobbed. "Dolly, my poor darling--oh! the happy days we +have spent together," and then she checked herself, and holding Dolly a +little way off looked at her through a mist of tears. + +"Why did I know nothing of this?" she went on. "Dolly, why did you not +write and tell me? I thought everything was going to be straight and +comfortable. I had not an idea you were in such trouble. Yes, you are +right, you must leave Homewood. You have remained here too long +already--where do you think of going?" + +"I have not been able to think," Mrs. Mortomley answered. "Advise me, +Lenny. I will do whatever you say is best." + +"Will you really, darling, follow my advice for once?" + +"Yes--really and truly--unless you wish us to go to Dassell. I should +not like, I could not bear to take Archie there now." + +"No, dear, I do not wish you to go to Dassell. We have taken a house at +Brighton for a couple of months, and I am going down with the children +to-morrow. Come home with me this afternoon, and we can all travel +together. That is if Mr. Mortomley is fit to travel. If not you and he +must stay for a few days in town till he is able to follow. That is +settled, is not it Dolly? I have to pay a visit at Walthamstow and will +return for you in less than an hour. You will come, dear." + +Dolly did not answer verbally. She only put her arms round Mrs. Werner's +neck and drawing down her face, kissed it in utter silence. + +There was no need for much speech between those two women. Dolly had +known Leonora Trebasson ever since she herself was born. They had grown +up together. They had been friends always, and Mortomley's wife felt no +more hesitation about accepting a kindness from Mrs. Werner in her need +than Mrs. Werner would have experienced had it been needful for her in +the halcyon days of old to ask for shelter and welcome at Homewood. + +And as the visit was to be paid at Brighton, Dolly did not find the +contemplation of Mr. Werner a drawback to the brightness of the picture. + +Perfectly well she understood that when his wife and family were out of +town, he never favoured them with much of his society. + +Mr. Werner's god was business, and he did not care to absent himself +for any lengthened period from the shrine at which he worshipped. + +"I must just mention this to Archie," Mrs. Mortomley said at last. + +"I will mention it to him," proposed Mrs. Werner. "We shall never get +him to come for his own sake, but he will do so for yours." + +"Thank you, Lenny," answered Mrs. Mortomley. "It does not signify for +whose sake the move is made, so that it is made." + +"Upon second thoughts," observed Mrs. Werner, "I shall not go on to +Walthamstow to-day. I will stay and carry you off with me. You can give +me some luncheon and let the horses have a feed, and that will be a far +pleasanter arrangement in every way." + +Dolly laughed and summoned Esther. "Mrs. Werner will lunch here," she +said; "and find Mr. Meadows and send him to me." + +"What do you want with that creature," asked her friend, and Dolly +answered, "You shall hear." + +Mr. Meadows entered the room and bowed solemnly to its occupants. + +"You wanted me, ma'am," he said, standing just inside the doorway and +addressing Mrs. Mortomley. + +"Yes. I wished to know if you think Mr. Swanland can answer any +questions that my husband's creditors may put to him, if Mrs. Werner's +horses have a feed of corn--because if not, I must ask her coachman to +put up at the public-house." + +Mr. Meadows turned white with rage at this cool question and the sneer +which accompanied it. + +"That woman is a fiend," he thought, "and will trouble some of our +people yet, and serve them right too;" but he answered quietly enough, + +"I am certain, madam, that Mr. Swanland would wish every consideration +to be paid to you and your friends, and I can take it upon myself to +tell this lady's coachman to put up his horses here." + +"You are very good," remarked Dolly. She could not have said, "Thank +you," had the salvation of Homewood depended on her uttering the words. + + + +"Has it come to that?" asked Mrs. Werner as Mr. Meadows retired, and +Mrs. Mortomley answered-- + +"It has come to that." + +Mrs. Werner found it a more difficult task to induce Mortomley to accept +her invitation than she had expected it would prove; but eventually her +arguments and his love for Dolly carried the day, and he agreed to go to +Brighton, and stay with his wife's friend for a week, or perhaps ten +days. + +"I must get well," he said, "before the meeting of creditors, and I feel +I can never get well here. You are very, very kind, Mrs. Werner. Dolly +and I will be but dull guests I fear; but you must put up with +our--stupidity." + +And he stretched out his thin wasted hand which she took in hers, and +there came before them both a vision of the old house at Dassell, +embowered in trees, with its green lawns and stately park, its low, +spacious rooms, its quiet and its peace, where he first met Dolly in the +summer days gone by. + +Looking back over one's experience of life, it seems marvellous to +recollect how few words one ever has heard spoken in times of danger or +of trial; how the once fluent tongue is paralysed by the overflowing +heart; how trouble stands sentinel beside the lips, and bars the +utterance of sentences which in happier times ran glibly and smoothly +on. + +In the time of their agony, Mortomley had nothing to say, and his wife +but little. + +He made no lamentation nor did she. Ruin had come upon them, and how +they should make their way through it no man could tell; but they were +silent about their griefs. It was upon the most ordinary topics Mrs. +Werner and Mortomley discoursed, whilst Dolly's utterances to Esther +were of the most commonplace description. How a portion of their luggage +was to be sent to Brighton, and the remainder, except the small amount +Dolly proposed taking with her, left at Homewood until further orders. + +How Esther was to be certain to look after her own comforts, and +purchase trifling luxuries for herself, how Mrs. Mortomley depended on +her writing every day, and trusting the posting of the letters only to +Lang or Hankins--with fifty other such little charges--this was all she +found to say while packing up to leave the dear home of all her happy +married life in the possession of strangers. _And such strangers._ + +As she thought of it, Dolly flung open the window and looked out. + +Oh! fair--fair home--smiling with your wealth of flowers under the dark +autumnal sky, can it be that when those whose hearts have been entwined +about you are gone, who have loved you with perhaps too earthly a love, +are departed, you shall turn as sweet a face and give as tender a +greeting to the future men and women destined to look upon your beauty +as you did to those who are leaving you for ever? + +No, thank God, there comes a desolation of place as there comes a wreck +of person; nature seems to sympathize with humanity, and when the old +owners have been torn from the soil, the soil as if in sympathy grows +weeds instead of flowers--grows a tangle of discontent where sweet buds +were wont to climb. + +If in prophetic vision Dolly had been able at that moment to see +Homewood as it appeared six months after, she would have felt comforted. +As it was, she looked forth over the sweet modest home which had been +hers and his with a terrible despair, but she bore the pain in silence. + +"First or last," as Esther said afterwards, "she never heard a murmur +from husband or wife." + +Which was perhaps why she loved them both so well. With every vein in +her heart that simple country girl, who was not very clever, but whose +heart stood her amply instead of brains, loved the master and mistress +upon whom misfortune had fallen so suddenly, and to her thinking so +inexplicably. + +Physically she was not brave, but she would have faced death to keep +trouble from them. She was not possessed of much courage; no, not the +courage which will go downstairs alone if it hears a noise in the +night, but she would have encountered any danger had Dolly asked her to +do so. + +It was well Mrs. Mortomley possessed a larger amount of common sense +than any one gave her credit for, otherwise she might have incited her +maid to deeds the execution of which would have filled Mr. Forde's soul +with rejoicing. Dolly sternly prohibited all looting from the premises. +Not a trunk she packed or saw packed, but might have borne the scrutiny +of Mr. Swanland himself, and yet the modest bonnet-box and portmanteau +carried down into the hall failed to meet with the approbation of Mr. +Swanland's man. + +"I am very sorry, ma'am," he said, "but I cannot allow these things to +leave the house without Mr. Swanland's permission." + +Dolly turned and looked at him. I think if a look could have struck him +dead where he stood, he had never spoken more. + +With all the authority of Salisbury House behind him, Meadows quailed at +sight of her face, wondering what should follow. + +But nothing followed except this: + +"Take those things upstairs at once," she said, turning to Esther and +Lang, "put them in my dressing-room with the other boxes, and bring me +the key of the door." + +"I do not know, madam," remarked Mr. Meadows, emboldened by what he +considered her previous submission, "whether you are aware that if you +lock the door we can break it open." + +Then Dolly found tongue. + +"Do it," she said; "only break open _any_ door I choose to lock, and I +will make things unpleasant for you and your master too. I have endured +at your hands and his what I believe no woman ever endured before, but +if you presume another inch I will have justice if I carry our case into +every court in England." + +She did not know, poor soul, her cause had been settled in a court +whence there is no appeal, and for that very reason speaking fearlessly +her words carried weight. + +Mr. Meadows shrank out of the hall as if she had struck him a blow, and +Dolly leaning against the lintel of the porch and looking at Mrs. +Werner's carriage and horses, which were framed to her by a wreath of +clematis and roses, felt for the moment as if she had won a victory. + +And by her retreat she had; but it is only after the battle any one +engaged can tell when the tide of war began to turn. + +It turned for the Mortomleys then. It turned when Mrs. Mortomley lifted +up her voice and defied Mr. Swanland's bailiff. In that moment she +ensured ultimate success for her husband--at a price. + +The years are before him still--the years of his life full of promise, +full of hope--that past of bankruptcy, recent though it may be, is, +nevertheless, an old story, and the name of Mortomley is a power once +more. + +There is nothing the man is capable of he need despair of achieving, +nothing this world can give him he need fail to grasp, and yet--and +yet--I think, I know, that rather than go forth and gather the pleasant +fruits ripening for him in distant vineyards, rather than pay the price +success exacted ultimately for her wares, the man would have laid him +down upon the bed a man in possession held in trust for his employer, +and died a pauper, entitled only to a pauper's grave. + +But no man can foresee. Happily, or else how many would live miserable. + +Dolly could not foresee; she could not foretell the events of even +four-and-twenty hours. + +But she was nice to others in that her time of trial, and the fact +served her in good stead in the evil hours to come. + +"I think," she had said to Esther, "that Lang and Hankins would like to +see Mr. Mortomley before we go. Lang had better give my husband his arm +downstairs, and Hankins can help him into the carriage." + +It was nice of Dolly, it was never forgotten about her for ever. It +never will be till the children's children are greyheaded. By the +carriage door stood the pair, hats in hand, tears running down their +cheeks, speaking across Mrs. Werner to their master; their master whom +they had loved and robbed, cheated and served honestly, believed in and +grumbled concerning through years too long to count. And away in the +background were a group of men, the faces of whom appalled Mr. Meadows, +men who would have pumped on him had Mrs. Mortomley given the signal, +who loved their master, though it might be they had not acted always +honestly or straightforwardly by him, and who would at that moment have +done any wickedness in his service, had he only pleased to show them the +way. + +With a mighty effort Dolly choked back her tears. + +She heard the men say, + +"And we wish you back, sir, better." + +To which Mortomley replied, + +"I hope I shall be better, but you will see me here no more." + +"No more." Lang opened the door of the carriage for Dolly, who shook +hands with him and his colleague ere the vehicle drove off. + +"No more." Mortomley had said in those two words farewell to Homewood. + +No more for ever did a Mortomley pace the familiar walks, or cross the +remembered rooms. No more--no more--with the wail of that dirge in their +ears the men went back to their labour exceedingly sad in spirit. + +Mr. Meadows, however, was not sad. He sought out Esther crying in a +convenient corner. + +"Well, I am glad they are gone," he exclaimed, "and shall I tell you +why?" + +"You can if you like," Esther agreed, wiping her eyes with her muslin +apron, which she had donned in honour of Mrs. Werner, "though for my +part I do not care whether you are glad or sorry." + +"Well, when I came here I was told to _watch your mistress_, and it has +not been a pleasant occupation. I told Swanland it was all gammon +thinking she was not on the square. Of course we know all about that, +but he said his information from some one--Forde, I suppose, was clear, +and that money was put away, and I must find out where. As if," added +Mr. Meadows, with a gesture of ineffable contempt, "people like your +people did not fight to the last shot, did not eat the last biscuit +before surrendering. Of course I understand the whole thing, and I have +but to repeat, so far as I am concerned, I am----glad they are gone." + +"Let me pass, please," said Esther with a shudder. "I do not want to +hear anything more about you or your master, or Mr. Forde--or--anybody," +and her tone was so decided, he stepped aside and allowed her to pass +without uttering another word. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +DOLLY WRITES A LETTER. + + +It may be questioned whether that particular member of the Mortomley +family, who made ducks and drakes of the Dassell ancestral acres, felt +anything like the grief at losing his patrimony which Archibald +Mortomley endured when he stepped across the threshold of Homewood with +the conviction strong upon him that he should return there no more. + +Everything in this world is comparative. To lords temporal and +spiritual, and to honourable gentlemen of the House of Commons, and to +millionaires east of Temple Bar, that clinging of the Irish peasant to +his mud cabin and couple of acres of bog, would seem a most ridiculous +piece of foolery were it not for the bullets with which Patrick +contrives to make such a tragedy out of his comical surroundings. +Nevertheless, eviction means as much misery to the shiftless Hibernian +as his cup is well capable of holding. + +This is a fact, I think, we are all rather too apt to lose sight of when +considering the extent of our neighbour's misfortunes. + +Because the house is not grand, or the furniture nice, or the wife +beautiful, or the children winning to our imaginations, we are apt to +think the man's loss has been light to him. + +Whereas his modest home set about with gods of his own making and +creating, may have been more desirable in his eyes than Chatsworth +itself, and he may mourn over his dead with a grief less palpable, it is +true, because the work-a-day world is intolerant of grief among the poor +and lowly, but as real as that our Sovereign Lady feels for her husband, +or as that wherein the sweet singer of Israel indulged when the +messenger came swiftly and told him though not in words, "Absalom is +slain." + +To a business man especially the world is in this respect hard and +unsympathetic. + +Because we do not understand his trade, and should not care for it if we +did, we fancy he has regarded his mills, his works, his factory as we +look upon such erections. And yet the place where he has made his money, +or lost it, has been most part of his world to him; as much his world as +camps to the soldier, courts to the diplomatist, ball-rooms to the +beauty, Africa to Livingstone. + +A man cannot continue year after year to exercise any calling, if it be +even the culture of watercresses, and not centre a large portion of his +interest in it, and to a man like Mortomley it was a simple +impossibility for his laboratory, his home, his works, his men, his +colours to become matters of indifference to him. + +There had been a time when it would have well-nigh broken his heart to +leave Homewood and all its associations behind, but there were bitter +memories now superadded to the sweet recollections of the olden time, +memories which, throughout all the future, he should never be able to +recall save with a galling sense of pain. + +The old Homewood was dead to him, and in its place there was a new +Homewood, the thought of which could never cross his mind save with a +sense of shame and degradation. + +It had been bad enough for the sheriffs' officers to hold the place in +temporary possession, but when Mr. Swanland sent in his man Mortomley +felt all hope had departed out of his life. If he was ever to do any +good for himself and those belonging to him again, he must first go to +some quiet place where he should have a chance of getting strong once +more, and then having given up Homewood and everything belonging to him, +compulsorily it might be, but still most thoroughly, commence life anew, +commence at the very foot of the business ladder, and strive to work his +way upward to success. + +To both husband and wife the sensation of driving for their own mere +ease and comfort through the suburbs of London was strange as though +they had been labouring upon the pecuniary treadmill all the years of +their life. Money anxieties had so long been present with them at bed +and at board, that they found it difficult to realise the fact that they +were free from these fetters. + +By comparison beggary seemed heaven to the misery of their late +existence; and Mortomley, weak as he was, seemed benefited by the +change, whilst Dolly, all the time she had a strange feeling upon her of +having started on a pilgrimage without the faintest idea of what her +ultimate destination might prove, still experienced a sense of relief as +mile after mile lengthened itself out between her and Homewood. + +Had Mrs. Mortomley and her husband been royal guests, Mrs. Werner could +not have paid them more devoted attention than was the case. + +In a great airy bedchamber a fire blazed cheerfully, and on a sofa drawn +close up to the hearth she insisted on Mortomley taking his ease, where +no one could intrude to disturb him. + +In the same room she and Dolly had their afternoon cup of tea, and then +Dolly and her hostess repaired to Mrs. Werner's dressing-room, and sat +chatting there until it was time for one of them to dress for dinner, to +which a select party had been invited. + +Mrs. Mortomley declined to join that party, but sat idly in a great +arm-chair, watching the progress of her friend's toilette, and thinking +that Leonora grew handsomer as she grew older. + +When she was fully arrayed in all the grand apparel in which it rejoiced +Mr. Werner's heart to see her decked, Dolly put her arms round her neck +and kissed and bade her good-night. + +"For I shall not see you again till the morning, dear," she said. "If I +want anything I will ask your maid to get it for me. No; I shall not be +hungry, or thirsty, or anything, except thankful to remember we have +made a wise move at last and left Homewood." + +"Very well, Dolly," answered Mrs. Werner, humouring her fancy. "You +shall be called in good time to-morrow, so as not to be hurried; and if +you want to write any letters you will find everything you want in my +little room," saying which she pushed aside a curtain and passed into an +apartment scarcely larger than a closet, but fitted up with dainty +furniture, pretty inlaid cabinets, and a few water-colour drawings. + +"No one ever comes in here except myself," said Mrs. Werner, "and you +will be quite uninterrupted. See here is note-paper and there are +envelopes. And--" + +"Thank you," interrupted Dolly, "but I shall not want to write any +letters again for ever," and with one more good-night and one more +lingering look at the stately figure, which in the pier-glass she had +mentally balanced against her own, Dolly opened the door which gave +egress on to the landing, and stepped swiftly and lightly along the +passage leading to the apartment where she had left her husband. + +On the thick carpet the sound of her tread fell noiseless, and failed to +disturb the sound sleep into which Mortomley had sunk. When before had +she seen him slumber so quietly? Dolly sat down before the fire, and +still full of thankfulness for the deliverance from Homewood and its +thousand and one petty annoyances, tried to look out over the future and +shape her plans. + +After she had been thus occupied for about half an hour, she suddenly +recollected she had not left with Esther an address which should find +her at Brighton, and vexed at an omission which might cause even a +night's anxiety to a girl who had been so faithful to her, she stole +quietly out of the room, intending not merely to send a note to Esther, +but also a few lines to Rupert and a letter to Miss Gerace, whose +epistles probably had been intercepted by Mr. Swanland. + +In the apartment of which Mrs. Werner had made her free, the gas was +lighted. Dolly turned it up a little, and after searching for a pen to +suit her, began her correspondence. + +For some time she wrote on without interruption. She finished her short +note to Esther; she scribbled a few hasty words to "My dear little +girl," and was half way through her rambling epistle to Miss Gerace, +when her attention was distracted by the sound of a door shut violently, +and by hearing Mr. Werner pronounce her husband's name in a tone of the +keenest annoyance. + +"Mortomley!" he exclaimed. "Damn Mortomley!" which, though perhaps not +an unusual form of expression, fell cruelly on Dolly's ear. + +With the pen still in her fingers, she rose from her chair while he went +on. + +"I would rather have lost five hundred pounds than that you should have +brought either of them here. A man in business cannot afford to be +Quixotic, and I cannot afford to be mixed up with Mortomley or his +affairs. They must not stay here, that is flat, and they must not go to +Brighton. Make what excuse you like, only get them out of the house." + +"I presume you do not mean to-night," said Mrs. Werner, in a voice Dolly +could have scarcely recognized as belonging to her friend. + +"Hang it, Leonora," he retorted, "you need not look at me like that. I +suppose I am master in my own house, and have a right to say who shall +and who shall not visit here." + +"A perfect right," she replied. "I merely asked a question, and I wait +for your answer. Am I to turn _my friend_ and her husband out of _your_ +house to-night?" + +"I suppose not. I suppose they must stay," he said; "but, good Heavens, +Leonora, what could you have been thinking of to bring a bankrupt and +his penniless wife here! And I involved as I am with that infernal +Chemical Company, and Forde full of the notion that as Mrs. Mortomley's +money is condemned, at any rate, he can get her to sign some antedated +paper, securing the bulk of her husband's so called debt to him. Upon my +soul it is enough to drive a fellow mad. I tell you I will not be mixed +up with the affairs of people too foolish or stupid to take care of +themselves. + +"Forde will get them into some mess they will not readily extricate +themselves from; Mortomley either wants sufficient moral pluck or +physical energy to face the difficulty, and yet you bring them here!" + +"They shall not trouble you after to-night," she answered. + +"They had better not," exclaimed Mr. Werner, infuriated by her tone. + +"And still you used to speak of Mr. Mortomley as your friend," remarked +his wife. + +"How often am I to tell you a business man can have no friends except +those capable of advancing his interests, and bankruptcy cuts all ties +of that sort. If Mortomley had been possessed of sufficient common sense +to secure his flighty wife's fortune, there might have been some faint +hope for him; but as matters stand there is none. If her friends do not +come forward, they will have to apply to the parish within six months, +and serve them right too." + +Dolly gathered up her letters and laid down her pen, and stole from the +room. + +She had heard enough--she had heard how they stood--where lay their +danger--what they had to guard against; and she stood for a moment in +the passage leading to the apartments Mrs. Werner had selected for them, +with her hand pressed tightly over her heart, trying to realize that she +had listened to Mr. Werner's words in her waking moments instead of in a +dream. + +And then next moment came the question, "When were they to go." + +They could not remain another hour in Mr. Werner's house, that was +certain. She could not take her husband back to Homewood, that seemed +more impossible still. She doubted, though her experience was small, +whether any hotel-keeper would beam with smiles at sight of a sick man +accompanied by his wife and destitute of luggage. + +Dolly sat down on the mat outside the bedroom door to think it all over. + +They must go somewhere, and at once, where should it be? + +She sat there plucking the wool out of the mat in her restless +imaginings, while her head grew hot and her eyes heavy with weary +self-communing; she heard Mr. and Mrs. Werner go down stairs; she heard +the stir and bustle of arriving guests; she listened to the buzz of +talking and the light rippling of laughter, as one drifting out to sea +in a rudderless boat might listen to the voices and the merriment of +those safe on a shore fading away in the distance; she heard the rustle +of the ladies' dresses as they passed in to dinner, and then it came to +her like an inspiration--where she should go. + +"I will do it. I will," she said almost audibly, and she turned the +handle of the door gently, and crossing the room caught up her hat and +shawl, and then closing the door behind her, went carefully down stairs, +surveying the country she had to pass through over the bannisters. + +Strange waiters were about and she passed through them unobserved, and +sped off to the nearest cab-stand. + +There she hired a vehicle, which she left waiting her return some +half-dozen yards from Mr. Werner's house. + +The door was fortunately open to admit of some guests invited to "come +in the evening," and she entered with them and, unnoticed save by Mr. +Werner's butler, crossed the hall and ran up stairs. + +Arrived at her husband's side she touched him gently. + +"Are you rested dear, at all? It is time for us to be going." + +"Going!" he repeated, between sleeping and waking, "are we not at home?" + +"No love, at Mr. Werner's." + +He raised himself a little and looked at her. + +"I think I have been asleep," he said. "Oh! now I remember, but I +thought we were to stay here all night. It was arranged that we were, +was it not?" + +"Yes, dear, but I find it is not convenient for us to do so. Visitors +have come, and we ought not to intrude under the circumstances. There is +a cab at the door. Can you walk with my arm or shall I ring for +assistance?" + +He rose, still looking dazed and bewildered, and she put her arm round +his body and he placed his arm round her neck; it was thus he had with +weak and uncertain steps often paced his room at Homewood. + +Trembling over the descent of each stair, she got him at length to the +bottom of the last flight, and then beckoning one of the waiters, she +asked him to help her husband to the door, while she herself searched +for his top-coat and hat. + +Whilst she was so engaged the butler appeared, + +"Why, ma'am," he said, "you are surely never going back to Homewood +to-night?" + +"I find we must go," she answered; "I had forgotten something. I have +left a note for Mrs. Werner upstairs, but do not tell her we have left +until all the company have left. She--she--might be uneasy. I have +borrowed a rug, tell her I will return it in a few days; and help Mr. +Mortomley to the cab. Thank you, good night, Williams," and she put +half-a-crown in his hand. + +Poor Dolly! and half-crowns were not plentiful, and likely to be less +so. + +The driver touched his horse, and the hansom was out of sight in a +minute. + +"I wonder what _that_ means," thought Mr. Williams. "For certain the +governor was in a rare taking when he heard they were here." + +But all the "takings" in which Mr. Werner had ever been were as nothing +compared with that which overwhelmed Mrs. Werner when she heard of +Dolly's departure. + +She heard of that sooner than Dolly intended; for Messrs. Forde and +Kleinwort, having driven down in the evening to see what pressure could +be put upon Mrs. Mortomley to induce her to do what ought in Mr. Forde's +formula "to have been done long before, make the St. Vedast Wharf people +secure," came straight onto Mr. Werner's house in quest of the missing +lady. + +"Mr. and Mrs. Mortomley have gone, sir," explained the butler, who knew +the manager as an occasional guest at his master's table. + +"Gone, nonsense!" repeated Mr. Forde, pushing his way into the hall, and +looking askance at the signs of feasting pervading the Werner +establishment with an expression which said plainly, + +'Just like all the rest of them. He can give parties while I am standing +on the edge of a precipice. He has no thought for _me_.' + +"I assure you, sir," answered the man, "Mr. and Mrs. Mortomley left here +more than an hour ago. I assisted Mr. Mortomley into the cab myself." + +"Then I must see Mr. Werner," said Mr. Forde determinedly. + +"I am afraid--that he is engaged. We have company to-night, sir." + +Mr. Forde turned as if he would have annihilated the speaker. + +"He will see me," he shouted; "tell him I am here." And he strode into +the so-called library, the door of which stood open, followed by +Kleinwort, who, perhaps because he felt ashamed, perhaps because he was +cold, looked curiously small and down-hearted. + +After all, as he confided subsequently to Mr. Werner, it was none so +pleasant being dragged across country and through town like a dog on the +chain by even a companion charming as Forde. + +"Shall I take your hat," inquired Williams, whose ideas of propriety +were outraged by the sight of Mr. Forde seated in Mr. Werner's own chair +in that sacred and solemn chamber, his hat on, his fingers beating the +devil's own tattoo on the table. + +"No," he growled, and the man retreated, catching sight as he went of a +significant shrug of Mr. Kleinwort's shoulders. + +Almost instantly Mr. Werner appeared. The butler opened the door for him +to enter and forgot to shut it again. + +"I want to see Mortomley," began Mr. Forde, without preface of any kind; +"if he is well enough to travel, he is well enough to face his +creditors." + +"I will send and tell him you are here," answered Mr. Werner. + +"No, I will go to him without any first message being delivered," said +the other with an angry sneer. + +"Pardon me," interposed Mr. Werner, "but you will do no such thing. It +is not with any good-will of mine that Mr. Mortomley is my guest, but +since he is my guest he shall not be treated by you or anybody else like +a criminal. If he choose to see you he can do so, if he do not choose +you shall not see him." + +"Do you dare say that to me?" asked Mr. Forde. + +"Yes," was the reply, "and if you speak in that tone to me, I shall say +a good deal more which you may not like to hear." + +"Now--now--now--Werner," interposed Kleinwort, "you are always so much +in too great haste. He meant it not. He would not order about in your +house for ten thousand worlds." + +"He had better not," Mr. Werner said, cutting short the thread of Mr. +Kleinwort's eloquence, for he was indignant at being taken from his +guests, and furious at the fact of Mortomley having taken shelter under +his roof, and being instantly hunted there by Mr. Forde. "Williams," he +continued going to the door, and addressing his butler, who was bustling +about the hall, + +"Let Mr. Mortomley know Mr. Forde is here, and desires a few minutes' +conversation with him. Now, gentlemen, _I_ must bid you good-night. +Williams will bring you wine or brandy if you only tell him which you +prefer." + +"Beg pardon, sir," interposed Williams at this juncture, "but--" + +"Did you not hear me tell you to let Mr. Mortomley know Mr. Forde wishes +to see him?" said Mr. Werner, emphasising each word with painful +distinctness. + +"Yes, sir, but Mr. Mortomley is gone." + +"Gone!" repeated Mr. Werner, while Mr. Forde remarked audibly, "I do not +believe a word of it." + +And Kleinwort, pulling his companion's sleeve, entreated him piteously, +"To be impulsive not so much." + +"Yes, sir, went away with Mrs. Mortomley in a cab an hour and a half +ago." + +"Where did he go to?" asked Mr. Werner. + +"Don't know, sir. No orders were given to the cabman in my presence or +hearing." + +Mr. Werner stood silent for an instant, then he said, turning to +Williams, + +"Ask your mistress to come down here. Say I will not detain her a +moment." And while the man went to do his bidding, he walked up and down +the room evidently as ill at ease as his visitors. + +Into the room Mrs. Werner walked stately and beautiful, her rich dress +rustling over the carpet, jewels sparkling on her snowy neck, amid her +dark hair, and on her white arms. + +She started at sight of the two visitors, but quickly recovering +herself, gave her hand frigidly to each in succession. + +"Ah! but, madam, we have no need to ask if your health be admirable," +Kleinwort was beginning, when Mr. Werner interrupted his ecstacy with +ruthless abruptness. + +"Leonora," he said, "these gentlemen want to know where Mr. and Mrs. +Mortomley have gone. If it is no secret, pray inform them." + +"They are here," she instantly replied. + +"No, they are not; they left in a cab an hour ago or more. Can you +imagine where they have gone?" + +"I cannot imagine that they have left," she answered. "You must be +mistaken." + +"If you please, ma'am," here interrupted Williams, who had remained +standing at the door after Mrs. Werner's entrance, with an apologetic +grasp upon the handle, "Mrs. Mortomley left a note for you. She told me +not to mention this till all the company had left, but I suppose, under +present circumstances, it is correct for me to do so." + +"I will go for it," Mrs. Werner said, with a little gasp, but Mr. Werner +prevented her intention. "Let your maid do so." + +There ensued an awkward pause, during which Mr. Kleinwort, with much +_empressement_, handed Mrs. Werner a chair. + +"No, thank you," she remarked, and the pause continued, and the depth +and gloom of the silence increased minute by minute. + +At length the maid, having found the note, brought it into the room. + +"Give it to me," exclaimed Mr. Forde, trying to snatch it off the +salver, but Mrs. Werner's face warned him of the impropriety he had +committed. + +"The note is intended for me, Mr. Forde, I think," she said quietly, and +opened the envelope after a courteous "Pray excuse me." + +As she read her face darkened. + +"Where are they, where have they gone?" demanded Mr. Forde eagerly. + +Mrs. Werner lifted her eyes and looked at him slowly and absently, as if +she had forgotten his existence. + +"I do not know," she answered. "Mrs. Mortomley does not say, and I have +not an idea unless they have returned to Homewood. Mrs. Mortomley +unfortunately understood Mr. Werner objected to my having invited her +and her husband here, and she hastened to leave a house where their +presence was unwelcome." + +Having unburdened herself of which statement, Mrs. Werner gathered up +her ample skirt, and with a distant bow to both gentlemen left the room. + +Mr. Werner went after her. + +"Leonora," he said as she ascended the staircase, but she never answered +him. "Leonora," he repeated, but still she made no more sign than if +she had been deaf. + +Then following rapidly, he stood beside her on the landing. + +"Leonora," he entreated, laying his hand on her arm with a pleading +gentleness difficult to associate with Henry Werner. + +She stood quite still and looked at him with an expression he had never +seen on her face before through all their married life, which God pity +any man who ever sees it in the face of his wife, in the face of the +mother of his children. + +"Do not speak to me about them to-night," she said. "Hereafter perhaps, +but not now," and her voice was changed and hard as Dolly had heard it. + +"Will you give me her note?" he asked. + +"Yes, it is your right," and she gave him the paper she held crushed in +her hand, a paper on which Dolly had traced mad words in wonderful +hieroglyphics. + +After his guests had all departed, when the house was silent and quiet +and lonely, and he was quite by himself, Henry Werner smoothed out that +crumpled manuscript and read the sentences Dolly had written in her +haste. + +There was much she had better have left unwritten, as there is in all +such effusions, much that was feminine and foolish, and passionate and +exaggerated. But it ended with two sentences which burned themselves on +Mr. Werner's brain. + + "If it were not for your sake, darling, I would wish that the man + you have had the misfortune to marry might be beggared and ruined + to-morrow--beggared, more completely ruined, more utterly even than + we have been. + + "As it is, I shall never forgive him--never for ever--never. + + "DOLLY." + +With a shiver Mr. Werner folded up Dolly's epistle and placed it in his +pocket-book. Then he did a most unwonted thing for him; indeed, I might +say unprecedented,--he poured out nearly a glass of brandy and drank it +off. + +"After all," he thought, "there is more in having a wife who is fond of +her husband than most fellows think. That little woman is as brave over +her sick husband as a hen about a brood of young chickens. I wonder if +she has taken him back to Homewood; or rather I do not wonder, for I +know she would sooner do anything than that." + +And in this idea he was perfectly correct; Dolly had found a shelter +for her sick husband, but not at Homewood. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE BEGINNING OF A NEW LIFE. + + +Off one of the cross roads leading from Stoke Newington and Stamford +Hill to Upper Clapton, there stood a few years back, and still stand, +for aught the writer knows to the contrary, a few pairs of semi-detached +houses, undoubtedly respectable as to position and appearance, but +painfully small in their internal arrangement--houses suitable both as +regarded rent and position for a couple of maiden ladies, for a widow +and her son, for a newly married couple, or for any one in fact whose +family chanced to be as circumscribed in number as his income in amount. + +All told, these desirable residences contained only seven rooms; but +the windows of those rooms overlooked, both back and front, pleasant +gardens, and the road in which they stood ended in a brick wall covered +with ivy, so that the inmates were crazed with no noise of passing +vehicles. Altogether a quiet out-of-the-world little Grove, for by that +name it was called, which a person might have wandered about Stamford +Hill and Clapton for ever without discovering, had he not chanced upon +it by accident, or happened to know some one resident in it. + +But Dolly Mortomley was familiar with that out-of-the-way nook. + +A widow with whom she had been well acquainted in the old Dassell days, +coming to London for the sake of being near her only son, had asked Mrs. +Mortomley to look her out a house, _small_, _genteel_, _cheap_, in a +_respectable neighbourhood_, _readily accessible to the City_--all these +requirements being italicised; and after weary searching, Dolly wrote +down triumphantly that she had found and taken the very residence +described, and that if her friend would send up her furniture, and come +and stay for a week at Homewood while the place was put in order, +everything should be made comfortable for her, so that she might walk, +without any fuss or trouble, into her new home. + +Mrs. Baker was the name of the new tenant who took possession of number +eight, in which she lived for nearly two years,--to the great +contentment of tradespeople, tax-collectors, and landlord, for she lived +regularly and paid regularly, as only persons possessed of a fixed +income punctually received, can do. + +At the end of that time, however, her son fell ill, and the doctors +advised that she should take him abroad for the winter. + +Then ensued a difficulty. She had taken the house on a three years' +agreement, and she did not wish to sell her furniture. + +Clearly then, as all her friends said, the best thing for her to do was +to let the house furnished until the end of her term, by which time she +would be able to arrange her future plans. + +This was in July. October had now come, and the house was still on +view. Keys to be had at Mr. Stilton's, Blank Street, Clapton, while once +a week the rooms were swept, the furniture rubbed and dusted, and fires +lighted, by a former servant, who having married only a few months +previously, resided in the neighbourhood. + +The house would not let furnished. The class of people who require +furnished houses are not those desirous of renting one at about a pound +or five-and-twenty shillings a week, and Dolly had already written to +inquire whether the chairs and tables and other effects had not better +be stored, and the residence let unfurnished. + +As she sat plucking the wool out of Mr. Werner's mat, the memory of this +house had recurred to her. They would be quiet there. She could pay Mrs. +Baker's rent without saying who were her tenants. Mr. Stilton knew her +well, and would let her have the keys at once if she said the house was +taken. She would have Susan over, and she would tell no one, except +Esther and Mr. Leigh, and perhaps Rupert Halling, where she and her +husband had taken refuge, and she would nurse him back to health in that +quiet house where not a sound would disturb his rest, for she remembered +Mrs. Baker telling her the people next door had neither chick nor +child--nor piano. + +It all came back to her like a vision of safety and peace. There Messrs. +Forde and Kleinwort could not intrude; there they might shut their door +and bar out the world, and not even Mr. Swanland could compel them to +shelter a man in possession; there she could go into her kitchen +undeterred by the thought of strangers loafing around the fire; there +they might have their dry morsel in quietness; there she would be free +from the scrutiny of Mr. Meadows, and the eternal bickering of workmen; +there Mr. Bayley would have no right to come at early morn and dewy eve, +and neither would Mr. Swanland's head and confidential clerk, who +appeared perpetually at Homewood to hear Mr. Meadows' report, and to +make sure the Mortomleys were not interfering with the business, or +making away with goods, or inciting the men to rebellion, or, in a +word, misconducting themselves in any way which should authorise Mr. +Swanland in taking active steps to teach them their true position. + +As for Mr. Werner and all their former acquaintances, she tried to +forget she had ever called a human being friend. + +"What I have to do now I must do for myself," she decided, as she drove +through the night, her husband's head pillowed on her shoulder. "If we +must pass through the valley of humiliation, it shall henceforth be +alone. We have trod it long enough in sight of the public." + +Perhaps she underrated the extent of the responsibility she thus +assumed; perhaps in her anger against Mr. Werner, and her remembrance of +all the misery she had endured at Homewood, she omitted to look on the +other side of the canvas, and see the picture of solitude, anxiety, +poverty, and lingering illness ultimately painted there; but spite of +this, though she took her bold step in haste, she never repented it had +been forced upon her--never, not even when she was weary and +downhearted, not even when the burden seemed greater than she could +bear, did Dolly regret she decided not to take her husband back to +Homewood. + +And yet, as she stood at the gate struggling with an unknown lock, her +heart did sink within her for a moment. + +It was only for a moment, however, for when after another fight with the +key of the hall-door, she entered the house and lighted the gas with +some matches she had been wise enough to purchase on her way, together +with some other articles, a great sense of security and contentment came +over her, and she felt, so far as she was concerned, if there had not +been a bed or table in the house, if she had been compelled to sleep on +the bare boards, she would cheerfully have done so rather than pass +another night under the same roof with Mr. Meadows or any person of his +profession. + +Full of this feeling she returned to the cab, and asked the driver to +assist her husband to alight. Fortunately, he was a strong, capable +fellow, or they must have sent for further assistance. + +To her utter dismay, Dolly found it impossible to rouse the sick man to +a sense of what was required from him, the moderate exertion of +struggling to a standing position, and almost in despair she strove with +all her strength to lift him from his seat. + +"Let me try, ma'am," said Cabby, and he took Mortomley in his arms, and +the moment after was supporting him on the side-path; then the strange +man and she managed between them to lead him up the short walk and the +little flight of steps leading to the hall door. + +"Can we get him upstairs?" Dolly asked in despair, for one look at his +face under the gaslight showed her his illness had returned, that he was +as bad as he could well be. + +"We can try, ma'am," was the answer. + +"You must stay with him while I run up and light the gas," she remarked. + +The man looked at the unpromising staircase, and at Mrs. Mortomley, +panting and out of breath, and shook his head. + +"I wouldn't try it if I was you," he said. + +They placed him in an arm-chair, and then with mattresses brought from +upstairs, made a comfortable enough couch in the back drawing-room. + +When these preparations were completed, Dolly motioned the cabman to +follow her into the hall. + +"Haven't you got anybody here with you, ma'am?" he asked, with a rough +sympathy in his voice and manner. + +"I am all alone for the present," she answered. "Will you do something +for me?" + +"Aye, that I will, if so be I can," was the ready answer. + +"First, how much do I owe you?" and when that pecuniary matter was +settled to his entire satisfaction, Mrs. Mortomley said, + +"I want you to fetch a doctor. Find one and bring him here as soon as +you can. We won't quarrel about your fare." + +"I am not afraid of that," he replied, muttering to himself as he +climbed up to his box, "but I am afraid it is an undertaker rather than +a doctor you will be wanting soon." + +He was not absent more than half an hour, but in that time Dolly had +arranged matters somewhat to her mind. + +She discovered coals in the cellar, and a few pieces of wood in the +kitchen-grate, and so managed to light a fire in the sick-room. She +carried the chairs, upholstered in damask, and other items of +drawing-room furniture into the front room, and substituted in their +place articles from the upper rooms, which proved that Dolly had no +intention of moving her husband to the first floor for some time to +come. + +From the contents of a travelling-bag, which having been taken straight +out to Mrs. Werner's carriage, had escaped Mr. Meadows' scrutiny, she +set out the dressing-table with a few toilet necessaries, and thus it +came to pass that when the doctor arrived he found the house inhabited +not merely by human beings, but by that subtle essence of womanhood +which may be felt but never described. + +Already the house was a home, and this man who entered so many houses +which were not homes did involuntarily homage to her achievement. + +With a quiet tread he walked to the side of his patient, and stooping +down over him felt his pulse, pulled up his eyelids, drew down the +coverings, and laid his hand on his heart, then placed his own cool palm +on the sick man's forehead. Then leaning his elbow on the mantelpiece, +he proceeded to question Dolly. + +"How long has he been ill?" + +"Several weeks. I cannot now remember how many," she answered, making a +movement as if to leave the room. + +"He won't hear us," said the doctor. "You need not trouble yourself +about that. Some one has been attending him, I suppose?" + +"Yes," she answered, "but not in this neighbourhood; we have only just +come here." + +"So the cabman told me," he replied. "Has he," indicating Mortomley +with a turn of his head, "been living low?" + +"He has had everything the doctor told me to give him." + +"Beef-tea, wine, and so forth?" + +"Yes, all sorts of wine, and everything we could think of or imagine." + +"Just as I supposed," remarked the doctor. "And medicine, of course, +draughts and drops, and those sort of things?" + +"Yes; all that was ordered." + +"And how does it happen a man in his state of health was out at such a +time of night--out, in fact, at all?" asked the doctor suddenly. + +"Because where we lived was killing him," Dolly answered; "because a +dear friend wanted to take us to Brighton with her. And--and--well if I +must tell you, other members of her family did not make us welcome when +we got to her house in London, and I was obliged to bring him here." + +"That is right," he said, nodding approvingly. "Always tell the truth to +your doctor. In return I will be frank with you. What your husband +wants is not so much wine, or meat, or change, or anything of that sort +usually recommended, but sleep. If he can rest, and I think he can, that +may save him; but I tell you candidly his recovery will be tedious, and +nothing except rest _can_ save him. Good night. I will not send you any +medicine at present, but I will look round early in the morning, and see +what sort of a night he has passed." + +And he held out his hand and departed, and Dolly was left alone. + +When she paid the cabman for his second journey she gave him a letter, +and put him upon honour to post it at some pillar-box where the +collections were made at three in the morning. + +That letter, written hurriedly and directed in pencil, ran as follows:-- + + "Thursday night. + + "Dear Esther,--I have decided _not_ to go with Mrs. Werner to + Brighton. Directly you receive this, please send Susan to Mrs. + Baker's. You know the address. I will try to get over to Homewood + to-morrow, but cannot do so till Susan comes here. Mr. Mortomley is + very ill. Do not mention where we are to any one till I have seen + you. + + "Yours, + "D. MORTOMLEY." + +The cabman was faithful. Though he might never see Mrs. Mortomley again, +he honestly did her bidding, and accordingly about half-past ten o'clock +the next morning Susan arrived, bringing the following note with her +from Esther:-- + + "Friday morning. + + "Dear Madam,--I have not kept Susan to take any of her clothes, as + I wanted to get her away before Meadows was up. I think you will be + quieter at Mrs. Baker's than any place else. + + "Susan will tell you about Mr. Forde and Mr. Kleinwort; but perhaps + you have seen them. + + "They were greatly put out at finding you gone. I would not have + told them where, but Meadows he did. No more at present from + + "Your humble servant, + "E. HUMMERSON. + + "Dear Madam,--I am sorry to hear Mr. Mortomley is so ill again. + Please do not send Susan here, as Meadows might get talking to + her." + +After reading and re-reading this epistle, Mrs. Mortomley decided not to +visit Homewood for some time to come. + + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + MR. FORDE MAKES A MISTAKE. + + +Matters were not progressing pleasantly at Homewood. Relieved from his +task of watching Mrs. Mortomley's movements, Mr. Meadows had spent the +evening of her departure in the company of Messrs. Lang and Hankins at +the public-house which they patronised, and the consequence was that he +came downstairs next morning very late, and feeling, after a debauch +following a period of enforced sobriety, not at all himself. + +And there was nothing prepared for breakfast which he liked. Turner and +the other man having been first in the field, had finished such +delicacies as Esther had seen fit to set before them, and when at +length Mr. Meadows appeared he found to his disgust nothing to tempt his +appetite. A pot of tea, with sugar and milk accompaniments, a boiled +egg, a loaf, and a small quantity of butter, alone graced the board. + +"I can't eat this, you know," said Mr. Meadows, pushing away the egg +with an expression of loathing. + +"Well, you can leave it then?" retorted Esther. + +"Bring me some ham," he commanded. + +"There is not any," she answered. + +"Then send for some." + +"Send for some yourself, and send the money with it," replied Esther, +who was not destitute of that spice of the virago which gives flavour +and variety to a woman's character. + +Mr. Meadows looked at her darkly, then put his hand in his +waistcoat-pocket, and produced some silver. + +"Where is Susan?" he inquired. + +"She is out," was the curt reply. + +"When will she be in?" + +"I do not know," Esther answered. "Never perhaps. She has gone after a +fresh place, and that is what I intend to do before long." + +"And that is just what you won't do, my fine young woman," he declared, +"for you cannot leave without a month's notice." + +"Well, we will see," she replied. "I have not to give notice to you +anyhow. I am not your servant." + +"You are Mr. Swanland's, which is about the same thing," was the answer. +"You chose to stay on after he took possession here for your own +pleasure, and you will stay on now for mine, or else we will go before +the nearest magistrate and know what he says on the subject." + +But he spoke to space, for Esther, too indignant to listen further, had +already left the kitchen, and he was compelled himself to go out into +the works and send a lad for the viands his soul desired. + +He had not finished his repast before a cab drove up, containing Messrs. +Forde and Kleinwort. + +Turner, sauntering idly about the lawn, was accosted by them. + +"I want to see Mrs. Mortomley," Mr. Forde exclaimed. + +"She has not returned. She left yesterday, as Mr. Meadows told you, sir, +with Mrs. Werner." + +"Yes; but she has come back here." + +"That she certainly has not," was the quiet reply. + +The two men looked at each other; then Mr. Kleinwort said, + +"We should like to speak just one word with that bright little maid, +Esther I think you call her. Will you tell her so?" + +"I will find her myself," said Mr. Forde, and he strode into the house, +followed by Kleinwort. As they entered the kitchen, Meadows, looking +little better for his breakfast, rose to meet them. + +"Where is Mrs. Mortomley?" repeated Mr. Forde, evidently believing that +iteration would bring him knowledge. + +"At Mr. Werner's sir," Mr. Forde muttered an impatient oath. + +"Where is that girl?--Esther, I mean." + +Mr. Meadows went in search of her, and when she appeared, Mr. Forde +remarked once again, that he wanted to see Mrs. Mortomley. + +"She is not here, sir, she went away with Mrs. Werner yesterday." + +"Yes, but she left Mrs. Werner's last night, and you know where she is +now." + +The arrow was shot at a venture, but it told. Esther coloured and looked +confused. + +"Come now, tell us where she is," said Mr. Forde in his mildest accents. + +It was not of the slightest use trying to fence with the difficulty, so +Esther grappled it. + +"I do not know, sir," she answered; thinking she might as well tell a +sufficient falsehood when she was about it. + +"That is not the truth," remarked Mr. Forde. + +"And if I did know where she was, sir," continued Esther, "I should not +give her address to you or any one else without her permission." + +"You are all a pack of thieves and swindlers together," observed Mr. +Forde; including, with a comprehensive glance, Meadows and the two men +and Esther, in the statement levelled against the Mortomley +establishment; "and I don't know that I ought not to give you all in +charge for conspiracy. I will send for a policeman, and see if he cannot +induce some of you to find your tongues." + +"I wish you would hold yours for a while," interposed Kleinwort. "Fact +is, my good peoples, we want to see that dear, distressed Mrs. +Mortomley, and do much good to her and that poor invalid husband, and +after a day or two it will be too late by far. You come with me," he +added, addressing Turner; "you, I see, have brains and can understand; +let me talk with you." + +And so he and Turner walked into the conservatory. + +"I will give you one--two--dree--foar--five gold pounds, if you get me +the place where to find our little lady," he remarked. + +But Turner shook his head. + +"I can't get it for you," he said. + +"But that maid so nice knows where she is. You worm it out of her. You +extract that knowledge." + +"No, sir," answered Turner. "I will not. I am not aware she has the +slightest idea where her mistress is; but if she has, I am not going to +pump her to please you. Put up your money, sir. God knows I have always +thought badly enough of our calling, but I think it respectable in +comparison to the callings I have seen followed by rich people since I +came here; and badly as I want five pounds, if I could take it to play +the spy on a lady like Mrs. Mortomley, I ought to be shot--that is what +ought to be done with me; and I have no more to say." + +"What can these beastly English brutes see in that Mrs. Mortomley to +make them loyal so senselessly," considered Mr. Kleinwort. "She has not +golden hair like mine dear wife, nor eyes so blue; nor presence so +imposing; nor that red and white so lovely; neither is she +house-mistress so clever; nor big brains as have some women. All she +seems to be owned of is a sharp tongue and a big temper. But these Bulls +are so stupid, they like to be goaded; they need not repose at home, as +do we whose heads know no rest abroad." + +For above an hour the pair remained at Homewood, thinking what could be +done, but every one about the place they found either senselessly honest +or stupid beyond belief; and at last, wearied and angry, Mr. Forde +returned to the kitchen, and addressing Esther, remarked, "I suppose if +I leave a note here, Mrs. Mortomley will have it?" + +Then answered Esther demurely, "I'm sure I don't know, sir; you had +better ask Mr. Meadows." + +"What the ---- has Mr. Meadows to do with the matter," inquired Mr. Forde. + +"Only, sir, that he sends all my mistress' letters to Mr. Swanland," +explained Esther, delighted at a chance of at last airing that +grievance. + +"What does she mean?" inquired Mr. Forde, turning to Meadows. + +"Nothing, sir, only that Mr. Swanland, as trustee, of course opens _all_ +letters." + +Whereupon Mr. Forde made some remarks about Mr. Swanland, which, though +a true chronicler, I must refrain from setting forth in print. + +"I should think, sir," suggested Esther, when the storm had blown over a +little, "that, if you sent a note either to Mr. Leigh or to Mrs. Werner, +my mistress would have it. She is quite certain to send her address to +them." + +"Look here, my girl," said Mr. Forde, "I will give the note to you, and +trust to chance. If Mrs. Mortomley has not given her address to you, +which I believe she has, she will within twenty-four hours. Give me pen, +ink, and paper." + +And though letter-writing was against all Mr. Forde's principles, he +thereupon sat down and wrote a note to Mrs. Mortomley, stating with what +regret he had heard of her consulting a solicitor, and asking for an +interview which he had no doubt would prove of ultimate advantage to +all concerned, "including Mr. Mortomley himself." + +When he had finished, he laid the envelope and a florin on the table and +summoned Esther. + +"That is the letter," he remarked. + +She took the letter and pushed aside the florin. + +"My mistress left me enough money, thank you, sir," she said; "and I +would rather not take any more from any one." + +Mr. Kleinwort shrugged his shoulders as she retreated, and his friend +pocketed the florin. + +"Asherill had reason," remarked the German. + +"What reason, and for what?" asked Mr. Forde. + +"He would do nothing with those people," was the reply; "and, my faith, +before you have finished, I think it may come to pass you shall wish you +had let them choose their own lawyer, their own trustee, and liquidated +their own estate for their own selves." + +"But you yourself advised--" began Mr. Forde. + +"Advised on your story which you swore was true. You said Mortomley was +shamming sick; that the nephew was a rogue and fool combined; that the +little woman had her own fortune secure; that besides, they had made one +great _coup_, and put away money beyond count. Ah! bah! you great, +stupid head--these two, man and wife, have been as senselessly honest as +foolish, as even I, looking around, using my eyes, using my ears, can +see, and you had better have treated them as such. Now I have said my +say, now do as you like for the future." + +"You are a clever fellow, Kleinwort, but you do not understand England +or English people." + +"That may be well," agreed Mr. Kleinwort, with a face like a judge, all +the time he was laughing to himself at the innocence of his companion. +As for Mr. Forde, what he liked to do in the future was this. + +When Mrs. Mortomley received his letter she sent it to Mr. Leigh, +requesting him to attend to it; and although the lawyer considered it a +somewhat curious and involved epistle, he repaired forthwith to St. +Vedast Wharf. + +Mr. Forde was within and visible. + +"I have called," said Mr. Leigh, after the first ordinary courtesies had +been exchanged, "to speak about a letter you sent to Mrs. Mortomley a +few days ago." + +Mr. Forde rose and put his hands in his pockets. "You will not speak to +me about it, my good sir; depend upon that," he observed. + +"I think you must have misunderstood me," ventured Mr. Leigh in +amazement. + +"No, sir, I have not," was the reply. "I wrote a friendly letter to Mrs. +Mortomley, and instead of coming to me herself she sends a lawyer. I +will have nothing to do with you, sir. There is the door; be kind +enough, as you came through it, to go out through it." + +"Certainly," agreed Mr. Leigh, "but--" + +"Leave the room, sir," roared Mr. Forde. "Will you go out of the +premises peaceably, or must I put you out?" + +"Mr. Forde," remarked the lawyer, "you must be mad or drunk. In either +case I can have no wish to remain in your company. Good morning." + +"Leave the room, sir," repeated Mr. Forde. He was one of those men who +think some charm lies in shouting out a certain form of words so long as +any one can be found to listen to it. + +"Good morning," said Mr. Leigh again in reply, and he left St. Vedast +Wharf boiling over with rage. + +As he proceeded up the lane he met a man with whom he had some +acquaintance--a man recently elected one of the directors of the General +Chemical Company, Limited. + +"Why, Leigh," said this gentleman, "where are you coming from?" + +"I am coming from being ordered off your premises by your manager," +replied Mr. Leigh, still white with passion. + +"My dear fellow, impossible--" + +"Not merely possible, but true," was the answer. "I have a client of the +name of Mortomley, who, some years ago, became acquainted with your +firm, and who has never done a day's good since. He is now in +liquidation, and Mr. Forde wrote a note to Mrs. Mortomley, which I can +show you if you are at all interested in so small an affair, wanting to +see her. She did not want to see him, and so sent his communication on +to me; but when I went to speak to him he flamed out on me as if I had +been a pickpocket, ordered me off the premises, and behaved, as I told +him, as if he were either mad or drunk." + +"Humph!" said the new director. Mr. Forde had within the previous +half-hour dealt himself a worse card than had ever before lain in his +hand. "If you want an apology, Leigh, the idiot shall send you +one--but--" + +"Apology!" repeated the lawyer, "do you suppose I would accept one if +the maniac sent it; but look to yourself, Agnew. There is something +awfully rotten about your company, or I am much mistaken." + +"I quite agree with you," was the reply; and the pair parted company; +but instead of entering St. Vedast Wharf, Mr. Agnew turned along a +cross lane, and thought Mr. Forde over quietly and at his leisure. + +When he had thought him over he retraced his steps, and entered the +offices, where Mr. Forde greeted him as though he had never spoken an +insolent or unkind word to any one. + +"Fine morning, sir," he declared. It was a curious fact that the moment +the Mortomleys left Homewood the rain ceased. + +"Yes, very fine," Mr. Agnew agreed, walking to the window. He was the +most silent person Mr. Forde had ever encountered. He wore his hair +parted down the middle, he used scent, his hands were very small and +white, his clothes came from a West-end tailor, and he had married the +daughter of some country magnate. Altogether, every one liked him at the +board, because he did not interfere, because he was a gentleman, and +because, as one of his fellow-directors said, + +"He is a HASS. If you want my opinion of him, that's what he is--a +HASS." + +And so nobody feared and no one cultivated him, and he moaned about the +premises at various hours, asking unconnected questions, looking at the +books in a desultory sort of way, tolerated at the wharf as a simpleton +might have been, and seeing much more than any one gave him credit for. + +One of the questions he asked Mr. Forde quietly and in a corner on that +especial day related to the estate Mr. Swanland was liquidating. + +"About Mortomley now," he said confidentially. + +"I am sorry to tell you, sir, I have been entirely deceived in that +blackguard," answered Mr. Forde. "I trusted him as I would my own +brother, and he has run away with I should be sorry to say what amount +of money; but we shall catch him yet I hope," added Mr. Forde; "and +Swanland says there will be a capital dividend. But one does not know +who is honest, one does not, indeed. I shall never advise giving another +man time." + +"I really do not think I should were I you," said Mr. Agnew. "It makes +matters unpleasant if things go wrong." + +"Aye, that it does," said Mr. Forde, "though that would not matter much +if all my directors were such Zanies as you," he added mentally. + +For it was a curious fact that Mr. Forde conscientiously believed if he +could only be rid of the interference of his directors for a month, or +obtain an entirely new set whom he could direct as he pleased, fashioned +perhaps upon the model of Mr. Agnew, he should be able to make such play +with the resources of the Chemical Company, that he might raise it to +the pinnacle of commercial success. + +Beyond keeping his situation he had really very little good for himself, +notwithstanding his man[oe]uvring, notwithstanding the risks he had run, +the almost maddening anxieties in which he had managed to entangle +himself. + +Heaven knows the game had not been worth the candle, but then, when a +man begins a game, he cannot tell the end; and when the game is ended, +it is too late to fret about the cost. + +If ever an essentially round person had the misfortune to be placed in a +square hole, that person was Mr. Forde; and not all his loud talk and +vehement self-exertion could fill the vacant corners or give him any +real sense of security in his position. + +Nevertheless, to that position he held on as a man might cling to the +last to a sinking vessel. + +So long as he could keep his head above water at St. Vedast Wharf, there +was hope that some friendly ship might rescue and bear him off to +safety. + +"You wait," said Kleinwort to him, when they were discussing the +pig-headedness of the directors and the general and disgusting +ingratitude of small customers, who would keep failing, and thus drew +attention to those accounts which were of regal magnitude. "You wait; do +not inquiet yourself more than you can avoid. I have one idea that we +should be able to do much good together. Once I make a great _coup_ that +is in mine head, then we shall see much. Amongst more if Bertrand +Kleinwort cannot put a fortune in the way of his friend." + +"Thank you, Kleinwort," replied Mr. Forde gratefully. "I know I can +trust _you_." + +Which showed an amount of faith difficult to conceive of any one +possessing in the sceptical nineteenth century. + +But Mr. Forde had an enormous capacity for believing in things he +desired should come to pass. + +And this was really a great pity. + + + + END OF VOL. II. + + + + PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO., + LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. + + + + +Transcriber's Note: Minor changes have been made to spelling and +punctuation. For example, the word hold was changed to holding and +neighbourood to neighbourhood. The oe ligature is shown as [oe]. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mortomley's Estate, Vol. II (of 3), by +Charlotte Elizabeth Lawson Cowan Riddell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORTOMLEY'S ESTATE, VOL. II (OF 3) *** + +***** This file should be named 39552-8.txt or 39552-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/5/5/39552/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Sue Fleming and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mortomley's Estate, Vol. II (of 3) + A Novel + +Author: Charlotte Elizabeth Lawson Cowan Riddell + +Release Date: April 28, 2012 [EBook #39552] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORTOMLEY'S ESTATE, VOL. II (OF 3) *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Sue Fleming and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>MORTOMLEY'S ESTATE.</h1> + +<p class="center">A Novel.<br /></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center">BY<br /></p> + +<h2>MRS. RIDDELL,</h2> + +<p class="center">AUTHOR OF<br /></p> +<p class="center">"GEORGE GEITH," "TOO MUCH ALONE," "HOME, SWEET HOME,"<br /></p> +<p class="center">"THE EARL'S PROMISE," ETC. ETC.<br /></p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><i>IN THREE VOLUMES.</i><br /></p> + +<p class="center">VOL. II.<br /></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center">LONDON:<br /></p> +<p class="center">TINSLEY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND.<br /></p> +<p class="center">1874.<br /></p> + +<p class="center"><i>All rights of Translation and Reproduction are Reserved</i>.<br /></p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="center">PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO.,<br /></p> +<p class="center">LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.<br /></p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="center">TO<br /></p> + +<p class="center"><big>Emma Martin,</big><br /></p> + +<p class="center">OF<br /></p> +<p class="center">WADESMILL, HERTS,<br /></p> + +<p class="center">THIS STORY IS DEDICATED,<br /></p> + +<p class="center">AS A TOKEN OF THE AUTHOR'S RESPECT AND AFFECTION.<br /></p> + + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr> + <td align="right"><small>CHAPTER</small></td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></td> + <td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">MR. FORDE AT HOMEWOOD</a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> + </tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></td> + <td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">KLEINWORT AND CO. IN CONSULTATION</a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">18</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III</a></td> + <td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">MR. DEAN AND HIS FUTURE RELATIVES</a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">50</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV</a></td> + <td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">PREVISION</a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">70</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V</a></td> + <td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">MR. DEAN GLORIFIES HIMSELF</a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">85</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI</a></td> + <td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">MR. GIBBONS' OPINION ON THE STATE OF AFFAIRS</a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">107</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII</a></td> + <td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">STRAWS</a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">123</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII</a></td> + <td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">MR. SWANLAND STIRS HIS TEA</a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">147</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX</a></td> + <td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IN THE 'TIMES'</a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">169</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X</a></td> + <td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">MR. SWANLAND WISHES TO BE INFORMED</a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">186</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI</a></td> + <td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">MRS. MORTOMLEY'S FORTUNE</a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">208</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII</a></td> + <td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">LEAVING HOMEWOOD</a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">223</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII</a></td> + <td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">DOLLY WRITES A LETTER</a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">251</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV</a></td> + <td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">THE BEGINNING OF A NEW LIFE</a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">277</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV</a></td> + <td align="left"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">MR. FORDE MAKES A MISTAKE</a></td> + <td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">292</a></td> +</tr> +</table> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span><br /></p> + + + + +<h1>MORTOMLEY'S ESTATE.</h1> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>MR. FORDE AT HOMEWOOD.</h3> + + +<p>Said Mrs. Mortomley to Lenore,</p> + +<p>"Run away, love, I do not want you here. I am busy."</p> + +<p>"Shall I take her?" asked Rupert, seeing a little trouble in the child's +eyes, a pucker about the corners of her mouth.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, yes," answered Dolly; and so, without leave-taking of any +kind, the little girl and Rupert departed through one of the French +windows already mentioned.</p> + +<p>"Should you like to go to the Forest with me?" he asked, when they +turned the gable of the house and were sauntering across the side <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>lawn +where the great walnut-tree, which was the talk of all that part of the +country, grew.</p> + +<p>As they walked under the spreading branches, Rupert looked up and +sighed. He had a prevision that no Mortomley for ever should eat of the +fruit again.</p> + +<p>There is an instinct which is as far beyond knowledge as omnipresence is +beyond sight, and from the moment Mortomley succumbed to Mr. Forde, and +adopted his tactics, Rupert felt his uncle's days of prosperity were at +an end.</p> + +<p>Personally, he, Rupert Halling, could do no more good for any one by +intermeddling in his uncle's affairs.</p> + +<p>And it was quite time he considered his own more fully, even than had +been the case latterly.</p> + +<p>In his selfishness, however, he was good-natured, and offered to allow +Lenore to accompany him, while he pursued his meditations and perfected +his plans; at which offer Lenore, who had latterly been somewhat +neglected by every one about the house, delightedly clapped her hands +and shouted for joy.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<p>There had been a time when Mrs. Mortomley would have dreaded taking upon +herself the responsibility of an interview with Messrs. Forde and +Kleinwort. But that dread was over now.</p> + +<p>She was in the middle of the battle, and the Gerace nature knew no +faltering when the trumpet sounded, and every man (or in default of man, +woman) was called to do his best.</p> + +<p>After Lenore's departure there ensued a moment's silence.</p> + +<p>Mr. Forde was so lost in astonishment at the audacity of the whole +family that he lacked power to give expression to his feelings.</p> + +<p>Mr. Kleinwort, having spoken, was thinking what he should say next, and +Mrs. Mortomley was struggling between her repulsion against the man and +her desire to offer some apology for a rudeness which had been as +involuntary as irresistible.</p> + +<p>"I beg you to pardon my incivility," she began at last, bringing out her +words with a slow reluctance which was almost perceptible. "Trouble does +not tend to increase politeness." </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That is indeed true," agreed Mr. Kleinwort, "but you must remember, +madam, other people also are troubled with your troubles."</p> + +<p>"What is the use of talking in that way," interrupted Mr. Forde. "Do you +suppose they care for anything or person but themselves? Do you imagine +if Mr. Mortomley had the smallest consideration for us, he would be laid +up at such a time as this?"</p> + +<p>"Do you think he is not really ill, then?" inquired Mrs. Mortomley.</p> + +<p>"I neither know nor care what he is," was the answer. "It is enough for +us to be told we cannot see him,—and he will find it more than enough +for him,—and you can tell him with my compliments that I say so."</p> + +<p>"Yes, bankruptcy is not all pleasure," remarked Mr. Kleinwort with a +solemn shake of his round head.</p> + +<p>"At least it must be freedom," suggested Dolly.</p> + +<p>"You think so?" said Mr. Forde with a nasty laugh. "They'll know more +about that in six months' time. Eh! Kleinwort?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> "Most like," agreed the German. "No, madame, a man had better by much +be dead than bankrupt. I, Kleinwort, tell you no lie. You do not +understand; how should you? Mr. Mortomley does not understand neither; +how should he? You talk to him. You say, it is best we should use our +two brains to avoid so great disgrace; you think over all the good +friends who you own; you see what money can be found. That will be +better than bankruptcy; that word so ugly, bankruptcy—bad—bad."</p> + +<p>"Let us go into the works, Kleinwort," suggested Mr. Forde at this +juncture, and he walked out into the garden followed by his friend.</p> + +<p>"I will fetch the key," said Mrs. Mortomley, and having done so, she +would have given it to them, but Mr. Forde asked,</p> + +<p>"Is there no person who can go with us?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p><p> "I—I will go with you myself," she hesitated, not liking to confess +Rupert was not about the grounds, which fact she had learned during her +absence from the room; "I thought perhaps you wished to be alone."</p> + + +<p>Up the laurel walk they paced, Mr. Kleinwort going into ecstasies over +the flowers; Mr. Forde muttering, "Pretty penny it must cost to keep up +this place;" while the scent of heliotrope and late mignonette pervading +the air, made Dolly feel faint and sick as did the very peace and beauty +of the scene.</p> + +<p>"Where are all the men?" asked Mr. Forde, as he beheld the deserted +buildings.</p> + +<p>"They have gone for the evening," Mrs. Mortomley answered. "Excepting at +very busy times, they never work later than half-past five."</p> + +<p>"Nice management!" commented Mr. Forde.</p> + +<p>"I believe that is the usual hour in most factories," she ventured.</p> + +<p>He did not contradict her, but contented himself with shaking his head +as though he would imply that it was useless further to comment on the +bad management of Homewood, and walked about the premises, peering into +this vat and that cask, as if he expected to come suddenly upon a mine +of silver, or a heap of gold dust.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p><p>Anything funnier to an uninterested spectator than Mr. Forde looking +about the colour works, to see what Mortomley had done with his money, +could not possibly be conceived; but, then, there chanced to be no +uninterested spectator,—not even Messrs Lang and Hankins, who happened +to be making up some goods accounts in a little sentry-box of an office +that stood near the outer gates.</p> + +<p>"Who are they?" asked Hankins of his companion, who, while thrusting his +arms into his coat which he had thrown off for greater convenience +during his arithmetical calculations, answered,</p> + +<p>"One of them, the biggest, is Forde. Let me get away before they see us! +he asks as many questions as an Old Bailey lawyer and about as civilly, +and I am afraid his being here means no good to our governor!"</p> + +<p>"Oh! that's the chap, is it?" replied Mr. Hankins. "Well, he may ask me +as many questions as he likes;" and as one who smelleth the battle afar +off, Mr. Hankins stepped out of his sentry-box, and walked in a +<i>débonnaire</i> manner across the yard to meet the visitors.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p><p> "Who was that went out just now?" inquired Mr. Forde.</p> + +<p>"Our manager, sir."</p> + +<p>"Fetch him back. I want him."</p> + +<p>Mr. Hankins went rapidly enough to the outer gate, and passed into the +road, where he saw Lang turning a not remote corner.</p> + +<p>Hearing the gate slam, Lang looked round and would have paused, but +Hankins made him a sign to proceed. Then Hankins, having hurried to the +corner, took up a position which commanded a good view of his friend's +retreating figure; and it was only when Lang was out of sight that he +retraced his steps to the door where, as he expected, Mr. Forde was +waiting for him.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't overtake him, sir," he said, panting a little as if he had +made mighty efforts to do so.</p> + +<p>"Humph!" exclaimed Mr. Forde; "I'll be bound I could have overtaken +him."</p> + +<p>"I don't think you could, sir."</p> + +<p>"And who asked you to think, pray?" inquired Mr. Forde.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p><p> "No one, sir. I beg your pardon; I won't do it again."</p> + +<p>Mr. Forde looked at the man to see if he was making game of him, but +there was not a suspicion of a smile on Mr. Hankins' self-sufficient +face.</p> + +<p>"And who are you, sir?" inquired Mr. Forde, in the tone of a man who +meant, "Now don't try to trifle with me or it will be the worse for +you."</p> + +<p>"Oh! I am foreman here," answered Mr. Hankins.</p> + +<p>When he repeated this conversation afterwards, which he did many and +many a time to admiring and appreciative audiences, he stated that when +Mr. Forde began to "sir" him, he said to himself, "If you are going to +get up it's time I got down, as the Irishman said when his pony got his +foot in the stirrup."</p> + +<p>"This seems a remarkably well-conducted business," observed Mr. Forde +with a sneer.</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't think it is what it once was," admitted Mr. Hankins with +a touching modesty. "We do what we can, but since <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>the governor's health +has taken to failing, I am free to confess our colours ain't what they +used to be."</p> + +<p>And Mr. Hankins picked up a leaf and began to chew the stalk in a manner +calculated to inspire confidence in his companion's bosom.</p> + +<p>"Your colours are not what they used to be, then?" remarked Mr. Forde, +imagining he was leading the man on.</p> + +<p>"No, they ain't, sir. Not a day passes but we have a complaint or +returns or a deuce of a row about the change in quality. And things were +never like that when the governor was at his best. Ay, it was a bad day +for Homewood when he quitted his old connection and took up with new +people."</p> + +<p>Now Mr. Forde believed this remark referred to Mr. Mortomley's new +customers, and Mr. Kleinwort having by this time approached the pair, +drew by a look his attention to the conversation.</p> + +<p>"You don't think the new people so good as the old, then," he said, +italicizing the observation for Mr. Kleinwort's benefit with a wink.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> + + +<p>"I can't say for the 'people,'" answered Mr. Hankins. "It's the goods +I'm speaking about. We never used to have our materials from any but +tip-top houses, Marshalls, Humphries, and the like, but of late the +governor has dealt at some place in Thames Street, and of all the rot +that ever I saw theirs is the worst. I have often told the governor he +ought not to ask any man to take in the rubbish, but somehow or another +he ain't what he used to be, and there is no use in talking sense to +him."</p> + +<p>With a very red face Mr. Forde turned and walked through the factory all +by himself, while Kleinwort, who enjoyed and appreciated the position as +only a foreigner could, continued to discourse with Mr. Hankins, asking +him about the value of the stock, the cost of the plant, whether the +trade could not be extended almost indefinitely, whether he was aware of +the nature of Mr. Mortomley's illness and so forth, until Mr. Forde, who +soon grew weary of his fruitless search after the concealed treasure, +shouted in his most strident tones,</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p><p> "What is the good of talking to that fool, Kleinwort? Let us be getting +back again."</p> + +<p>And he strode through the postern door into the laurel walk without +waiting for Mrs. Mortomley, who stood leaning against a desk in the +office as they passed through.</p> + +<p>"I will follow you in a moment," she said to Mr. Kleinwort, who, all +smiles and politeness, made way hat in hand for her to precede him; +then, as the foreigner passed out through one of the arches into the +pleasant, peaceful-looking garden, she turned to Hankins, and saying, +"Get me some water—quick," fell back in a faint so suddenly that the +man had barely time to prevent her dropping to the floor.</p> + +<p>"By jingo, she's as light as a feather!" exclaimed Mr. Hankins, and the +remark as he uttered it almost attained the dignity of an affidavit.</p> + +<p>As it happened there stood on the desk a water-bath used for copying +letters. The contents of this sprinkled not too carefully over Dolly, +brought her back to consciousness more rapidly than might have been +expected, but she could not stand alone for a minute or so, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>during +which time she supported herself by clinging to the office stool.</p> + +<p>"Are you better, ma'am?" asked Hankins anxiously. He had beheld his own +wife, when he or worldly affairs did not do according to her mind, taken +with a "turn;" but he had never seen a woman's face look like Mrs. +Mortomley's before.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, thank you, I am well," she said. "And if you believe me," +continued Mr. Hankins, addressing a select assemblage of his mates, "she +walked straight out of that office and across the court like a man +blind, it is true, but still straight with a sort of run, and shut the +door after her, and locked it; and that a woman, who looked like a +corpse, and was as near being one as she'll ever be, till she's laid in +her coffin. I wish I had pitched it heavier into Forde. I would if I had +'ave known she was going to turn up in that way."</p> + +<p>Meantime, Mr. Forde was back in the drawing-room pishing and pshawing at +the furniture and effects, and Mr. Kleinwort was walking <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>about the lawn +feeling, spite of his anxiety, almost a childish pleasure in treading +the velvet turf, in looking at the flowers which were still blooming +luxuriantly.</p> + +<p>To him came Mrs. Mortomley.</p> + +<p>"Ah! dear madame," he said, "this thing must not be; such a place, such +a plant, such a business. You think and see what can be done to prevent +so great misfortune. You have but to tell Bertram Kleinwort what to do, +and he will strive his best to fulfil."</p> + +<p>It might have had its effect once, but Dolly, like her husband, was now +too ill to temporize.</p> + +<p>"This must end," she said, "for good or for evil; I say we can strive no +more. We are tired—so tired of pouring water into a sieve."</p> + +<p>"You will not like bankruptcy," he answered.</p> + +<p>"We must take our chance," she said, and then they re-entered the house.</p> + +<p>"Had not we better see those men," asked Mr. Forde of his friend.</p> + +<p>"Well, yes," agreed Mr. Kleinwort.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Shall I tell them to come to you," asked Mrs. Mortomley, but Mr. Forde +put her aside.</p> + +<p>"I will go and find them myself," he answered, evidently under the +impression they were apocryphal creatures conjured up for the occasion.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mortomley sat down again. For five minutes—five blessed minutes +she imagined Messrs. Forde and Kleinwort were going to pay out the men, +and rid Homewood of their presence. Then romance gave way to reality, +and she heard Mr. Kleinwort ask,</p> + +<p>"Well, what is your say now?"</p> + +<p>"Stop," answered Mr. Forde, drawing on his gloves.</p> + +<p>"You say that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but," turning to Mrs. Mortomley, "your lawyer must not take the +order out; ours shall. There is no objection, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose not," she answered.</p> + +<p>"If you leave the matter with us, we will not oppose," he observed.</p> + +<p>"That will be a great relief to my husband," she said. "He did not think +any one else would." </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, well, we shall not, I am sure," was the unlooked-for reply. "You +shall hear from me to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," was Dolly's humble answer.</p> + +<p>"Good day. I hope we shall all have better times hereafter," and he held +out his hand.</p> + +<p>"Good day, madame," added Kleinwort, dropping a little behind. "Your +dear husband must make health, and, you madame, I shall trust ere long +time, to see red and not white. You must not mind Forde," he said, +almost in a whisper. "He is rough, he is, that is why I comed; but +good—so good when you get under his crust."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mortomley put her cold hand in Kleinwort's as she had put it into +that of Forde, and said good-bye to the one man as she had said it to +the other, with a wintry smile.</p> + +<p>So they parted. Never—for ever did she see either of the two again.</p> + +<p>Meantime, they drove back to London together in silence—silence broken +only once.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing, Kleinwort; why don't you speak?" asked Mr. Forde.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I am thinking—thinking, my friend," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"Then I wish to Heaven you would not think," said the unfortunate +manager. "It is deucedly unpleasant, you know."</p> + +<p>"You are so what you call droll," observed Mr. Kleinwort with cheerful +calmness.</p> + +<p>An Englishman must be artificially iced before he can ever hope to +attain to a foreigner's degree of coolness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>KLEINWORT AND CO. IN CONSULTATION.</h3> + + +<p>Drowning men catch at straws. It is not the fault of the straws that +they fail to save, and assuredly it is not the fault of the drowning men +that they carry the straws to destruction with them.</p> + +<p>The General Chemical Company on that Friday evening when Mr. Kleinwort +was asked to bring his persuasive powers to bear on the recusant family +at Homewood, chanced to be in precisely the state of a drowning man +making frantic clutches at safety, and Mr. Forde's worst enemy might +have pitied him had he understood all Mr. Mortomley's "going" meant to +the manager of St. Vedast Wharf.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> + +<p>He had driven out to Homewood vowing that Mortomley, willing or +unwilling, should not stop, and it was only when he found affairs had +passed beyond his control, that he began to think whether there was no +way out of the difficulty.</p> + +<p>Like an inspiration the idea of keeping the whole thing quiet, of +hoodwinking his directors, and of holding the ball still at his feet, +occurred to him.</p> + +<p>He had to do with fools, and he humoured them according to their folly, +and indeed the notion of suggesting the substitution of the Company's +solicitor for the solicitor of Mr. Mortomley amounted almost to a stroke +of genius.</p> + +<p>To Kleinwort there was a certain humour in the idea of first gibbeting a +man as a rogue, and then treating him as a simpleton. It was a feat the +German performed mentally every day, but then he kept the affair secret +between himself and his brains. He did not possess the frankness of that +"so droll Forde," and the tactics of his friend tickled him extremely.</p> + +<p>And yet, truth to say, Mrs. Mortomley was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>not so supreme an idiot as +the autocrat of St. Vedast's Wharf imagined.</p> + +<p>She had her misgivings, which Rupert pooh-poohed, declaring that peace +was well purchased at so small a price, and that for such a purpose one +lawyer was quite as good as another.</p> + +<p>"Still, I should like to speak to Archie's solicitor about it," she +persisted.</p> + +<p>"That is what you cannot do, for he is out of town," answered the young +man; "and very fortunate that he is, for if you went to him and he went +to Forde there would only be another row, and the whole affair perhaps +knocked on the head again."</p> + +<p>"I thought no one could prevent Archie petitioning," she remarked.</p> + +<p>"Neither can any one," was the reply; "but it might be made confoundedly +unpleasant for him after he had petitioned."</p> + +<p>Which all sounded very well, and was possibly very true, but it failed +to satisfy Dolly.</p> + +<p>Sleep had not for many a long month previously been a constant visitor +at Homewood, and whenever Mrs. Mortomley awoke, which <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>she did twenty +times through that night, the vexed question of Mr. Benning's +interposition recurred to her.</p> + +<p>Look at it in whatever light she would, her mind misgave her. If it made +no difference in the end, if it were no advantage to the Chemical +Company, she could not understand the object of so strange a proposal. +Rupert had indeed explained the matter by saying, "Forde wanted the +thing kept quiet;" but then why should the thing be kept quiet. In whose +interests and for whose benefit was it that such secrecy had to be +maintained. Pestered as her husband had been with demands for money, +with writs, and with sheriff's officers and their men, it seemed to Mrs. +Mortomley that all the world must already be acquainted with the +position of their affairs.</p> + +<p>"What can the object be they have in view?" she asked over and over +again whilst she lay thinking—thinking through the long dark hours. +"How I wish Mr. Leigh were in town?" And then all at once she bethought +her that within a walk of Homewood there <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>resided a gentleman with whose +family she had some slight acquaintance, and who chanced himself to be a +solicitor.</p> + +<p>This fact had been stamped on Dolly's mind by hearing of the unearthly +hours at which even in the dead of winter he was in the habit of +breakfasting so as to admit of his reaching his offices, situated +somewhere at the west, by nine o'clock.</p> + +<p>"I will ask him, and be guided by his reply," she decided, and +accordingly she rose at cock-crow and, dressing herself in all haste, +went across the fields, along the lanes to that sweet residence the +lawyer prized so much, and of which he saw so little.</p> + +<p>She met him at his own gate, and asked permission to walk a little way +with him towards the station. "She wanted to ask only one question," she +said, "but it was necessary to preface that by a little explanation."</p> + +<p>In as few words as sufficed for the purpose—and Heaven knows very few +suffice to tell a man is ruined—Mrs. Mortomley laid the state of the +case before her acquaintance.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Will it make any difference to my husband if Mr. Benning applies to the +Bankruptcy Court instead of Mr. Leigh?" she finished by inquiring.</p> + +<p>"None whatever," was the unhesitating reply.</p> + +<p>"You are certain?" she persisted.</p> + +<p>"Yes; I cannot see why it should alter his position or injure him in the +slightest degree."</p> + +<p>"Does it not strike you as a very extraordinary proposition?"</p> + +<p>"Well, yes," he agreed, "but no doubt it will be desirable for Mr. +Mortomley to raise no obstacle against their wishes. It is always +advantageous for a man to have a large creditor on his side."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Halling says they want to keep the affair quiet," she went on. "Why +should they want that, and how should employing their own solicitor +enable them to do it?"</p> + +<p>"I can only conjecture," was the answer, "that they desire the extent of +their own loss not to be made public, and by employing their <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>own +solicitor they will manage to keep the application out of the papers."</p> + +<p>"I am very, very much obliged to you," she said as they shook hands.</p> + +<p>"Not at all," he replied. "Command me at any time if I can be of service +to you," and they parted; but she had not retraced a dozen steps before +he ran after her and said,</p> + +<p>"I think, Mrs. Mortomley, were I in your place I should see Mr. Leigh +whenever he returns to town."</p> + +<p>Which in all human probability Mrs. Mortomley would have done without +his recommendation. Nevertheless, the hint was kindly meant, as his +previous opinion, spoken by an utterly honourable man, had been honestly +given.</p> + +<p>Upon the whole, however, I am not quite sure, seeing what one sees, +whether honourable men and thoroughly conscientious lawyers are exactly +the fittest people to help and counsel those who have reached the crises +of their lives.</p> + +<p>Through the years to come, at all events, +Dolly carried a certain agonised memory of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>that morning walk, and the +consequences her adviser's words ensured to her and hers.</p> + +<p>It was a fine September morning, the last fine morning that month held +in the especial year to which I refer. Had she been able to shake an +instinctive dread off her mind, she would, escaping for the hour from +the sight of sickness and the haunting feeling of men in possession, +have thoroughly enjoyed the calm landscape, the long stretches of +country across which her eyes, wearied though they were with night +watching, could roam freely. To right and to left lay the flat rich +Essex lands on which cattle were browsing peacefully, whilst at no great +distance were patches and pieces of woodland left still to tell Epping +once was more than a near neighbour to all the hamlets that formerly +nestled under its leafy shadows, and which are now becoming part and +parcel of the Great Babylon itself. In the distance she beheld dark +masses of foliage standing out darkly against the sky, showing that +there the monarchs of the forest still held the axe and the lords of the +soil at defiance, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>whilst ever and anon the light, rapid feet tripping +along field-paths, bordered by grass still wet and heavy with dew, +passed close by some stately park over which the silence and peace of +riches seemed brooding.</p> + +<p>But as matters stood, the fresh morning air and the silence and the +peace conferred upon other people by the riches possessed by them +brought little balm to Dolly.</p> + +<p>She had been told there was but one course for her to pursue, and she +had pursued it. She had been told it would lead to such comfort as was +now an utter stranger at Homewood, but she did not feel satisfied on +that point.</p> + +<p>A woman's instincts are always keener than her reason, and by instinct +Dolly vaguely comprehended there were dangers and difficulties ahead. +Sunken rocks and treacherous sandbanks, of which the amateur pilots +who advised the management of the business craft knew nothing.</p> + +<p>And yet she felt any sacrifice which could rid the house of its late, +and present, unwelcome guests would be worth making. In the centre <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>of a +great field she stood still clasping her hands above her head and +breathed a luxurious sigh of relief at the idea of having Homewood to +herself and family once more.</p> + +<p>"Without those dreadful creatures," she said quite aloud, and then she +gave her fancy wing and planned a course of papering, painting, and +white-washing after their departure, as she might have done had fever or +cholera taken up its abode for a time in the house.</p> + +<p>Which was perhaps ungrateful in Mrs. Mortomley, seeing the obnoxious +visitors had tried to respect her feelings in every possible +manner—kept themselves as much out of sight as possible—smoked their +pipes so as to give the smallest amount of annoyance—offered such +assistance as their physical and mental habits of laziness rendered +available when Cook and Jane departed, and said to each other, they had +never seen a "house go on so regular under similar circumstances as +Homewood, nor a lady who took it all so quiet as the mistress of that +establishment."</p> + +<p>And this was true. No one connected <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>with Homewood "took it so quiet" as +Mrs. Mortomley.</p> + +<p>I have a fancy that on those who turn the bravest and brightest face to +misfortune, the evil presence leaves the most permanent marks of its +passage. I think oftentimes while the face wreathes itself with smiles, +the cruel foot-prints are impressing themselves on the heart.</p> + +<p>Whether this be so or not, it is quite certain that although Dolly never +once, never showed through all that weary campaign a sign of the white +feather, the whole thing was to her as the single drop torture.</p> + +<p>It wore in upon her nature, it made a deep rugged channel through her +soul. And she was powerless to act. When Mortomley consented at Mr. +Forde's bidding to "go on" after he himself had decided to stop, when +Dolly consented that Mr. Benning should step into the shoes of their own +solicitor, they virtually threw up their cards and gave the game to +their adversaries.</p> + +<p>Not less did Samson, when he confided to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>the keeping of a woman the +secret of his strength, dream of the dungeon and the tormentors than did +Mortomley and his wife, when they so blindly surrendered their future, +dream of the misery and poverty in store.</p> + +<p>And yet Dolly had a prevision that evil must ensue. Well, not even the +gift of second sight can avert a man's doom when the hour draws near, +but it may help him to meet it bravely.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mortomley herself often thought that vague dread and uneasiness +which oppressed her when all things seemed going as they wished, +prepared her in some sort for the future she was called upon to +encounter.</p> + +<p>Could she have been present at an interview which a couple of hours +later took place in Mr. Kleinwort's offices she would have faintly +comprehended how he and his friends wished to liquidate Mortomley's +estate.</p> + +<p>They desired to get the whole matter into their own hands, and "keep it +quiet," but when the pros and cons of how this could be managed came to +be discussed, unforeseen difficulties arose at each stage of the +conversation.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You had better be trustee," said Mr. Forde, turning to Henry Werner, +who for reasons best known to himself and Kleinwort and Co., had been +requested to grace the interview.</p> + +<p>"What the devil should I be trustee for?" asked that amiable individual. +"The man does not owe me sixpence."</p> + +<p>"All the better for you," was the reply, whereat all the rest of those +present laughed. At such times laughter does go round, and it certainly +was not unlike the sound of "thorns crackling under a pot."</p> + +<p>"And all the better for us and those others, the rest of the creditors, +because you must be so much disinterested," added Kleinwort, in his +caressing manner, laying a fat and insinuating hand on Mr. Werner's +shoulder.</p> + +<p>Mr. Werner shook it off as if it had been a toad.</p> + +<p>"Don't be a fool, Kleinwort. You know I am not going to be trustee to +any estate in which the General Chemical Company is interested. And if +that Company had no interest in Mortomley, I still should refuse to take +part <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>in the matter. I have known Mrs. Mortomley ever since her +marriage, and I would have nothing to do with anything in which she is +concerned directly or indirectly. Between her and my own wife, and you +and the other creditors, I should lead a nice life. I thank you very +much, but I do not see it at all."</p> + +<p>"That is all very fine," remarked Mr. Forde, "considering it was through +you I knew this Mortomley, and through him we are all let into this +hole."</p> + +<p>"If you happen to have made a mistake about either statement," observed +Mr. Werner, "you can correct it in a few days. I am in no hurry."</p> + +<p>The manager opened his mouth to reply, but thinking better of the matter +shut it again. Whilst Mr. Benning who had been surveying the trio with +an expression of the most impartial distrust, said sharply,</p> + +<p>"Come, gentlemen, defer the settlement of your differences to some more +suitable opportunity. I cannot stay here all day whilst you discuss +extraneous matters. Whom shall we propose for trustee?" </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Hadn't we better have Nelson," suggested Mr. Forde, with a quick glance +at Mr. Kleinwort.</p> + +<p>"Who is Nelson," asked Mr. Werner.</p> + +<p>"One of our clerks; don't you remember?" answered the manager +deprecatingly.</p> + +<p>"Hadn't you better recommend the nearest crossing-sweeper?" commented +Mr. Werner. "He would do quite as well, and perhaps be considered far +more respectable."</p> + +<p>"You come here, Forde. I know the very person. I want to tell you. Just +not for more than one second;" and with that Mr. Kleinwort, with an +apologetic smile to his other visitors, drew Mr. Forde out of the +office, and whispered a considerable amount of diplomatic advice in his +ear while they stood together on the landing.</p> + +<p>"I cannot think it is a good thing for you to appear as Mortomley's +solicitor in this, Benning," said Mr. Werner when he and that gentleman +were left alone.</p> + +<p>"I do not see any way in which it can be a bad thing for me," was the +calm reply. "Of course I shall keep myself safe." </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I am sure you will do that so long as you are able," argued Mr. Werner. +"The question is can you keep your employers safe?"</p> + +<p>"I shall do the best in my power, of course, for Mr. Mortomley," +answered Mr. Benning.</p> + +<p>"Because if there should be any bother about the matter hereafter," +continued Mr. Werner, as coolly as if the lawyer had not spoken, "it may +be deuced awkward for the St. Vedast Wharf folks—and—and—some other +people."</p> + +<p>"I do not imagine there will be any bother," said Mr. Benning.</p> + +<p>"There is no help for it if you allow Kleinwort to dictate to you."</p> + +<p>"I do not intend to allow him to dictate to me," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"It was such folly the pair starting off to Homewood yesterday evening +and setting Mrs. Mortomley's mane up at once."</p> + +<p>"I do not attach much importance to that, but still I am surprised at +Kleinwort committing such a mistake; a man who thinks himself so +confoundedly clever, too." </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He is clever; he is the cleverest man I knew," commented Mr. Werner.</p> + +<p>"I dare say he is," agreed Mr. Benning; "but you remember those who live +longest see most of the game, and some one, I doubt not, will live to +know how many trumps our little friend really holds."</p> + +<p>Mr. Werner laughed—not pleasantly.</p> + +<p>"You try to see the cards of all other men, Benning, but you do not show +your own."</p> + +<p>"I have none to show," was the reply. "A man in my position cannot +afford to play at pitch and toss with fortune. Great gains and great +losses, great risks and great successes I am forced to leave to—well, +say Kleinwort. His name is as good as that of any other man with which +to finish the sentence."</p> + +<p>"And yet to look at his office," began Mr. Werner.</p> + +<p>Mr. Benning had been in it a dozen times before, and knew every article +it contained. Nevertheless, he apparently accepted his companion's +remark as an invitation to have still another glance, and his eyes +wandered slowly <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>and thoughtfully over every object in the room.</p> + +<p>When he had quite finished his scrutiny, he said,</p> + +<p>"You are quite right. To look around his office, Mr. Kleinwort ought +never to have had a transaction with the General Chemical Company, and +if I had any young client in whom I was interested, I should advise him +never to have a transaction with Mr. Kleinwort."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, you are mistaken," remarked Mr. Werner eagerly. "I never meant +to imply anything of the kind."</p> + +<p>"Oh! indeed," replied the lawyer. "Well, it does not signify, but I +thought you did."</p> + +<p>"I never do attempt conversation with any one of these fellows but I +have reason to repent it," Mr. Werner observed thoughtfully to himself, +and there was a considerable amount of truth in the remark. Conversation +in the City, if a man have anything to conceal, is about as safe and +pleasant an exercise as walking through a field set with spring guns.</p> + +<p>Kleinwort's <i>pour-parler</i> kept him safe enough, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>skirting with pleasant +phrases and apparently foolish devices round and about dangerous ground, +but Werner did not chance to be quite so great a rogue as his friend, +and he certainly regarded life and its successes much more seriously, +though not more earnestly, than the man who was good enough to "make use +of England."</p> + +<p>Upon the whole Mr. Werner felt relieved that before Mr. Benning could +take up his parable again the door opened, and Messrs. Forde and +Kleinwort reappeared, the latter exclaiming,</p> + +<p>"We have got him now; the right man for the right place; Duncombe, you +know Duncombe."</p> + +<p>"I cannot say that I do," answered Mr. Benning, while Henry Werner, with +an impatient "Pshaw," turned on his heel, and walked to the window, +against the panes of which a fine drizzling rain was beginning to beat.</p> + +<p>"It seems to me, sir," began Mr. Forde irritably, "that as you are +unwilling to make <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>any suggestion yourself, you might find some better +employment than objecting to the suggestions of others."</p> + +<p>"That is enough," was the reply. "Manage the affair after your own +lights, and see where they will ultimately land you."</p> + +<p>"Who is Duncombe?" inquired Mr. Benning.</p> + +<p>"A most respectable man; A1, sir," explained Mr. Forde. "The London +representative of Fleck, Handley and Company, whose works are at +Oldbury, Staffordshire."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said Mr. Benning. He was beginning to recollect something about +Fleck, Handley and Co., and their London representative also.</p> + +<p>"A large firm in a large way," continued Mr. Forde. "They have extensive +transactions with the G. C. C. Limited."</p> + +<p>"Which fact in itself is a proof of respectability and solvency," added +Werner with his bitter tongue.</p> + +<p>"Ah! but they are not accountants," commented Mr. Benning, affecting +unconsciousness <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>of the sneer. "And we must have an accountant, or we +shall meet with no end of difficulty. The position of affairs, as I +understand it, is this: Mr. Mortomley is either unable to go on or else +wishes to stop. The result is the same, let the cause be which it may. +He wishes the affair kept quiet or some of his creditors do. To effect +this object he wishes me to act for him in the matter. Now, if I am to +do so effectually, it is needful for us to have a trustee about whose +<i>bona fides</i> there can be no question. It is not enough for us that a +man is a very honest fellow or useful or expedient. We must have some +one with a known name accustomed to this sort of work. It is perfect +waste of time racking our brains to think which Dick or Tom or Harry +will answer our purpose best. We can have no Dick or Tom or Harry. This +is not a small affair, and the Court will require some responsible man +to take the management of such an estate."</p> + +<p>"There is no estate to manage," interposed Mr. Forde. "The whole thing +has been muddled away, or made away with."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p><p> "If that be your real opinion, the whole thing had better go into +bankruptcy at once," said Mr. Benning.</p> + +<p>"No—no—no—no, not at all; by no means, no," exclaimed Mr. Kleinwort +as the lawyer rose as if intending to depart. "That must not be. I, +Kleinwort, say no. Forde is rash—rash. He knows not what is good or +best. He talks beyond the mark."</p> + +<p>"Come, Forde, reckon up your respectable acquaintances, and tell us the +name of the blackest sheep you know amongst the accountant tribe," +suggested Mr. Werner. "Your experience has been large enough, Heaven +knows."</p> + +<p>"Will you stop jeering or not?" asked Mr. Forde. "Considering Mr. +Mortomley is your bosom friend, I think the way you talk of this matter +scarcely decent."</p> + +<p>"Nay," answered Mr. Werner. "Mortomley has been your bosom friend it +seems to me. Certainly, had he asked my advice a few years ago, we four +would not have had the arrangement of his destiny to-day. And as for +bosom <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>friends," he added in a lower tone, "a businessman has none, and +no friends either for that matter. Such luxuries are not for us."</p> + +<p>"Do, for heaven's sake, let us keep to the matter in hand," exclaimed +Mr. Benning. "Will you name an accountant or shall I?"</p> + +<p>The manager looked at Mr. Kleinwort, and then once again the German led +his, so good friend, out of the room.</p> + +<p>Mr. Benning watched the pair till the door closed behind them, and then +turning to Mr. Werner, said,</p> + +<p>"Will you allow me to ask you one question? How does it happen so astute +a man as you has anything to do with St. Vedast Wharf?"</p> + +<p>"Trade, like poverty, makes one acquainted with strange bedfellows," was +the reply.</p> + +<p>"That is very true; but why are you mixing yourself up with this man +Mortomley?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Werner paused a moment before he answered, and a dull red streak +appeared on each side his face, while he hesitated about his answer.</p> + +<p>Then he looked his interlocutor straight in the eyes and said,</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Because I want to keep Forde at St. Vedast Wharf for another +twelvemonth."</p> + +<p>Mr. Benning, between his teeth, gave vent to a low but most +unlawyer-like whistle.</p> + +<p>"That's it, is it," he commented.</p> + +<p>"That is it," agreed Mr. Werner.</p> + +<p>"And Kleinwort ditto?" said the lawyer, inquiringly.</p> + +<p>"So far as I know," was the reply.</p> + +<p>Then observed Mr. Benning,</p> + +<p>"I am infinitely obliged by your frankness. I could not see my way +before, but I think I can discern daylight now."</p> + +<p>"It must be through a very dark tunnel then," remarked Mr. Werner +bitterly.</p> + +<p>"We must keep Mortomley's business moving."</p> + +<p>"That is what Kleinwort says, but I confess I do not see how it is to be +done."</p> + +<p>"Where there is a will there is always a way," was the calm rejoinder. +"Well, gentlemen," he added, as Mr. Kleinwort returned leading his +friend with him. "Have you found a suitable man; because if not, I +must." </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," answered Kleinwort irritably, for he and Mr. Forde had been +arguing a little hotly over the trustee question. "Do you happen to know +one very good man, one true dear Christian who makes long prayers, and +has snow hair hanging loose, and wears a white neckhandkerchief so pure +and faultless—"</p> + +<p>"What is his name?" interrupted Mr. Benning.</p> + +<p>"Asherill," answered Mr. Forde.</p> + +<p>"You mean the old humbug in Salisbury House I suppose," commented Mr. +Benning, after a moment's pause. "Well, I don't know but that he might +serve our purpose as well as any one if he will undertake the business. +But you know, in spite of its sheep's clothing, what a cunning old wolf +it is. He understands it behoves him to be careful, and he is. Give him +a straightforward case, however small, and he is satisfied.</p> + +<p>"He will strip the debtor clean as a whistle, and then sympathize with +the creditors over the depravity of debtors in general, and that +especial sinner of a debtor in particular. But <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>take any estate to him, +no matter how large the liquidation of which <i>may</i> subsequently be +called in question, and he says, even while his mouth is watering for +the <i>bonne bouche</i>,</p> + +<p>"'No, no, thank you, my dear kind friend, very much, but I have my +prejudices, foolish no doubt, but insurmountable. Other men have not +those prejudices, and will do your work better—far better. Thank you so +very, very much. Good-bye. God bless you.'"</p> + +<p>It was not in Kleinwort—who always loved hearing one Englishmen +ridicule or anathematize another—to refrain from laughing at the +foregoing sentence which the lawyer delivered with a solemn pomposity +Mr. Asherill himself might have envied, and even Mr. Werner smiled at +the imitation. But Mr. Forde, who could never see a joke unless he +chanced to be easy in his mind, which of late was an event of infrequent +occurrence, looked upon Kleinwort's merriment as unseemly, and telling +him not to be an ass, took up the broken thread of conversation by +remarking,</p> + +<p>"I do not think Asherill will make any <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>objection in this case. In the +first place there is nothing doubtful about the transaction, and in the +second place Mr. Samuel Witney, who is—in religion—a friend of his, +and who has often done him a good turn, happens to be one of our +directors."</p> + +<p>"I should not feel inclined to place much dependence on either fact," +said Mr. Benning. "But as I suppose you understand your own +business—let us try Asherill. I have to attend a meeting of creditors, +and shall not be able to see him to-day; but you," turning to Messrs. +Kleinwort and Werner, "had better do so, and take a note from me at the +same time."</p> + +<p>"I have got my own business to attend to," remarked Mr. Werner.</p> + +<p>"And so have I in most good truth," echoed Kleinwort piteously.</p> + +<p>"Well, attend to your own and Mortomley's also for to-day. After that I +promise you shall be troubled no more about Mortomley or his estate." So +spoke Mr. Benning, and his words recommended themselves to Henry Werner.</p> + +<p>"On that understanding," he said, "I will do what you wish." </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I must stay here till twelve," pleaded Kleinwort. "After that, any +time, anywhere."</p> + +<p>"I will be here at quarter past twelve;" and having made this +appointment, Mr. Werner bade good morning to the lawyer and the manager, +and ran down the stone stairs leading from Kleinwort's office as if the +plague had been after him.</p> + +<p>"There is nothing more to say I suppose," nervously suggested Mr. Forde +as the lawyer buttoned up his coat, and requested the loan of an +umbrella.</p> + +<p>"We are going to have a nasty day," he remarked. "I will send the +umbrella back directly I get to my place. No. I don't think there is +anything more to say. I understand the position, and hope everything may +go on satisfactorily."</p> + +<p>Mr. Forde buttoned up his coat, walked to the window, looked out at the +sky, which was by this time leaden, and at the rain, which had begun to +come down in good earnest. Then he grasped his umbrella, and after +saying, "I shall wait at the wharf till I see you, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>Kleinwort," heaved a +weary sigh, and departed likewise.</p> + +<p>"My dear, dear friend, how I should like to keep you waiting there for +me, for ever," soliloquised Kleinwort, in his native tongue, which was a +very cruel speech, inasmuch as if Mr. Forde had any strong belief, it +was a faith in Kleinwort's personal attachment to himself.</p> + +<p>In moments of confidence indeed he had told those far-seeing friends +whose confidence in the German was of that description which objects to +trust a man out of its sight, "I dare say he is a little thief, but I am +quite sure of one thing; he may swindle other people, but he will never +let in <span class="smcap">ME</span>." A touching proof of the simplicity some persons are able to +retain in spite of their knowledge of the wickedness of their +fellow-creatures. Faith is perhaps the worst commodity with which to set +up in business in the City, since it is so seldom justified by works.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p><p>When Mr. Werner returned to keep his appointment he found Mr. Kleinwort, +his coat off, a huge cigar in his mouth, busily engaged in writing +letters.</p> + +<p>"Just one, two minutes," he said, "then I am yours to command. Sit +down."</p> + +<p>"No; thank you. I will wait for you outside. I wonder what you think I +am made of if you expect me to breathe in this atmosphere."</p> + +<p>And he walked on to the landing, where Kleinwort soon joined him.</p> + +<p>"I must have some brandy," remarked that gentleman. "I am worn out, +exhausted, faint. Look at me," and he held up his hands, which were +shaking, and pointed to his cheeks, which were livid.</p> + +<p>Mr. Werner did look at him, though with little apparent pleasure in the +operation.</p> + +<p>"Have what you want, then," he said. "Can't you get it there?" and he +pointed to a place on the opposite side of the street where bottles were +ranged conspicuously against the window-glass.</p> + +<p>"There! My good Werner, of what are your thoughts made? The spirits +there sold are so bad no water was never no worse."</p> + +<p>"I should not have thought you a judge of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>the quality of any water +except soda-water," answered Werner grimly.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" was the reply; "but you are English. You have inherited nothing +good, imaginative, poetic, from your father's fatherland."</p> + +<p>"If by that you mean I have no knowledge of the quality of every tap in +the metropolis, you are right, and, what is more, I do not want to have +anything to do with poetry or imagination if either assumes that +particular development."</p> + +<p>"We put all those things on one side for an instant," suggested +Kleinwort, making a sudden dive into a tavern which occupied a +non-conspicuous position in an alley through which they were passing, +leaving Werner standing on the pavement wet as a brook from the torrents +of rain that were at last coming down as if a second deluge had +commenced.</p> + +<p>When Kleinwort reappeared, which he did almost immediately, his cheeks +had resumed their natural hue, and the hand which grasped his umbrella +was steady enough.</p> + +<p>"If I drank as much as you," commented Mr. Werner, "I should go mad." </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And if I drank as you so little I should go mad," was the answer. "You +have got in your lovely English some vulgar saying about meat and +poison."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and you will have something which is called <i>delirium tremens</i> one +of these days if you do not mind what you are about."</p> + +<p>"Shall I? No, I think not. When the engine has not need to work no +longer, it will be that I lower the steam. Some day, some blessed day, I +shall return to mine own land to there take mine ease."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p><p> "I wish to God you had never left it," muttered Henry Werner, and it was +after the exchange of these amenities that the pair ascended to the +offices of Asherill and Swanland, Salisbury House.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>MR. DEAN AND HIS FUTURE RELATIVES.</h3> + + +<p>It was quite dark by the time Mr. Swanland's clerks reached Homewood on +the rainy Saturday in question.</p> + +<p>In the first place they lost their train by about half a minute, which +was not of much consequence as another started in less than half an hour +afterwards, but Mr. Bailey chose to lose his temper, and exchanged some +pleasant words first with a porter who shut the door in his face, and +afterwards with a burly policeman big enough to have carried the little +clerk off in his arms like a baby.</p> + +<p>The young gentlemen, engaged at a few shillings a week to perform +liquidation drudgery <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>in Messrs. Asherill and Swanland's offices, were +so accustomed to regard the members of their firm as autocrats that they +affected the airs of autocrats themselves when out of the presence +chamber, and were consequently indignant if the outer world, happily +ignorant of the nature of accountants, treated them as if they were very +ordinary mortals indeed.</p> + +<p>Having nothing to do for half an hour save kick their heels in that +dingy, dirty, fusty, comfortless hall which the Great Eastern Railway +Company generously offers for the use of the travellers on its line who +repair to London Street, Mr. Bailey improved the occasion by delivering +a series of orations on the folly of that old sinner Asherill, who +detained them talking humbug till they lost the train, and having eased +his feelings so far, he next proceeded to relieve them further by +anathematizing Mortomley, who chose Saturday of all days in the week, +and that Saturday of all Saturdays in the year, to take up his residence +in Queer Street.</p> + +<p>"I won't stand it," finished Mr. Bailey, while <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>his eyes wandered over +that cheerful expanse of country which greets the traveller who journeys +by train from London to Stratford, as he nears the latter station. "I'll +give them notice on Monday. They could not get on without me. I'd like +to know where they could possibly find a man able to work as I can who +would put up with such treatment. On Monday I will give them a piece of +my mind they won't relish as much as they will their cut of roast beef +to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Which was all very well, but as Mr. Bailey had been in the habit of +making the same statement about once a fortnight upon an average, since +liquidation came into fashion, his companion attached less importance to +it than might otherwise have been the case.</p> + +<p>"What a day it has turned out!" was all the comment he made.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and they are at home safe and snug before this, or on their way to +it. Well, it is of no use talking."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p><p> "I wonder if we shall have far to walk," said the junior, whose name was +Merle.</p> + +<p>"Miles no doubt," answered Mr. Bailey, "and get drenched to the skin. +But what do they care! We are not flesh and blood to them. We are only +pounds shillings and pence."</p> + +<p>Which was indeed a very true remark, although it emanated from Mr. +Bailey. Had he been aware how exactly his words defined his employers' +feelings, he would not perhaps have been so ready to give utterance to +them.</p> + +<p>As matters stood, he grumbled on until they were turned out in the +drenching rain to get from Leytonstone Station to Whip's Cross as best +they could. Green Grove Lane was still leafy, and flowers bloomed gaily +in the railway gardens, and Leytonstone church stood in its graveyard a +picturesque object in the landscape, and there was a great peace about +that quiet country station with its level crossing and air of utter +repose which might have been pleasant to some people.</p> + +<p>But it did not prove agreeable to Mr. Bailey. A soaking rain. An +indefinite goal. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>An unknown amount of work to be got through!</p> + +<p>Very comprehensively and concisely Mr. Bailey read a short commination +service over Mr. Mortomley and his affairs, whilst he and Merle stood on +the down platform waiting the departure of the train ere crossing the +line.</p> + +<p>He had got his directions from the station master, and they did not +agree with those issued at head-quarters.</p> + +<p>"He should have gone to Snaresbrook. That was the nearest point, but, +however, he could not miss his way. It was straight as an arrow after he +get to the 'Green Man,' still keeping main road to the left."</p> + +<p>Which instructions he followed so implicitly that the pair found +themselves finally at Leyton Green.</p> + +<p>From thence they had to make their way back into the Newmarket Road, and +as that way lay along darksome lanes under the shade of arching trees, +through patches of Epping Forest, while all the time the rain continued +to pour down, steadily and determinedly, it may <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>be imagined how much +Mr. Bailey was enamoured of Mortomley and his estate by the time the two +clerks reached Homewood.</p> + +<p>But once within the portals of that place, circumstances put on a more +cheerful aspect. A bright fire blazed in the old-fashioned hall, +glimpses were caught of well lighted and comfortably furnished rooms. +Rupert, with a rare civility, addressed them with a polite hope that +they were not very wet, and Mrs. Mortomley, after reading Mr. Swanland's +note, sent to inquire if they would not like some tea.</p> + +<p>With which, Mr. Bailey having readily responded in the affirmative, they +were provided presently. Rupert in the meantime having recommended half +a glass of brandy, which Merle gulped down thankfully, and Mr. Bailey +sipped sullenly, angry a whole one had not been advised.</p> + +<p>When the dining-room door was shut, and the pair had made an onslaught +on the cold fowl and ham sent in with tea for their delectation, Merle +remarked,</p> + +<p>"What a stunning place, ain't it!" </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ay, it is a snug crib enough," replied the other, who had already +beheld wreck and ruin wrought in much finer abodes.</p> + +<p>"They don't seem a bad sort," observed Merle, who, being young to the +business, still thought a bankrupt might be a gentleman, and who +moreover was not a tip-top swell like Bailey, whose father rented a +house at fifty pounds a year, and only let off the first floor in order +to make the two obstinate ends meet.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" inquired Bailey.</p> + +<p>"Why, asking us to have tea and all that," was the innocent answer.</p> + +<p>"Pooh!" replied his companion. "Why, it is all over now. They don't know +it, but the whole place belongs to us, I mean to our governors. The tea +is ours, and the bread and butter and the ham, and not this fowl alone, +but every hen and chicken on the premises. Hand me over the loaf, I am +as hungry as a hunter."</p> + +<p>Had little Mrs. Mortomley understood matters at that moment as she +understood them afterwards, she would, hospitable as was her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>disposition, have turned those two nice young clerks out into the +weather, and told them to make up their accounts in the Works or Thames +Street, as they should never enter the house at Homewood so long as she +remained in it.</p> + +<p>But she did not understand, and accordingly after tea the making out of +the liabilities proceeded under Rupert's superintendence, Mrs. +Mortomley's presence being occasionally required when any question +connected with her own department had to be answered.</p> + +<p>"I do not see why these debts should be put down," said Dolly at last. +"Of course, all household liabilities I shall defray out of my own +money."</p> + +<p>"No, you won't," replied Rupert brusquely. "You will want every penny of +your money for yourself, or I am much mistaken."</p> + +<p>At length Mr. Bailey bethought him of asking Rupert about the return +trains, and finding that the last was due in three quarters of an hour, +stated that as it seemed impossible the work could be finished then, he +and Merle <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>would be down at about eight o'clock on Monday morning.</p> + +<p>Having given which promise he went out into the night, followed by his +junior, and Homewood was shortly after shut up, and every member of the +household, tired out with the events of the day, went early to bed, and +woke the next morning with a sense of rest and ease as strange as it +proved transitory.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon Mr. Dean called and asked specially for Mrs. Mortomley, +and when Dolly went down to him, she found that he wished to tell her in +his own formal way that the idea of Miss Halling, his promised wife, the +future mistress of Elm Park remaining in a house where bailiffs were +unhappily located, had troubled and was troubling him exceedingly. Of +course, he felt every sympathy for Mrs. Mortomley in her sad position, +and for Mr. Mortomley in his present unfortunate circumstances, but—</p> + +<p>"In a word," broke in Dolly, "you want Antonia to leave Homewood and go +to your sister. That is it, is it not, Mr. Dean? Of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>course I can make +no objection, and when affairs are arranged here she can return to be +married from her uncle's house."</p> + +<p>For a moment Mr. Dean was touched. He saw Dolly believed matters would +be so arranged that Homewood should still belong to Mortomley, and that +she offered hospitality to a woman she cordially disliked on this +supposition. And he thought it rather nice of the little woman, whose +face he could not avoid noticing was very white and pinched, though she +carried the trouble lightly, and, in his opinion, with almost unbecoming +indifference. But Mr. Dean quickly recovered his balance. These people +were paupers. Great heavens! literally paupers, except for the few +thousands left of Mrs. Mortomley's fortune. They might ask him to lend +them money. Presuming upon their relationship to Miss Halling, they +might even expect to be asked to stay at his house—at Elm Park—a +gentleman's mansion, across the threshold of which no bankrupt's foot +had ever passed. At the bare idea of such complications, Mr. Dean turned +hot and cold alternately.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> +<p>He had done much for these Mortomley people already. He had broke the +news of the impending catastrophe to Mr. Forde, and after that act of +weakness what might they not expect in the future!</p> + +<p>When Mr. Dean thought of this he felt horrified at the possible +consequences resulting from his extraordinary amiability. Indeed, he +felt so horrified that dismay for a minute or two tied his tongue, and +it was Dolly who at last broke the silence. Leaning back in an +easy-chair, her thin white hands clasped together, her eyes too large +and bright, but still looking happy and restful, she said, "I should +like very much, Mr. Dean, to know where your thoughts are wandering?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Dean, thus aroused, answered with a diplomatic truthfulness which +afterwards amazed himself.</p> + +<p>"I was thinking of you and Mr. Mortomley, and Miss Halling and myself."</p> + +<p>"Yes?" Dolly said inquiringly. There had been a time when she would have +remarked all four were interesting subjects, but on that <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>especial +Sunday she was a different woman from the Mrs. Mortomley of Mr. Dean's +earlier recollection.</p> + +<p>"To a lady possessed of your powers of observation," began Mr. Dean, "I +need scarcely remark that difficulties might arise were Miss Halling to +take up even a temporary abode with my sister, and therefore—"</p> + +<p>"I comprehend what you mean, and I know why you hesitate," said Mrs. +Mortomley, as her visitor paused and cast about how to finish his +sentence, "but I really do not see what can be done. I am afraid," she +added, with a pucker of her forehead, which had latterly grown habitual +when she was troubled or perplexed. "Antonia would not like my Aunt +Celia. My aunt is goodness itself, but a very little eccentric. Still, +if she understood the position—"</p> + +<p>"I hope you do not think me capable of adding to your anxiety at such a +time as this," interposed Mr. Dean pompously.</p> + +<p>All unconsciously Mrs. Mortomley had managed to offend his dignity as +she had never offended it before when she suggested the idea <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>of +quartering the future mistress of Elm Park on a spinster living upon an +extremely limited income in some remote wilds.</p> + +<p>"I should not for a moment entertain the idea of asking any of your +relations or friends to receive the lady whom I hope soon to call my +wife. I have anxiously considered the whole matter, and after mature +deliberation have arrived at the conclusion that Mr. Rupert Halling is +the only relative with whom Miss Halling can now with propriety reside +until she gives me the right to take her to Elm Park."</p> + +<p>"You propose then that Rupert shall leave Homewood also," said Mrs. +Mortomley. She wore a shawl thrown over her shoulders, for the rain had +made her feel chilly, and Mr. Dean did not notice that under it she +clasped both hands tightly across her heart as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"With that view," he answered, "I took suitable apartments yesterday in +the immediate vicinity of his studio."</p> + +<p>"I did not know he had a studio," she remarked.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p> + +<p>"With commendable prudence and foresight he secured one a couple of +months back in the neighbourhood of the Regent's Park."</p> + +<p>"And it was there I suppose he painted that picture he sold for twenty +pounds."</p> + +<p>"Twenty guineas," amended Mr. Dean. "A friend of mine did pay him that +very handsome amount for a sketch of a little girl which the purchaser +imagined bore some resemblance to a deceased daughter of his own."</p> + +<p>"His model being Lenore, doubtless."</p> + +<p>"I should say most probably."</p> + +<p>Dolly did not answer. She sat for a minute or two looking out at the +leaves littering the lawn, at the sodden earth, at the late blooming +flowers beaten almost into the earth by reason of the violence of the +rain—then she said,</p> + +<p>"And so they, Antonia and Rupert, go to those lodgings you spoke of?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, on Tuesday next, if Miss Halling can complete her preparations in +the time."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p><p> "Rats leave a sinking ship," murmured Mrs. Mortomley to herself.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," observed Mr. Dean, not catching the drift of her +pleasant sentence.</p> + +<p>"I said," explained Dolly, speaking very slowly and distinctly, "that +rats leave a sinking ship. So the story goes at all events, and I, for +one, see no reason to doubt its truthfulness. If you think of it, what +more natural than that they should go. They are detestable creatures in +prosperity. Why should they alter their natures in adversity?"</p> + +<p>"I am very stupid I fear," said Mr. Dean; "but I confess I fail to see +the drift of your remark."</p> + +<p>"I can make it plain enough," she retorted. "Here are a man and a woman +who must have starved unless we or you had provided them with the +necessaries of life. It was not very pleasant for me to have Antonia +Halling here, but she has had the best we could give her; and never a +cross look or grudging word to mar her enjoyment of the good things of +this life—things she prizes very highly.</p> + +<p>"As for Rupert, he has been treated by my husband as a brother or a son. +We made no <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>difference between them and Lenore, except that I have +denied my child what she wanted sometimes, and they have never been +denied.</p> + +<p>"And the end of it all is that when my husband's affairs go wrong, they +leave us, and allow a stranger to break the tidings. That is why I call +them rats, Mr. Dean—your <i>fiancée</i> and her brother. I am sure heaven +made Antonia Halling a helpmate—meet for you—for she is as selfish, as +worldly, as calculating, and as cold as even Mr. Dean, of Elm Park."</p> + +<p>Having finished which explicit speech, Dolly rose and gathered her shawl +more closely about her figure, bowed, and would have left the room had +Mr. Dean not hindered her departure.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Mortomley," he said, "I can make allowances for a lady placed as +you are; but I beg leave to say you are utterly mistaken in your +estimate of me."</p> + +<p>"I am not mistaken," she replied. "I understand you better than you +understand yourself. Do you think I cannot see to the bottom of so +shallow a stream? Do you imagine for a moment I fail to understand, that +last Thursday <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>night you turned the question over and over in your mind +as to whether you could give up Antonia Halling when I made you +understand the position of her uncle's affairs? You have decided and +rightly you cannot give her up. No jury would hold the non-success of a +relation a sufficient reason for jilting a woman.</p> + +<p>"And I really believe Antonia is so thoroughly alive to her own +interests that she would take the matter into court. Good-bye, Mr. Dean. +You and your future wife are a representative couple."</p> + +<p>"What an awful woman," said Mr. Dean, addressing himself after her +departure. "I declare," he added, speaking to Rupert, who immediately +after entered the room, "I would not marry Mrs. Mortomley if she had +twenty thousand a year."</p> + +<p>"How rare it is to find two people so unanimous in opinion," remarked +Rupert with a sneer. He did not like Mr. Dean at the best of times, and +at that moment he had a grudge against him, because he knew it was Mr. +Dean who must have told Mr. Forde about that <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>twenty guineas for a +sketch of the small Lenore. "I am sure poor mistaken Dolly would not +marry you if you settled fifty thousand per annum on her. But what has +she been saying to cause such vehement expression of opinion?"</p> + +<p>"She says you and your sister are rats; that you have eaten of the best +in the ship, and leave it now it is sinking."</p> + +<p>"Upon my honour I am afraid Mrs. Mortomley is right," was the reply. +"Hers is a view of the question which did not strike me before; but it +is not open to dispute. Still what would the dear little soul have one +do? Stay with the vessel till it disappears? If she speak the word, I +for one am willing to do so."</p> + +<p>"I hoped to hear common sense from one member of this household at all +events," was Mr. Dean's reply, uttered loftily and contemptuously.</p> + +<p>"So you would from me if I were not in love with my aunt," Rupert +answered tranquilly. "More or less, less sometimes than more, I have +always been in love with Dolly. She <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>is not pretty, except occasionally, +and she can be very disagreeable; and she is some years older than +myself; and she is an adept at spending money; and upon the whole she is +not what the world considers a desirable wife for a struggling man. But +she has—to use a very vulgar expression—pluck, and by Jove if I live +to be a hundred, I shall never see a woman I admire so thoroughly as my +uncle's wife. But this is sentimental," Mr. Halling proceeded. "And I +stifle it at the command of common sense. On Tuesday I leave Homewood +for those desirable apartments in which you wish me to play propriety to +the future lady of The Elms."</p> + +<p>Through the rain Mr. Dean drove away foaming with rage. Could he have +lived his time over again, no Miss Halling would ever have been asked to +grace his abode. No young person, with a vagabond brother in a velvet +suit, should ever have been mistress of The Elms.</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Mortomley had put the case in a nutshell. He must marry +Antonia, though <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>Mortomley were bankrupt ten thousand times over.</p> + +<p>And Antonia knew it, and under the roof which had sheltered her for so +many a long night, she returned thanks for the fact to whatever deity +she actually worshipped.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p><p>It is not for me to state what god hers chanced to be, but certainly it +was not that One of whom Christians speak reverently.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>PREVISION.</h3> + + +<p>Along the front and one end of the house at Homewood ran a wide low +verandah, over which trailed masses of clematis, clustres of roses, long +sprays of honeysuckle, and delicate branches of jasmine. In the summer +and autumn so thick was the foliage, hanging in festoons from the tops +of the light iron pillars depending from the fretwork which formed the +arches, that the verandah was converted into a shaded bower, the +sunbeams only reaching it through a tracery of leaves.</p> + +<p>Up and down under the shelter of this verandah, Rupert paced impatiently +for a few minutes after Mr. Dean's departure, the sound <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>of the rain +pouring on the roof making a suitable accompaniment to thoughts that +were about the most anxious the young man's mind had ever held.</p> + +<p>Now that the step had been taken and the die cast, liquidation assumed a +different aspect to that it had worn when viewed from a distance. +Something he could not have defined in the manner of the two clerks +filled him with a vague uneasiness, whilst Mr. Dean's determination that +his <i>fiancée</i> should be exposed no longer to the contaminating +associations of Homewood annoyed him beyond expression. True, for some +time previously he had been drifting away from his uncle. Whilst Dolly +thought he was assisting her husband and still devoting himself to the +town business, he was really working for many hours a week in his new +painting-room, which he reached by taking advantage of that funny little +railway between Stratford and Victoria Park, which connects the Great +Eastern and the North London lines.</p> + +<p>He had never entered the offices of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>General Chemical Company since +the day when he opened his lips to warn his uncle of the probable +consequences of that weakness which induced him to struggle on long +after he ought to have stopped. He very rarely honoured the Thames +Street Warehouse with his presence, and he never interfered in the +business unless Mortomley asked him to arrange a disputed account or +call upon the representative of some country house who might chance when +in town to take up his quarters at a West-end hotel.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, he did not like the idea of cutting himself utterly adrift +from his relatives. Homewood had been home to him, more truly home than +his father's house ever proved. Spite of all the anxiety of the later +time, his residence under Mortomley's roof had been a happy period. He +liked his uncle and his wife, and the little Lenore, and—well there was +no use in looking back—the happy days were gone and past, and he must +look out for himself. He could not afford to quarrel with Mr. Dean, and +Dolly's bitter speech still rankled in his memory, but yet he had not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>meant to give up Homewood entirely, and Mr. Dean must have blundered in +some way to leave such an impression on Mrs. Mortomley's mind.</p> + +<p>"I will have it out with her at once," he decided, and he threw away his +cigar, girt up his loins for the coming struggle, and re-entered the +house.</p> + +<p>He found Dolly in the library writing a letter. When he entered, she +raised her head to see who it was, but immediately and without remark +resumed her occupation.</p> + +<p>There was a bright red spot flaming on each cheek, and a dangerous +sparkle in her eyes, which assured Rupert the air was not yet clear, and +that the storm might come round again at any moment.</p> + +<p>But he knew the sooner they commenced their quarrel the more speedily it +would be over, and so plunged into the matter at once.</p> + +<p>"Dolly, what have you been doing to Mr. Dean? He has gone off looking as +black as a thunder-cloud."</p> + +<p>"I have been giving him a piece of my <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>mind," she answered without +looking up, and her pen flew more rapidly over the paper.</p> + +<p>"Your explanation is not lady-like, but it is explicit," remarked +Rupert, "I am afraid you will soon not have any mind left if you are so +generous in disposing of it."</p> + +<p>"If my mind proves of no more use to me in the future than it has in the +past, the sooner I dispose of it all the better," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"Do you think you are wise in commencing your present campaign by +quarrelling with everybody?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"Yes, if every one is like Mr. Dean and—and other people."</p> + +<p>"Meaning me?"</p> + +<p>"Meaning you, if you choose to take the cap and wear it."</p> + +<p>"Do you know Mr. Dean says he would not marry you if you had twenty +thousand a year?"</p> + +<p>"It is a matter of the utmost indifference to me what Mr. Dean says or +thinks either."</p> + +<p>"He told me you considered Antonia and myself little, if at all, better +than rats." </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Did he happen to tell you what I thought of him?"</p> + +<p>There was no shaming or threatening Dolly into a good temper when a mood +like this was on her. So Rupert changed his tactics.</p> + +<p>"Do put down your pen and let us talk this matter over quietly +together."</p> + +<p>"You had better go away and not ask me to talk at all," she answered; +but she ceased writing nevertheless.</p> + +<p>"Do you want that letter posted?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"No, I shall send it by a messenger."</p> + +<p>"It is not to Mr. Dean, is it?"</p> + +<p>"To Mr. Dean," she repeated. "What should I write to Mr. Dean for? It is +to no one connected with Mr. Dean or you."</p> + +<p>"Well, lay it aside for a few minutes and tell me in what way we have +annoyed you."</p> + +<p>"You have annoyed me by want of straightforwardness. Mr. Dean has +annoyed me by his insolence, unintentional though I believe it to have +been. But that only makes the sting the sharper. Who is he that his +future <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>wife should be taken away from Homewood the moment misfortune +threatens it? What is Antonia that she should be treated as though she +were one of the blood royal?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Dean is one of the most intolerable bores I ever met," replied +Rupert calmly. "And Antonia is, in my opinion, an extremely calculating +and commonplace young person. But Mr. Dean has money and his prejudices, +and I am sure you do not wish to prevent Antonia marrying the only rich +man who is ever likely to make her an offer.</p> + +<p>"Now Mr. Dean regards a man who fails to meet his engagements as a +little lower than a felon. I believe he would quite as soon ask a +ticket-of-leave fellow to Elm Park as a merchant whose affairs are +embarrassed, and there is no use in trying to argue him out of his +notions. We must take people as they are, Dolly."</p> + +<p>"Yes, if it is necessary to take them at all," she agreed.</p> + +<p>"It is very necessary for me," he said. "I cannot afford to quarrel with +Mr. Dean, or to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>have Antonia thrown on my hands, as she would be if he +refused to marry her."</p> + +<p>"He will not refuse," observed Dolly. "He has thought that subject over, +and decided it is too late to draw back now."</p> + +<p>"How do you know?" asked Rupert in amazement.</p> + +<p>"Because I taxed him with having done so, and he could not deny it. Pray +assure him next time you meet he need not fear Archie or myself +presuming on the relationship and asking him for help, and scheming for +invitations to Elm Park. So far as I am concerned I should be glad never +to see him or his wife (that is to be) again."</p> + +<p>"Good heavens!" ejaculated Rupert. Over what awful perils he had been +gliding all unconsciously. If her conversation were as she reported it, +might not Mr. Dean well call little Mrs. Mortomley a dreadful woman. +Certainly the sooner Antonia was away from Homewood, the better for all +parties concerned.</p> + +<p>He had been imprudent himself, but how could he imagine the nature of +the interview <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>which preceded his own; he must see Mr. Dean again +immediately. He must carry a fictitious apology from Dolly to that +gentleman, and then arrange for their eternal separation. All these +things raced through his mind, and then he said,</p> + +<p>"You are a perfect Ishmael, Dolly."</p> + +<p>"Am I?" she retorted. "Well I am content. The idea pleases me, for I +always considered Ishmael's mother a much more attractive sort of woman +than Sarah, and I have no doubt Abraham thought so too."</p> + +<p>She was recovering her good temper by slow degrees, it is true; but +still Rupert understood that the wind was shifting round to a more +genial quarter.</p> + +<p>"Why should we—you and I—quarrel?" he suddenly asked, stretching out +his hand across the table towards her.</p> + +<p>She did not give him hers as he evidently expected she would, but +answered,</p> + +<p>"Because I do hate people who are secret and deceitful and not +straightforward."</p> + +<p>"You mean about that picture?" he said.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes," she agreed; "the picture was the first thing which shocked me, +and since that you leave a stranger to say you intend that I shall be +all alone through this trouble—all alone!"</p> + +<p>There was an unconscious pathos in the way she repeated those two last +words which wrung Rupert's heart.</p> + +<p>"I never intended to leave you alone," he replied. "I do not intend to +do so now. I must go to these confounded lodgings with Antonia, because +the powers that be insist on my going, but neither she nor Mr. Dean can +expect me to stay with her the whole day. She must get some one of her +innumerable female friends to bear her company; and I shall be here +almost continually. Upon my soul, Dolly, if I dare offend Mr. Dean, +nothing should induce me to leave Homewood at this juncture; indeed, I +told him in so many words, that if you wished me to stay I would +remain."</p> + +<p>She did not answer for a few moments, then she said,</p> + +<p>"You were quite safe in telling him that, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>Rupert. You knew I would +never ask anyone to sacrifice his own interests to my fancies."</p> + +<p>"You are angry with me still!" he remarked, then finding she remained +silent, he went on,</p> + +<p>"I confess I did wrong about that picture, but I did not sin +intentionally, with any idea of concealment, or separating my interests +from yours. I only held my peace, because I did not want Forde to know; +and no harm would have been done had that pompous old idiot held his +tongue, and not considered it necessary to explain that the brother of +his future wife was able to earn money for his own wants.</p> + +<p>"The moment this liquidation business was settled, I meant to tell you +concerning that and the studio, but I was so vexed about Dean's wish for +Antonia to leave here, that I felt I could not talk to you freely. Do +you believe me? Indeed what I have said is the literal truth."</p> + +<p>"It may be," she answered, "but it is not quite the whole truth. However +that does <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>not signify very much. No doubt you are wise in making +provision for yourself,—but oh!"</p> + +<p>And covering her face with her hands, she ended her sentence with a +paroxysm of tearless grief.</p> + +<p>In a moment Rupert was beside her, "What is it, what is the matter, +Dolly? Dolly, speak to me; there is nothing on earth I will not do for +you if you only tell me what you want."</p> + +<p>She lifted her head and looked at him as a person might who had just +returned from a journey through some strange and troubled land.</p> + +<p>For many a day that look haunted Rupert Halling; it will haunt him at +intervals through the remainder of his life. She put back her hair which +had fallen over her face, with a painful slowness of movement foreign to +her temperament. She opened her lips to speak, but her tongue refused +its office.</p> + +<p>Then Rupert frightened ran into the dining-room, and brought her wine, +but she put it <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>aside, and he fetched her water, and held the tumbler +for her to drink.</p> + +<p>As if there had been some virtue in the draught, her eyes filled with +tears—heavy tears that gathered on her lashes and then fell lingeringly +drop by drop; but soon the trouble found quicker vent, and she broke +into an almost hysterical fit of weeping.</p> + +<p>"Cry, dear, cry, it will do you good," he said as she strove vainly to +check her sobs. "Do not try to speak at present, you will only make +yourself worse."</p> + +<p>But Dolly would speak.</p> + +<p>"I am so sorry you should have seen me like this" she panted. "I did not +mean to be so stupid."</p> + +<p>He was standing beside her bathing her hair and forehead with <i>eau de +cologne</i>, but his hand shook as he poured out the scent, and he felt +altogether, as he defined the sensation to himself, "nervous as a +woman."</p> + +<p>"Dolly," he began when she grew calm again, "what was the trouble—the +special trouble I mean—which caused all this. Do <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>try to tell me. If it +was anything I said or did, forgive me; for I never meant to say or do +anything to hurt you."</p> + +<p>"It was not that," she replied; then after a moment's hesitation she +went on. "A dreadful feeling came over me, Rupert, that this liquidation +will turn out badly. I have had the feeling at intervals ever since +Friday evening, and it seemed just then to overwhelm me. It may be +folly, but I cannot shake off the notion that my poor husband will be +ruined. If liquidation is what we thought, why should Mr. Dean want +Antonia to leave here? Why, if we are only asking for time in which to +pay our debts, should such disgrace attach itself to us?"</p> + +<p>Now this was just the question Rupert had been vainly asking himself, +and he stood silent, unable to answer.</p> + +<p>"Think it over until to-morrow," she added, noticing his hesitation. "I +am afraid you are worldly and selfish, Rupert, but I do not think you +are unfeeling, or quite ungrateful. Think it over for the sake of poor +Archie and me and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>little Lenore, and—I won't insult you by saying for +your own sake too. Put yourself quite out of the question, and consider +us alone. There was a time when we considered you, and though that time +is past, still I hope you can never quite forget."</p> + +<p>She rose and stretched out both hands to him, in token of reconciliation +and her own woman's weakness which dreaded facing the dark future all +alone.</p> + +<p>"Dolly dear," he answered, holding her hands tight, "you are so true, a +man must be a wretch to cheat you."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p><p>For evermore till Eternity Rupert Halling can never quite forget +uttering those words, nor the way in which he failed to keep the promise +they contained.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>MR. DEAN GLORIFIES HIMSELF.</h3> + + +<p>For the sake of the servants an early dinner on Sunday had always been a +custom at Homewood, and although other customs might be broken through +or forgotten in consequence of Mortomley's illness and the troubles +surrounding the household, this still obtained.</p> + +<p>Therefore Rupert Halling had to make no comment on his intended absence, +to leave no message about his return being uncertain, when, after making +his peace with Dolly, he went straight from the library to a sort of +little cloak-room, where he donned knickerbockers, a waterproof coat, a +stiff felt hat, and selected a plain light riding-whip.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> + +<p>Thus armed against the weather he walked round to the stables, clapped a +saddle on the back of Mr. Mortomley's favourite black mare, Bess, +unloosed her headstall, put on her bridle, led her through the side +gate, which he closed behind him, looked once again to the girths and +drew them up a hole tighter; then after a pat and a "Gently, my beauty, +stand quiet, pet," he put one foot in the stirrup, and next instant was +square in his seat.</p> + +<p>Madam Bess hated rain as cordially as some human beings, and tossed her +head and made a little play with her heels, and quivered a little all +over with indignation at being taken out in such weather by any one +except her master; but Rupert was a good as well as a merciful rider, +and he humoured the pretty creature's whims till she forgot to show +them, and after plunging, shying, cantering with a sideway motion, +intended to express rebellion and disgust, she settled down into a long +easy trot, which in about three quarters of an hour brought Rupert to +the gates of Elm Park.</p> + +<p>There, one of the ostlers chancing to be at <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>the lodge talking to the +old woman whose duty and pleasure it was to curtsey to Mr. Dean each +time he came in or went out, he dismounted and gave Bess to the man, +with strict orders to rub her down and give her a feed.</p> + +<p>"I must take her a good round after I leave here," he remarked, "and it +is nasty weather for horses as well as men."</p> + +<p>Now Master Rupert had always been very free of his money at Elm Park, +and no rumours of coming misfortune at Homewood had reached the people +connected with Mr. Dean's elegant mansion, so Bess was rubbed till her +coat shone like a looking-glass, and she herself kicked short impatient +kicks with one heel at a time; and she had a great feed of corn and a +long draught of water, and her heart was refreshed within her.</p> + +<p>Meantime her rider, instead of proceeding along the avenue, which took +many and unnecessary turns, so as to give the appearance of greater +extent to Mr. Dean's domain, selected a short cut through the shrubbery +and flower-garden, finally reaching the west front of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>house by +means of a light iron gate which gave entrance to a small lawn, kept +trim and smooth as a bowling-green.</p> + +<p>At a glass door on this side of the house Rupert caught sight of a +familiar face, which brightened up as its owner recognised in the +half-drowned visitor a favourite of the house.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Housden, and how are you?" said the young man, standing +outside and shaking the wet off him after the fashion of a Newfoundland +dog.</p> + +<p>"I keep my health wonderful considering, thank you, Mr. Rupert," +answered the butler, for it was that functionary who stood at the glass +door contemplating the weather. "And how is the family at Homewood, +sir?"</p> + +<p>"My uncle is very ill," was the reply; "he has not been able to be out +of his room for the last three weeks. Mrs. Mortomley and my sister and +Miss Lenore are as usual. Governor is at dinner I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir, Mr. Dean has finished dinner, or I should not be disengaged. +He is sitting over <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>his dessert, sir, with a bottle of his very +particular old port."</p> + +<p>"The thermometer was so low it took that to raise it," muttered Rupert +to himself; then added, "Ask Rigby to step this way and take these +dripping things of mine, will you, Housden? I want to see Mr. Dean."</p> + +<p>"Allow me, Mr. Rupert. Let me relieve you of your coat." And Mr. +Housden, who would have been grievously insulted had the young man +seemed to suppose he could condescend so far, took the waterproof, and +the knickerbockers, and the hat, and the whip, and conveyed them himself +to Rigby, after which he announced Mr. Halling's arrival to his master, +and received orders to show him in.</p> + +<p>What with dinner and its accompaniments, Mr. Dean had been half dozing +in his arm-chair when his butler informed him of Mr. Halling's presence, +and he arose to meet his visitor with a stupid confusion of manner which +at once gave Rupert an advantage over him.</p> + +<p>If he had not dined and been quite awake, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>and in full possession of his +business senses, he would not have greeted Rupert with that awkward—</p> + +<p>"Yes, to be sure, Mr. Halling. Did not expect to see you again so soon; +not such an evening as this I mean."</p> + +<p>"Oh! I don't care for rain," Rupert answered. "I ride between the +drops."</p> + +<p>"Will you take a glass of port or what?" asked Mr. Dean, touching the +wine decanter tenderly.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," the young man answered, "I will have some, or 'what,' +supposing it assume the shape of a tumbler of hot brandy-and-water, if +you have no objection, for I have still far to ride to-night, and I do +not want to be laid up; and besides," he added with a smile, "your port +is too strong for me, my head won't stand it."</p> + +<p>"Housden, bring the brandy and some boiling water, boiling remember, at +once," said Mr. Dean relieved that his visitor refused to partake of the +wonderful port for which he had paid such a price per bottle that +ordinary <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>mortals would not have dared to swallow it except in +teaspoonfuls.</p> + +<p>"You are really very good and very generous to receive me so courteously +after the way in which we parted," remarked Rupert when they were left +alone. "The fact is I was put out to-day and I said what I ought not to +have said, and Mrs. Mortomley was put out and she said what she ought +not to have said, and we both want to apologise to you. She is sorry and +I am sorry, and I think, sir, as it was you who told Mr. Forde about +that picture your friend kindly purchased from me, which confidence in +fact caused the whole disturbance, you ought to forgive us both."</p> + +<p>Even Mr. Dean could not swallow this sentence at one gulp.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean," he asked doubtfully, "to say Mrs. Mortomley has expressed +her regret for the improper—yes,"—continued Mr. Dean after a pause +devoted to considering whether he had employed the right word,—"most +improper remark she made this afternoon." </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I mean to say," returned Rupert, "that Mrs. Mortomley has retracted +those observations which pointed to my being a rat, that I have +explained everything in our conduct which seem to need explanation to +her satisfaction, that we are now perfectly good friends again, and that +she has commissioned me to say she hopes you will not attach any +importance to words spoken in a time of great trouble by a woman placed +in a position of such difficulty as she is at present."</p> + +<p>"Then upon my honour," exclaimed Mr. Dean, "the message does Mrs. +Mortomley credit. I could not have believed her capable of sending it."</p> + +<p>"Neither could I," thought Rupert, but he added aloud. "You do not quite +know Mrs. Mortomley yet, I see. She is very impulsive, and often says a +vast deal more than she really means; but when she calms down, she is as +ready to confess she was wrong as she proved to give offence. I do not +think any human being could live in the same house with my uncle's wife +and not love her." </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Young man," said Mr. Dean with a solemn shake of his head while he +poured himself out yet another glass of that particular port, "were I in +your place I should not talk so glibly about love. There are people—yes +indeed there are who might think you meant something not quite right."</p> + +<p>If Rupert had yielded to the impulse strongest upon him at that moment, +he would have leaned back in his chair and laughed aloud at the idea +this moral old sinner evidently attached to his words, but he had a +purpose to serve, and so with surprise not altogether simulated he said,</p> + +<p>"Is that really your opinion, sir? then I will never use the expression +again. Esteem is a good serviceable word. Do you approve of it."</p> + +<p>Mr. Dean looked hard at Rupert to ascertain whether the young man were +making game of him or not, but no sign of levity rewarding his scrutiny, +he answered,</p> + +<p>"It is a very good word indeed, but one I do not consider applicable in +the present <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>case. I am perfectly well aware that I do not possess that +facility of expression and power of repartee possessed by those persons +whose society Mrs. Mortomley at one time so much enjoyed, but I can see +as far through a millstone as any one with whom I am acquainted, and +esteem is not the word I should employ myself in this case."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you are right," replied Rupert carelessly; "but to return to +the original subject, she is sorry for having said what she did, and so +am I, and I have come here to apologise. When, however, I stated that if +Mrs. Mortomley wished me to remain at Homewood I would do so, I spoke +even at the risk of offending you, the literal truth. We have been +treated generously at Homewood, and on thinking the matter over, it +seemed to me that I at all events ought not to desert the ship if Mrs. +Mortomley wished me to remain on board.</p> + +<p>"But," he continued seeing Mr. Dean's face grow dark with passion at the +prospect of his will being disputed, "she does not <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>wish me to remain. +She sees the reasonableness of your wishing Antonia to leave Homewood +immediately, and she feels it only just that you should know she +considers under my uncle's altered circumstances, it would be better for +all communication between Elm Park and Homewood to cease."</p> + +<p>Mr. Dean paused before he answered. Of course if he married Antonia +Halling, this was precisely the point he wished to carry, and yet there +was something in this sudden change of policy which filled him with +doubt and surprise.</p> + +<p>Had Rupert said in so many words that Mrs. Mortomley declared she never +wished to see the owner of Elm Park again, the position would not have +been so unintelligible; but this tone of submission and conciliation was +so unlike anything he had ever associated with Mrs. Mortomley that he +could not avoid expressing his astonishment at it.</p> + +<p>"I am quite at a loss," he said at length, "to understand the reasons +which could have induced Mrs. Mortomley to alter her course of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>conduct +and withdraw her expressed opinions with such rapidity."</p> + +<p>In a moment Rupert saw his error, and hastened to repair it.</p> + +<p>"To be quite frank," he confessed, "I put the matter rather strongly to +her, and not to weary your patience, if Mrs. Mortomley can on occasion +be stormy she can also be unselfish. She does not want to mar my +sister's prospects. She does not desire that my uncle's past kindness to +us shall ever be considered to constitute a claim upon <i>you</i> in the +future. There is the case in a nutshell. Of course we had a much longer +conversation than that I have condensed. In a word, till my uncle has +paid his creditors and is prosperous again, you need never fear that he +or his wife will wish to renew their acquaintance with you."</p> + +<p>Mr. Dean shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Your uncle will never be prosperous again," he remarked.</p> + +<p>"I hope matters are not so bad as that," answered Rupert.</p> + +<p>"When a man," continued Mr. Dean, "lets <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>things go so far as he has +done, he is, to all intents and purposes, commercially dead. No, Mr. +Mortomley will never hold up his head again in the business world. It is +well he has his wife's money to fall back upon, and I hope her friends +will advise him to use it prudently—"</p> + +<p>"Do you really say, sir, you think my uncle will not be able to pull +through?"</p> + +<p>"I do not exactly understand what you mean by pulling through," answered +Mr. Dean, "but if you have any expectation of seeing his creditors paid, +and he occupying his old standing, you will be very much disappointed, +that is all."</p> + +<p>"But, good heavens! the business is a fine business, and there is stock +and plant and book debts, and—"</p> + +<p>"I don't care what there is," interrupted Mr. Dean, "once an estate goes +into liquidation or bankruptcy, stock and plant and good-will and book +debts and everything else are really as valueless as old rubbish. What +is the good of machinery if it is standing still? <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>What is the use of a +business unless it is worked, and that by somebody who understands it? +What do you suppose Homewood, and every stick of furniture in the house, +and every ounce of stock in the works would fetch under the hammer? +Pooh! don't talk to me about creditors ever being paid when once affairs +pass out of a man's own hands. There is where your uncle made his +mistake. If he had come to me for advice a couple of years ago, I could +have told him what to do."</p> + +<p>"What ought he to have done?" asked Rupert.</p> + +<p>"Why, faced his affairs, and then called a private and friendly meeting +of his creditors. If there were one or two who opposed, he should, with +the consent of those who did not oppose, have offered a sum to be rid of +them altogether. He should then, furnished with authentic data, have +said, "Now, here is a business worth so much a year. In so many years +you can be paid in full. I must have a small income out of the concern +for my services, and you can appoint an accountant to examine the books, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> check the accounts, and divide the money every three months." He would +have been as much master in his own works as a man ever can be who is in +debt. All these writs and other disgraceful embarrassments would have +been avoided; but what is the use of talking of all this now? +Mortomley's Estate has been allowed to go to the dogs, and the dogs have +got it, and it will be a very clever creditor indeed who manages to +snatch even a morsel out of their mouths."</p> + +<p>"But, sir," pleaded Rupert, "you advised the present course to be +adopted."</p> + +<p>"I said there was no other course now to be adopted," amended Mr. Dean. +"Could any man in his right senses say there was another way out of the +difficulty, with men in possession and hungry creditors waiting +impatiently to sweep the place clear? It is better that none should have +money than that one should, to the exclusion of others; and this is +where your uncle will be blamed, for paying out the men who proceeded to +extremity, and not paying those who were patient and gave him <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>time. No +doubt he will get his discharge in due course, but how will that benefit +him? He is done for commercially. He can never do any more good for +himself or those belonging to him."</p> + +<p>"I cannot see that exactly," answered Rupert. "If he were stripped +to-morrow of every worldly effect, he could, given ordinary health, earn +a very respectable income by means of his genius."</p> + +<p>"What is genius?" inquired Mr. Dean, who was by this time standing +before the fire and laying down the law in that manner which makes so +many very commonplace gentlemen considered oracles by their wives and +acquaintances. "Ah! you cannot tell me, I see; but I can tell you. +Genius is success. It is of no use declaring a man is clever or has +great talents or exceptional abilities. I say prove it. How are you to +prove it? Show me his banker's book, show me the receipts signed by his +tradesmen, show me the style in which he lives, show me these things, +and I will then believe he has possessed either the genius to make money +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>or the genius to keep money when made by his father before him."</p> + +<p>"Then you think the man who paints a picture can have no genius unless +he is able to sell it likewise?"</p> + +<p>"I am sure of it. That person is an idiot who, possessing a certain +amount of sense, requires as much more to make use of it. Take your +uncle's case. According to your statement he possesses genius. Well, +what has it done for him, wherein is he better at this moment than one +of his own workmen? He began life with a good business. Where is that +business now? He had a respectable connection, and what must he do but +allow himself to be drawn into a connection—pray do not suppose I mean +to speak harshly of your father, who first introduced him to it—which +seems to have been anything but respectable. Once entangled, his genius +failed to show him any way out of the net he had allowed to enclose him. +His genius cannot enable him to make good articles out of bad. He +marries a woman with money, and he tries to patch up <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>his tottering +credit with part of her fortune. If that is what genius does for a man, +better have none say I. Now look at me," added Mr. Dean, after he had +paused to take breath, and Rupert did look at him with as strong a +feeling of repulsion as Dolly had ever felt. "No one ever accounted me +clever. My father called me plodding Billy, and said I would never do +much for myself or anybody else. What has the result been?"</p> + +<p>If all his future had depended upon holding his peace at that moment, +Rupert must have answered,</p> + +<p>"That you seem to have done remarkably well for yourself at any rate."</p> + +<p>"You are right," said Mr. Dean briskly, appropriating the remark as a +compliment. "And in doing well for myself, I have done well for others. +I have employed clerks and servants. I have paid good salaries. I have +never set myself up as being ashamed of my business, and my business has +not been ashamed of me. I have never tried to push out of my own rank in +life, but I have sat at banquets <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>side by side with a lord, and many a +time I have spoken after an earl at a public meeting. I might have stood +for member of parliament, and may yet be in the House if after a year or +two I feel disposed to interest myself in politics. Contrast my position +with that of your clever uncle and say whether you do not agree with me +that the true meaning of genius is success. Will not your sister be a +vast deal better off at Elm Park with everything money can buy, than +your little Mrs. Mortomley at Homewood with the sheriff's officer in +possession? Am not I right in what I say? Have not I reason on my side?"</p> + +<p>"You have so much reason," answered Rupert a little sadly, "that before +long I shall come and ask your advice as to how I am to compass success. +To-night I have to take Leytonstone on my way back to Whip's Cross, a +ride all round Robin Hood's Barn, is it not?"</p> + +<p>"What are you going to Leytonstone for?" asked Mr. Dean.</p> + +<p>"I—I have to see a man about a picture <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>he wants me to paint for him," +hesitated Rupert, for he did not wish to state the real errand on which +he was bound, and, plausible romancer though he could be on occasion, +Mr. Dean's question took him by surprise.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" remarked Mr. Dean, a comfortable feeling of conscious +righteousness diffusing a heightened colour over his face, already +highly coloured with the glow of virtue and thirty-four port. "You must +give up all that sort of work if you wish to be successful. I have never +opened a ledger on Sunday, and I have tried to put business out of my +mind altogether. If a man is to be successful, he must conform to all +the usages of the country in which he happens to be placed. Now we are +placed in England, and I do not know any country in which religion is +made so easy; and if you think of it, religion is a most useful +institution. It teaches the poor their proper place, and—"</p> + +<p>Rupert could stand no more of this. "I have lived in a house, Mr. Dean," +he answered, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> "where, I think, there was one genuine Christian at any +rate, and I agree with you and him, that Sunday labour for gentle or +simple is a thing to be avoided; but my work to-night is a work of +necessity, and the Bible pronounces no curse on our performing it in +such a case as that!"</p> + +<p>"No, no, certainly not; I suppose you are short of money. Well, good +evening; tell Mrs. Mortomley I will try to forget all she said to-day."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I will tell her," answered Rupert, "and thank you very much for +your kindness. Don't come out with me pray," he added,—which was an +utterly unnecessary entreaty as Mr. Dean had no intention of doing so. +"I can find my way quite well. Good-night," and he went.</p> + +<p>But when he had reached the middle of the hall, he paused, and drew a +long deep breath.</p> + +<p>"If I were in Antonia's place," he murmured, "sooner than marry that +self-sufficient cad, I would go down to the Lea and drown myself, or +else take poison." </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p><p>Rupert really felt at the minute what he said, but the worst of it was +that such minutes never, in the young man's nature, lengthened +themselves into hours.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>MR. GIBBONS' OPINION ON THE STATE OF AFFAIRS.</h3> + + +<p>Furnished by Rigby with his coat and hat, assisted by that personage to +put on his knickerbockers, Mr. Rupert Halling stood at the hall door +waiting for Madam Bess to be brought round.</p> + +<p>He had wished to mount in the stable-yard, but neither Housden nor Rigby +would hear of such a thing.</p> + +<p>"Well, it is coming down," ejaculated the butler; "Mr. Halling, sir, why +don't you send the mare back to her comfortable stall, and stay here for +the night."</p> + +<p>"I do not mind the weather," answered Rupert, which was fortunate, for +the rain was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>pouring in such torrents that the noise made by the mare's +hoofs was inaudible through the rushing tempest, and it was only by help +of the ostler's lanthorn that Rupert could tell where Bess stood +shivering and cringing, as the drops pelted like hail-stones upon her.</p> + +<p>But if the night had been ten times worse than was the case, Rupert +would still have persisted in his intention of riding round by +Leytonstone. Comfort and assurance he felt he must have, some accurate +knowledge of their actual position he was determined to obtain for +Dolly, and so he proceeded through the darkness, with the rain sweeping +in gusts up from the south-east, and expending the full force of its +fury upon horse and horseman wherever an opening in the forest glades +exposed both to its violence.</p> + +<p>A lonely ride, lonely and dreary, the road now winding through common +lands covered with gorse, and broom and heather, now leading through +patches of the forest, now skirting gravel and sand pits, and again +passing by skeletons of new houses run up hastily and prematurely by +speculative builders.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> + +<p>And wherever any other road which could possibly lead back to Homewood +crossed that Rupert desired to pursue, a difference of opinion took +place between him and Bess, she being quite satisfied that the way they +ought to go was the way which led to her stable; Rupert, on the +contrary, being quite determined that she should carry him to +Leytonstone.</p> + +<p>At length the violence of the storm somewhat abated, and as he passed +the 'Eagle,' at Snaresbrook, from behind a bank of wild watery-looking +clouds the moon rose slowly and as if reluctantly, whilst the wind grew +higher and swept over the lonely country lying towards and beyond +Barkingside in blasts that almost took away the young man's breath.</p> + +<p>On the whole he was not sorry when he reached that great public-house +which stands where three roads meet near the pond at Leytonstone. There +he dismounted, and giving Bess in charge of a man who knew the mare and +her rider well, he walked on past the church, down the little bye-street +leading to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>the picturesque station, across the line, and so to a new +road intersecting an estate that had been recently cut up for building, +and where already houses were dotting the fields, where two or three +years previously there was no sign of human habitation.</p> + +<p>One of these houses belonged to Mr. Gibbons; he had bought it for a very +low price, and nobly indifferent to the horrible newness of its +appearance, to the nakedness of its garden, and that general misery of +aspect peculiar to a suburb while in its transition state from country +to town, he removed his household goods from Islington, where he had +previously resided, and set himself at work to make a home in the +wilderness.</p> + +<p>He was a man content to wait for trees to grow, and shrubs to mature, +and creepers to climb. His was the order of mind which can plant an +asparagus bed and believe the three years needful for it to come to +perfection will really pass away in regular course. He procured a +mulberry-tree and set it, and he would have done the same with a walnut +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>had the size of his garden justified the proceeding.</p> + +<p>As it was, he looked forward to eating fruit grown on his own walls and +espaliers; he directed the formation and stocking of his garden with +great contentment. He built a greenhouse; he ordered in a Virginia +creeper and a Wistaria, which he hoped eventually to see cover the front +of his house; he put up a run for his fowls; and he talked with +unconcealed pride of his "place near the forest," where his children +grew so strong and healthy, he declared that the butcher's bills +frightened him.</p> + +<p>To men of this sort, men who are willing to sow in the spring, and +patient enough to wait for the ripening in the autumn, England owes most +of her prosperity; but ordinary humanity may well be excused if it +shrink from the idea of settling down in a spic-and-span new house in an +unfinished neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>Rupert's humanity, at all events, accustomed as it was to the wealth of +foliage at Homewood, to the stately trees and bushy shrubs, and matured +gardens, and lawns covered with soft <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>old turf, recoiled with horror +from the naked coldness of Mr. Gibbon's residence, and his teeth +chattered as the uncertain moonbeams glanced hither and thither over new +brick walls, and stuccoed pillars, and British plate-glass, and all +those other items which go to compose a British villa in the nineteenth +century.</p> + +<p>The wind, sweeping over the Essex marshes and across Wanstead flats, +brought with it heavy gusts of showers, and one of these pursued Rupert +as he ploughed his way over the loose stones and gravel which had been +laid upon the road.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p><p>"It is a nice night and a nice hour for a visit," he reflected. "I +wonder what Gibbons will say to my intruding on his privacy on the +Sabbath-day." And he paused for a moment before applying his hand to the +knocker, and listened to the vocal strength of the family, which was +employed at the moment in singing psalms in that peculiar style which +the clergy assure us is especially pleasing to the Almighty.</p> + +<p>They, it is to be presumed, must know something about the matter. +Certainly, the performance affords pleasure to no one of God's creatures +except to the vocalists themselves. In a lull of the wind Rupert could +hear the shrill trebles of the young ladies, the cracked voice of their +mother, the gruff growling of the two sons, and the deep bass of Mr. +Gibbons himself, all engaged in singing spiritual songs in unison.</p> + +<p>"It will be a charity to interrupt that before they bring the ceiling +down," said the visitor, and he forthwith gave such a thundering double +knock that the music ceased as if a cannon had been fired amongst the +vocalists.</p> + +<p>Miss Amy's hands dropped powerless from the keyboard of the piano, and +Mr. Gibbons, forgetful of the sacred exercises in which he had been +engaged, first exclaimed,</p> + +<p>"Who the devil can that be?" and then proceeded to ascertain who it was +for himself.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p><p> "I beg ten thousand pardons for intruding upon you," Rupert was +beginning, but Mr. Gibbons would listen to no apology.</p> + +<p>"Bless my soul!" he exclaimed, "what can have brought you out such a +night? Come in and have some supper. We were just going to have supper. +The rain came down in such buckets we could not get to church, so the +young people were having a little music. ("Music!" thought Rupert.) Come +in, there is no one here except ourselves."</p> + +<p>"You are very kind," Rupert answered, "but I cannot stop. I am wet, and +have had a long, miserable ride. I only want to ask you half-a-dozen +questions, and then I must get home. I left my mare at the 'Green Man,' +and she is drowned, poor old girl."</p> + +<p>"Well, you must take something," said Mr. Gibbons, who in trade insisted +upon his pound of flesh if he saw the slightest hope of getting it, but +who out of trade was liberal and hospitable to a commendable degree.</p> + +<p>"I will take nothing, thank you," Rupert replied decidedly, "except +hope, if you are able to give me that. I have been drinking +brandy-and-water at the house of my respected brother-in-law that is to +be, and I can't stand <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>much of that sort of thing. I wonder how it is +prosperous men are able to drink what they do after dinner and never +turn a hair, whilst poor wretches who never knew what it was to have a +five-pound note between them and beggary are knocked over by a few +glasses."</p> + +<p>They were standing by this time in a small room covered with oil-cloth, +which Mrs. Gibbons, who was a notable manager, used for cutting out her +children's garments. She neutralised the cold of the oilcloth by +standing on a wool mat; and then, as she remarked to her friends, there +was no trouble in sweeping up the clippings, as there would have been +had she laid down a carpet.</p> + +<p>The apartment did not look cheerful. It was on a piece with the outside +of the house; but Rupert had a confidence in Mr. Gibbons which proved +more consolatory at the moment than any amount of luxurious furniture +could have done.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter? What has gone wrong now?" asked Mr. Gibbons, +ignoring the young man's irrelevant statement, which, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>indeed, having a +wider experience, he did not in the least believe.</p> + +<p>In a few sentences Rupert told him the events of the last two days. +There was no person living to whom Rupert Halling could talk so freely +as to this sharp, shrewd man of business, whom he did not like, with +whom he had not an idea in common, who he knew could, to quote an old +proverb, "lie as fast as a dog can trot," but in whose judgment he +trusted as if he had been a prophet.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gibbons sat beside the table, his arms crossed on it, looking at +Rupert, and Rupert sat at a little distance, and spoke right on, never +stopping till he had said his say.</p> + +<p>When the story was told Mr. Gibbons rose and took a few turns up and +down the room.</p> + +<p>"If you think of it, Forde has not made a bad move," he remarked at +last, stopping in his walk. "He can keep the matter as quiet as he +likes, he can tell his directors what he pleases, and if there is any +game left to play he can play it without much interference. I did not +think he had it in him to devise such <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>a scheme, but perhaps it was not +he, only Kleinwort. There is nothing that little thief could not do +except be honest."</p> + +<p>"Will it make any difference to us?" asked Rupert, impatient of this +digression.</p> + +<p>"That is just what I have been wondering," answered Mr. Gibbons. "I +don't see that it can. I know nothing of Swanland personally (of course, +everybody knows his partner, Asherill, the most thoroughfaced old humbug +in the City), but in his position he dare not play into Forde's hand. It +is impossible for him to make fish of one creditor and fowl of another. +Had they chosen a creature of their own for trustee, the case would have +been different; but, upon my honour, I think the matter could not stand +better than it does. If Forde does not oppose, nobody else will, I +should imagine; and all your uncle has to do now is to get well as fast +as he can, so as to push business along and pay us all a good dividend."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Gibbons," said Rupert slowly, "what is liquidation?"</p> + +<p>"That is rather a difficult question to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>answer," was the reply. "I have +understood that its object is to enable a man who really means honestly +to repay his creditors to do so. You see, the new Bankruptcy Act has +been passed so recently that we have not much knowledge of its working. +In the only case of which I have had experience, it seems to go smoothly +enough. A pianoforte-maker, who had taken out some new patent got +himself into difficulties, and the creditors asked me to look into his +affairs, and see what chance there was of their ever being repaid. I did +so, and found the estate could never pay sixpence if it was compulsorily +realised, but that there was a probability of twenty shillings if the +man could be allowed to work on without the fear of writs.</p> + +<p>"The fellow seemed honest enough, and the creditors were inclined to be +patient—all except one fellow, who wanted to get the business into his +own hands. I soon shut his mouth; and we arranged to throw the payment +of ten shillings in the pound over three years; the rest was left to his +honour. Well, so far as I <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>can see, every creditor will get his money in +full, and the debtor is as happy as possible, working away to pay all he +owes. He is allowed so much out of the business for his household +expenses; and, of course, I do not look him and his books up for +nothing, but still when the affair comes to be closed, it will prove +better than bankruptcy for every one concerned; and if I had been +appointed trustee to your uncle's estate, I have no doubt we might, out +of such a business as his, have arranged ten pounds a week for his +services, and paid everybody in full, with interest, in four years."</p> + +<p>"I wish to God you had been the trustee," said Rupert earnestly.</p> + +<p>"I echo the wish. I could have made it easy for your uncle and +beneficial to myself; but Forde does not like me. He can't take me in as +he takes in other people. However," added Mr. Gibbons, "it is a great +matter to have him with you, since, unless you were able to produce good +proof of what you have hinted to me, his opposition might be dangerous."</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Do you know," said Rupert, "Mr. Dean really frightened me to-night. He +declared my uncle was commercially dead, that he could never hold up his +head again in the City, that his estate had been allowed to go to the +dogs, and that the dogs had got it, with much more to the same effect."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Dean is a pompous old ass," commented Mr. Gibbons.</p> + +<p>"Please remember he is going to marry my sister," entreated Rupert.</p> + +<p>"In that at all events he shows his sense," returned Mr. Gibbons with +ready courtesy, "but what should he know about liquidation? If Mr. Dean +thought a poor wretch were shaky, he would serve him with a trading +debtors' summons at once, and if the amount were not paid, make him +bankrupt before he could know what had happened. That is how Elm Park is +maintained. Please heaven," added Mr. Gibbons piously, "a more liberal +policy shall supply the more modest requirements of Forest View."</p> + +<p>Which was the appropriate name of the spic-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>and-span new mansion, since +not a glimpse of the forest could be obtained even from its attic +windows.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Rupert, rising and holding out his hand to Mr. +Gibbons, "you have relieved my mind greatly. I do not know I ever felt +more miserable than I have done to-night. Mrs. Mortomley quite unnerved +me. She has a fancy that her husband is going to be ruined."</p> + +<p>"My dear fellow," was the reply, "when you have lived as long as I have +lived, and been married as many years as I have been married you will +know women are always having fancies. No better creature than my wife +ever breathed, but she has a prophetic feeling about some matter or +person every day of her life."</p> + +<p>"It is quite a new thing for Dolly to be among the prophets, however," +remarked Rupert almost involuntarily.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," said Mr. Gibbons, not understanding.</p> + +<p>"Oh! I was speaking of Mrs. Mortomley. We always call her Dolly. Absurd, +is it not? but it is better than Dollabella." </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p> + +<p>The connection of ideas between her name and her fortune did not seem +very plain, nevertheless, as if one suggested the other, Mr. Gibbons +said,</p> + +<p>"I suppose Mrs. Mortomley's money is all right."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean," Rupert inquired.</p> + +<p>"Settled on herself of course."</p> + +<p>"Of course," the young man answered.</p> + +<p>"That is well," answered Mr. Gibbons. "I wish you would stay and have +some supper. No? Then good night and keep up your spirits, all will turn +out for the best, be sure of that."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p><p>And so they shook hands and parted. Mr. Gibbons to return to his +psalmody, and Rupert to retrace his steps to the 'Green Man,' where he +re-mounted Bess and rode back, moonlight accompanying him, drifting rain +following his horse's heels to Whip's Cross.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>STRAWS.</h3> + + +<p>When Rupert reached Homewood he rode direct to the stables, expecting to +find a groom waiting his arrival.</p> + +<p>Disappointed in this expectation he hitched the mare's bridle to a hook +in the wall, flung a cloth over her, and walking round the house entered +it through the conservatory doors, which always remained hospitably +unlocked.</p> + +<p>As he entered the hall, Esther was crossing from the direction of the +kitchens. At sight of him she started back with a "Lor', Mr. Rupert, how +you did frighten me; who ever would have thought of seeing you!"</p> + +<p>"Why, who did you expect to see?" retorted <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>Mr. Rupert, "and where, when +all that is settled, is Fisher?"</p> + +<p>"He left at seven, sir. He came in to do up the horses as usual, and he +said, sir, when he was going out that he should not be back again, for +that Hankins had seen you on the road to Elm Park, and you were sure not +to be back such a night as this."</p> + +<p>"I wish Hankins would attend to his own business and not attempt to +manage mine," muttered Rupert. "Get me a lantern, Esther. I must see to +that unfortunate mare myself."</p> + +<p>Esther fetched him a lantern, and one of the men in possession, who had +himself formerly been the owner of some livery stables, offered to see +to the well-being of Madam Bess, but Rupert would not hear of it.</p> + +<p>"You can bring the light if you will be so good," he said, for it was no +part of the policy at Homewood for the inhabitants to give themselves +airs above those sent to keep watch and ward over their chattels.</p> + +<p>"But I will rub her down myself; I should not care about it, only I am +so confoundedly <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>wet," he added, with his frank pleasant laugh.</p> + +<p>"However, she is wetter, poor beast;" and as he spoke he passed his hand +over the mare's neck and shoulder, which attention she acknowledged by +trying to get it in her mouth.</p> + +<p>"Frisky still, old lady," Rupert remarked; "I should have thought your +journey to-night might have taken that out of you. Come on," and he +slipped off her bridle, and holding her mane walked beside her into the +stall, where he put on her halter.</p> + +<p>"It is too wet still to make your toilette out of doors," he went on; +"so you must be quiet while I rub you down here."</p> + +<p>And after having taken off his hat and coat and waistcoat, Rupert set +too and groomed that mare "proper," to quote the expression of Turner, +the man who held the light.</p> + +<p>And then he brought her a warm mash, and forked her up a comfortable +bed, which Bess at once devoted herself to pawing out behind her; having +accomplished which feat, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>vaunted herself to her stable companions +about the evening's work she had performed, she lay down to sleep on the +bare pavement.</p> + +<p>This was her pleasant fancy, which is shared by many a dog.</p> + +<p>After all, there was much of a dog's nature about Bess—notably as far +as faithfulness and affection were concerned.</p> + +<p>Rupert walked back to the house and asked Esther to make him some +coffee. Whilst she was preparing it, he went softly to his own room, +changed his wet clothes, washed, brushed his curly hair, and otherwise +made himself presentable; then he went downstairs again and entered the +library, where he found coffee awaiting his arrival.</p> + +<p>"My sister is gone to bed, I suppose," he said to Esther.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, Miss Halling was very tired, and thought you would not be +back to-night."</p> + +<p>"And Mrs. Mortomley?"</p> + +<p>"She is up still, sir."</p> + +<p>"I must see her to-night. Will you tell <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>her that I want to speak to her +very particularly."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"What have you been crying about?" asked Rupert suddenly, but the girl +turned her head away and made no answer.</p> + +<p>"Has Mrs. Mortomley been scolding you?" he persisted. At this question +Esther broke down altogether.</p> + +<p>"It—it—is—th—first time my—mistress ever spoke cross to me, sir—," +she sobbed.</p> + +<p>"Well, you needn't allow that fact to vex you," Rupert answered, "for if +things go on as they have been doing, you may be very sure it will not +be the last. Now go and give her my message, and you will sleep all the +better for seeing your mistress again. Depend upon it, she is far more +sorry than you by this time."</p> + +<p>"What a spit-fire temper Dolly is developing," thought the young man, +looking uneasily into the blazing fire. "Though it is rather turning the +proprieties upside down, I fear I must lecture my aunt," but when Mrs. +Mortomley came into the room there was an expression on her face which +changed his intention. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p> + +<p>She had taken off the elaborate dress in which he last beheld her, and +exchanged it for a dressing-gown of brilliant scarlet, confined round +the waist by a belt of its own material, and showing, in every fold and +plait which hung loosely about her figure, how the plump shapeliness +which once needed no padding, no adventitious assistance from her +dressmaker, had changed to leanness and angles.</p> + +<p>She had unloosed her hair, she had taken away the great pads and +enormous frizettes in which her soul once found such pleasure, and the +straight locks fell over her shoulders in a manner as natural as it was +unwonted.</p> + +<p>"Good Heavens, Dolly," exclaimed Rupert, at sight of her, "why do you +ever wear scarlet, it makes you look like a ghost, or a corpse."</p> + +<p>"It is warm," she answered, "and I was very cold. You wanted to see me +and I wanted to see you; but tell me your story first." </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I have been to Elm Park," he replied, "in order to make up friends with +that whited sepulchre, Mr. Dean; and I have succeeded. So much for that +which immediately concerns Antonia and myself. After I left Elm Park, I +rode round by Leytonstone and called upon Mr. Gibbons. He says that +Swanland must act fairly by you and all the creditors; that, in fact, so +far as that goes we need feel no uneasiness."</p> + +<p>"Then, where is the cause for uneasiness?" she enquired.</p> + +<p>"Nowhere so far as he can see," Rupert answered evasively, "but I will +tell you what I have been thinking as I came home. Of course, once this +order, whatever it may be, is taken out, we shall have no more trouble +from writs and so forth, and we need not be anxious about the business, +but we shall, I fear, want ready money. Of course there will be an +allowance to Archie, but we may not be able to get that immediately. Now +we had better look this matter in the face. How much money is there in +the house?" </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p> + +<p>Dolly put her hand in her pocket and pulled forth her purse, turning its +contents out on the table.</p> + +<p>"I had the June interest from my money on Friday night," she remarked. +"For the first time I wrote to ask for it, and I was so thankful it +came, as otherwise the wages here could not have been paid yesterday."</p> + +<p>"Surely, Dolly, you never paid them out of your money?"</p> + +<p>"Not the whole amount. Lang told me he was five-and-twenty pounds short, +so I sent him to town to get the cheque changed, and gave him what he +required."</p> + +<p>"I must see Lang about this the first thing to-morrow," Rupert remarked. +"Dolly, give me your money and let me keep it."</p> + +<p>She gathered up the notes and gold and handed them to him. He counted +both over. "Why, Dolly," he said, "there is only thirty pounds left."</p> + +<p>She laughed, in reply, that frank guileless laugh which never rings out +save when a woman has concealed nothing—has nothing she wishes to +conceal.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh! I paid off such a number of worries yesterday. Of course, had there +been enough to get rid of even one of our distinguished visitors, I +should have done so, but as there was not, I killed such a host of +gnats. See," and going to her desk she produced a perfect packet of +receipts. "I am so thankful those little things are settled," she went +on, "if I had kept the money it would only have gone somehow—not this +'how,' I am quite certain."</p> + +<p>"Will nothing teach her common sense?" but even as he thought, Dolly's +eyes suddenly uplifted surprised his—her brown eyes looking out from a +very white face and a confused mass of dark hair.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter," she inquired; "of what are you thinking?"</p> + +<p>"Of you," he answered; "I wish you were more prudent."</p> + +<p>"I wish I were—perhaps I shall be some day," she said humbly.</p> + +<p>Thinking of the manner in which she had <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>without question turned her +money over to him Rupert felt doubtful.</p> + +<p>"You had better keep two or three sovereigns," he observed.</p> + +<p>"I fancy so," she agreed. "There is always money wanting now, and you +might not be in the way."</p> + +<p>He looked at her across the table, and then bent down his head over the +notes and gold.</p> + +<p>Incredible as it may seem, there was something in the woman's +face—though she was utterly ignorant of its presence—which touched +Rupert's nature to its best and deepest depths, wringing his +heart-strings.</p> + +<p>If he had known what that something prefigured, if God had only for one +moment given him prescience that night, the man's memory might have +failed to hold something which shall never depart from him now till life +is extinguished with it.</p> + +<p>As it was he exclaimed,</p> + +<p>"I would to Heaven, Dolly, I had passed all my life with you and Archie. +I should in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>that case have been as unmercenary and unselfish as you."</p> + +<p>"Rather," said Dolly sententiously, "you should thank Heaven for having +placed you in one of this world's strictest schools. Otherwise you might +have been a simpleton like myself, or a clever idiot like dear Archie, +but you would never have been a man who shall make his way to success as +you intend to do."</p> + +<p>"How shall I make my way to success?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"I do not quite like to say out my thought," she replied. "It is Sunday +night, and what I feel may seem profane when rendered into speech. +Nevertheless, Rupert, Providence does take care of men like you. I +cannot at all tell why, since I know you are no better, indeed a great +deal worse than myself. You will get on, never fear; just as if the +vision were realized, I can see you now in a fine place, with a rich +wife."</p> + +<p>"Stay," interrupted Rupert; "wherein this vision comes the skeleton?"</p> + +<p>"To my imagination," she answered, "the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>skeleton ceases not by day or +night; it is ever present,—it is Homewood with you and your sister, +prosperous in your plans, and my husband, who sheltered you—dying."</p> + +<p>"How you talk, Dolly? Archie is no worse."</p> + +<p>"Is he not?" she replied. "If things do not soon change here, the whole +question will be settled in the simplest manner possible. He will die, +and there will be a funeral, and people will say,</p> + +<p>"'Poor fellow! he held out as long as he could, and died just in the +nick of time.'"</p> + +<p>"I know one man, at any rate, who would say nothing of the kind," +remarked Rupert, "who would be quite certain to observe, 'Have you heard +about that fellow Mortomley? No. Well, he has taken it into his head to +die, and left me in the lurch. And after all my kindness to him too. I +declare, sir, if that man had been my brother, I could not have done +more for him—but there, that is just the return I meet with from, every +one.'"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p><p>The imitation was so admirable, and the words so exactly similar to +those she had heard used, that Dolly could not choose but laugh.</p> + +<p>Then she stopped suddenly and said, "It is no laughing matter though."</p> + +<p>"What makes you think Archie is worse?" asked her companion.</p> + +<p>"He would try to get up for a short time this afternoon, and +unfortunately elected to have his chair wheeled up close to the side +window. He had not been seated there ten minutes before he saw one of +those men crossing from the kitchen-garden. He asked me who he was, and +I was obliged to tell him. He did not make any remark at the time, but +shortly afterwards said he would lie down again, and since that time he +has not dozed for a moment; he has refused to touch any nourishment, and +he scarcely answers when I speak to him. After the doctor saw him, he +asked me whether Archie had received any shock, and when I explained the +matter to him, he looked very grave and said,</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Unless his mind can be kept easy, I will not answer for the +consequences."</p> + +<p>"Then he was an idiot to say anything of the sort," Rupert angrily +commented. "Never mind, Dolly, such a <i>contretemps</i> shall not occur +again. I will warn these fellows that if I catch one of them prowling +about the grounds, I will horsewhip him, let the consequence be what it +may. Now, have you anything more to say, for it is growing late?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," Mrs. Mortomley answered. "I am going to send Lenore away +to-morrow; my aunt Celia will take charge of her until things are +settled here."</p> + +<p>"Surely this is a very sudden idea."</p> + +<p>"It never occurred to me until this afternoon. She has wearied and +worried me, poor little mite; but I did not know what to do with her, +and I probably never should have known what to do with her, had Mr. +Dean's effusion about the impossibility of his future wife remaining at +Homewood, not opened my eyes."</p> + +<p>"I understand," remarked Rupert. "You decided at once that if Homewood +were an <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>unfit residence for Miss Halling, it was still more unfit for +Miss Mortomley, and I really think you are right. But who is to go with +the child; am I?"</p> + +<p>"No, Esther is to take her. I have arranged all that. They start by an +early train to-morrow, and I hope Esther may be able to get back +to-morrow night."</p> + +<p>"Why cannot I take Lenore?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Because you ought to be here," Mrs. Mortomley replied. "Those two young +men have to finish the accounts remember, and I know little or nothing +about our affairs."</p> + +<p>"I had forgotten," he remarked. "Perhaps I ought not to be away. Now, +Dolly, have we finished business for to-night?"</p> + +<p>"No, I have something more to tell you," she answered. "After you went +out this afternoon, and while I was finishing my letter to aunt Celia, +Esther came in and said 'Mr. Turner hoped I would excuse the liberty, +but could he be allowed to speak to me?'</p> + +<p>"Naturally I asked who Mr. Turner was, when it transpired that one of +those creatures <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>is so named. I did not know what he might want, and so +told her to send him in.</p> + +<p>"'I trust you will pardon me, ma'am,' he began, 'I have not always been +in as low a position as that I now occupy, and—'</p> + +<p>"I misunderstood his meaning, and told him that of course he must know +the whole affair was miserable for us, but that I was aware if a man +chose such a vocation, he must discharge the duties connected with it; +and that we did not want in any way to make the discharge of those +duties unpleasant to him. He waited quietly and respectfully till I had +quite finished, when he first thanked me for my kindness, and then said +I had mistaken his meaning.</p> + +<p>"'I understand' he finished, 'that Mr. Mortomley intends to go into +liquidation.'</p> + +<p>"I was a little surprised at this, but told him yes, Mr. Mortomley did. +There was nothing secret about the matter.</p> + +<p>"Then in so many words he told me he was bound to write and inform his +employer that such was the case; but he went on and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>then paused, while +I waited curiously, I must confess, for the man's manner and the +expression of his face perplexed me.</p> + +<p>"'The truth is, ma'am,' he gathered up courage to say at last, 'I have +been very well treated here, and I am very sorry to see things going +wrong in a house like this, and as I have seen a great deal of +bankruptcy and arrangements and all the rest of it, I thought I would +just make so bold as to say that if there are any things about the house +for which you have a particular fancy, the sooner you put them on one +side or ask some of your friends to take charge of them for you the +better.'</p> + +<p>"I declare, Rupert, I did not comprehend at first what he meant, and +when at last he explained himself more at length, I was so amazed I +could only say we did not think of leaving Homewood or selling the +furniture, that all Mr. Mortomley wanted was time, and of course things +would remain as they were and the business be continued just as usual.</p> + +<p>"He said he was sure he hoped all might turn out as I expected, but that +he trusted I <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>would excuse his still recommending me to make +arrangements for the worst.</p> + +<p>"'And do you propose that we should do that by stealing from ourselves?' +I asked.</p> + +<p>"'Well, everything in the place is yours to-night, ma'am, certainly,' he +answered; 'that is, except for the amounts I and my companion are here +for, but that will not be the case for long when once the other man +comes in.'</p> + +<p>"'What other man?' I said.</p> + +<p>"'Why the trustee's man.'</p> + +<p>"Then I got annoyed and told him he was talking nonsense, that once the +petition was granted there would be no more 'men' at Homewood; that +since the passing of the new Bankruptcy Act everything was made +comparatively pleasant for people who wanted to act honestly.</p> + +<p>"'If you will excuse my saying so, ma'am,' he persisted, 'I think you +know even less about the working of the new Act than I do.'</p> + +<p>"At that point I lost my temper.</p> + +<p>"'Whether I do or not I shall not follow <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>your advice, though I suppose +you mean it kindly. If my husband's creditors want every article in +Homewood, why, they must take even to the last chair, that is all. If I +had to turn out to-night without a shelter or a penny I would not do +what you suggest.'</p> + +<p>"He bowed and went away without speaking another word, and of course I +thought the subject was ended.</p> + +<p>"Quite by accident I went an hour ago to Lenore's room, and there to my +astonishment I found piled up on the drawers and tables all the +knick-knacks out of the drawing-room; the timepieces, the vases, the +statuettes, the little genuine silver we have not parted with, and a +whole tribe of other articles.</p> + +<p>"Then I rang for Esther and asked what it meant. Turner, it appeared, +after leaving me, told her I understood nothing whatever of our real +position, and that the greatest service she could do me was to send as +much as possible to some safe place of keeping without mentioning the +matter to me.</p> + +<p>"And acting on this, she had intended to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>get up about four o'clock and +pack up all she could, and take the spoil with her to Great Dassell.</p> + +<p>"I was so angry I said sharp things to the girl I ought not to have +said. I believe I frightened her to death, and I know I have made myself +quite ill and hysterical with the passion I got into."</p> + +<p>"Esther is happy enough now. She did it all for the best, and I have +told her how sorry I am to have spoken sharply; but, Rupert, Rupert, +what is the meaning of all this? There is something in liquidation we do +not understand."</p> + +<p>"I do not think there is," was the reply. "This man only spoke according +to his light, which seems to be a very poor one. He simply advised that +course to be taken which would be taken by ninety-nine people out of a +hundred."</p> + +<p>"Then if such is the case, I cannot wonder at Mr. Forde's idea that +debtors are thieves."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p><p> "And at the same time there may be some reason for the debtors' belief +that creditors are robbers."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" cried Dolly, "that it were all ended."</p> + +<p>"It will be some day, please God," he answered. "And now, Dolly, do get +to bed; your white face will disturb my dreams. When had you anything to +eat?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think I have eaten anything since Thursday," she answered; +"anything, I mean, worth calling a meal."</p> + +<p>"You will kill yourself if you go on as you are doing," he said, but she +shook her head.</p> + +<p>"I am going to live to a hundred and forty, like the Countess of +Desmond, who died in consequence of a fall from a cherry-tree," Dolly +explained. "I shall be a great-great-great-grandmother, and I shall +inculcate upon the first, second, third, and fourth generations the +truth of that old proverb, 'Take care of the pence, and the pounds will +take care of themselves.'"</p> + +<p>"Never mind pence or pounds either, Dolly. I wish you would take care of +yourself."</p> + +<p>"Why?" she asked; then went on, "I wonder if on the face of the earth +besides <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>Archie and Lenore, and Esther and Mrs. Werner, and perhaps my +Aunt Celia, there is a creature who would be really sorry if I died +to-night?"</p> + +<p>"Do you exclude me?" Rupert marvelled.</p> + +<p>"You have not lived long enough to be very sorry about anything except +your own affairs—about any trouble coming to those connected with you +unless their sorrow means loss of comfort to yourself."</p> + +<p>"Do you think I am not sorry for Archie and you now?"</p> + +<p>"I am quite sure you are," she replied bitterly. "Homewood has been a +pleasant house for you to live in; far pleasanter than Elm Park can ever +prove."</p> + +<p>"Dolly," he interrupted, "I do not mean to call you ungrateful, but +considering how I have been working on your behalf to-day—"</p> + +<p>"We need not discuss the question," she remarked as he stopped and +paused. "There is no necessity now for us to go into our accounts and +put down, 'I have done this, and Archie has <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>done the other.' Before +this liquidation business is ended we shall have ample opportunity of +doing full justice each to the other—only—Rupert, I do not think you +would have been quite so ready to leave Homewood had your opinion and +that of the man Turner not to a certain extent coincided."</p> + +<p>"You wrong me greatly," he answered, "but as you say there is no +necessity for us to discuss these questions now. Do go to bed, dear; you +will knock yourself up if you neither rest nor sleep, and then who can +see to Archie?"</p> + +<p>"Good night," she said holding out her hand, "if I have misjudged you I +am sorry."</p> + +<p>He held the door open for her to pass out, and watched her as she +flitted up the staircase.</p> + +<p>Had she misjudged him Rupert wondered. No. Her instinct guided her +aright when reason might have failed to do so.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I am a rat," he thought, "and that by some curious intuition +I did guess the ship was sinking. Knowledge and calculation had, +however, nothing to do with the matter. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>That I can declare. Now it will +perhaps be well for me to calculate. I do not much relish hearing a list +of benefits conferred, recited at each interview."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p><p>In his heart Rupert felt very angry. An individual must be remarkably +good looking to approve of a mirror which reflects him feature by +feature, wrinkle by wrinkle, exactly as he is!</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>MR. SWANLAND STIRS HIS TEA.</h3> + + +<p>At a few minutes before six next morning, as Messrs. Lang and Hankins +were coming up the road, still sleepy after the long rest afforded by +the previous day, they saw Rupert Halling advancing to meet them.</p> + +<p>It was a miserable morning, raining a fine drizzling rain with a cold +wind blowing at the same time, but Rupert, careless as usual of the +state of the weather, walked along under the trees, his cap a little on +one side, his shooting-jacket flying open, whistling a low soft melody +confidentially to himself.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p><p> "Good morning," he said to the men. "No one could call this a fine one. +Lang, give the keys to Hankins and walk with me a little way; I want to +speak to you."</p> + +<p>In a few words Mr. Halling explained his difficulty, and asked Lang to +help him out of it.</p> + +<p>"I can manage that easily enough," was the answer. "Luckily I did not +make up my books on Saturday as I generally do. Now, sir, remember you +know nothing except that you understood I was short twenty-five pounds +for the wages. Leave all the rest to me."</p> + +<p>"You are sure, Lang, you do not mind interfering in this."</p> + +<p>Mr. Lang laughed a short laugh, more like a snort than an evidence of +merriment.</p> + +<p>"Mind!" he echoed, "have I not been through the fire myself? but then I +knew what was coming and arranged accordingly. Otherwise me and my wife +and the children would not have had a bed to lie on. Mind! If the +governor or you had only told me things were coming to this pass, we +might have had a snug business at work some place else by this time, and +snapped our fingers at them all. By <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>Heavens, to think of it!" added Mr. +Lang, stopping to look at Homewood. "I wish it had been bankruptcy +though, if it must be anything, and then we should have had some chance +of speaking out our minds about that rubbish from the General Chemical +Company."</p> + +<p>"I did not know you had ever been bankrupt," said Rupert.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir; I had to fail; after the old gentleman's death," with a jerk +of his head he indicated that he meant Mr. Mortomley, senior. "I must +needs go as working partner into a firm who promised to do wonders for +me. When they had picked my skull clean, they wanted to pitch me over, +and they did pitch me over, thinking to have all the road to themselves, +but that was not good enough for me, not at all," added Mr. Lang +sarcastically. "I had a little money and I got a place and I set to +work, and I could have done well only there was not an article I dealt +in they did not offer at a lower price.</p> + +<p>"Seeing their game I lowered my prices, then they cut theirs still +lower, and so we went <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>on till at last what we charged did not pay men's +wages, let alone material and rent and all the rest of it.</p> + +<p>"I being a practical man, and able to work myself, had a little the +advantage of them; and besides I knew what must come, sooner or later, +and so managed matters that when the brokers came in at last—and I was +sick to death of expecting them before they did come—there was not +enough in my house to pay the expenses of levying.</p> + +<p>"At the works of course everything remained as usual, for there was not +an article in them ever likely to be of use to me again.</p> + +<p>"My old partners and me smashed up about the same time, and they have +never done any good since. I met one of them only the other day and he +says,</p> + +<p>"'Lang,' he says, 'I wish we could have agreed and stayed together,' he +says. 'we might all have been independent by this time.'</p> + +<p>"'I wish,' I says, 'you could have acted honourable by me. It might have +been better for you in the long run. For myself, I'm <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>pretty +comfortable, thank you. I have a good berth at Mortomley's, and needn't +lie awake half my nights thinking about the wages for Saturday.'</p> + +<p>"And then I asked him if he would take a glass of sherry; and though he +was once a high and mighty sort of gentleman, he thanked me and did take +it. That's the fruits of competition, sir, which some people think is so +good for trade."</p> + +<p>Turning the corner of the road sharply at this juncture, they came upon +a man who stood leaning over the close fence which on that side enclosed +the kitchen gardens at Homewood.</p> + +<p>It was early to meet a stranger in such a neighbourhood, more especially +a stranger who not being a working man had evidently no better +employment than to stand out in damp weather surveying local landmarks.</p> + +<p>He did not take any notice of either Rupert or his companion, continuing +to lounge against the fence and contemplate vegetable-marrows, cabbages, +and parsley.</p> + +<p>Rupert, however, turned twice or thrice and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>took a long steady survey +on each occasion.</p> + +<p>"Who is that man, Lang?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"Never saw him before. He looks up to no good," answered Mr. Lang.</p> + +<p>Rupert and the manager walked a few steps further, and then began to +retrace their steps.</p> + +<p>As they did so, they beheld the stranger lounging slowly before them, +stopping at intervals to inspect the appearance of Homewood from +different points of view, and giving the two an opportunity to pass him +again.</p> + +<p>"Beg pardon," he said, when they were close upon him, "but can you +oblige me with a light?"</p> + +<p>He addressed Lang, but Rupert answered him by producing a box of +matches.</p> + +<p>"I wonder who that man can be," remarked Rupert once they were out of +earshot.</p> + +<p>"He <i>is</i> up to no good," said Mr. Lang emphatically.</p> + +<p>"I don't think he is," agreed Rupert uneasily, but neither he nor Lang +could have <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>defined the precise form of evil they believed the stranger +had set himself to compass.</p> + +<p>Had any one at Homewood kept a diary, however, which no one did with the +exception of Lang, who prided himself not a little on the neatness and +accuracy of his day-book, there would have been little in the events of +the next eight-and-forty hours worth chronicling.</p> + +<p>The clerks arrived as arranged, and before they had finished their work +Mr. Benning appeared to see how they were getting on and have a look +round the place, and ask a few questions of Rupert and Mrs. Mortomley, +and a great many when he got the chance of wandering about the works +unaccompanied, of Lang, Hankins, and even the rank and file of the +working men.</p> + +<p>He came, though Rupert was unaware of the fact, to try and find out +something, but whatever that something might be he failed to make any +discovery, excepting that the extent of Mr. Mortomley's trade had not +been exaggerated, and that about the serious and possibly dangerous +nature of his illness no rational doubt could be entertained.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p><p>Having satisfied his mind on these points, he and the clerks returned +to town, taking as accurate a list of the liabilities as could be +prepared in the time with them.</p> + +<p>The same night Esther returned from Great Dassell, eloquent in praise of +Miss Gerace, who had sadly wanted her to remain at all events till the +following morning, and from whom she brought a very kind little note, +saying she would gladly take charge of Lenore until Mr. Mortomley was +better, and their difficulties of whatever nature they might be, +overcome.</p> + +<p>Next day Mr. Benning reappeared, accompanied by a Commissioner, to take +Mr. Mortomley's affidavit that to the best of his belief the accounts +furnished were accurate.</p> + +<p>This ceremony occupied about half a minute, but under the circumstances +it did prove an exhilarating performance, and to any one superstitious +about such matters, the steady downfall of rain which had commenced on +the previous Saturday, and never really left off since it began, was +suggestive of a considerable amount of bad weather in the business +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>journey Mortomley had been compelled to undertake.</p> + +<p>Late in the afternoon Miss Halling and her brother took their departure. +The young lady's luggage had all been despatched earlier in the day, and +Rupert's seemed to consist merely of a black leather bag. Nevertheless, +when Dolly went into his room she found it stripped of every article +belonging to him, even to the sketch of Lenore at five years of age +which always hung over the mantel-piece.</p> + +<p>The young man had made sure of the safety of his own possessions, and +Mrs. Mortomley had sense enough to commend his wisdom.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless there is a wisdom which hurts, and Rupert's hurt her.</p> + +<p>"I was right," she thought, "they are rats and the ship is sinking." And +from that hour she braced up her courage to meet whatever fate might be +coming, bravely—as she certainly would have done had she in fact stood +on the deck of a vessel foundering in the midst of a wild and cruel sea.</p> + +<p>Towards evening there arrived at Homewood <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>a respectable looking sort of +individual, who announcing that he was the bearer of a note from Mr. +Swanland to Mrs. Mortomley, was asked without delay into the library.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mortomley looked at him and felt relieved. Here was a middle-aged +confidential clerk, not at all like a man in possession, and she greeted +him with civility, not to say cordiality.</p> + +<p>"Pray sit down," she said, and Mr. Meadows seated himself with an +apparent show of deference, all the time he understood quite as well as +Mr. Bailey, there was not a chair in Homewood which did not already +belong of right, not exactly perhaps to him, but his employer.</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Mortomley opened the note and read—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Dear Madam,</p> + +<p>"The bearer, Mr. Meadows, will inform you that everything is going +on satisfactorily. He may be able, I trust, to relieve you from all +anxiety and responsibility, and I have directed <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>him to make his +presence as little irksome as possible. To-morrow, if possible, I +hope to call at Homewood, in order to make arrangements for the +future. In the meantime, dear madam,</p> +<p class="center">"I have the honour to remain,</p> +<p class="ralign"><span style="margin-right: 3em;">"Yours faithfully,</span><br /> +"<span class="smcap">V. S. Swanland</span>.</p> + +<p>"To Mrs. Mortomley,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">"Homewood,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">"Whip's Cross."</span><br /></p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Mrs. Mortomley read this epistle over three times. If she had not been +enlightened on the point, it would never have occurred to her that Mr. +Meadows was to be located at Homewood.</p> + +<p>Having been enlightened, however, she asked,</p> + +<p>"Do I understand you are to remain here?"</p> + +<p>"It will be necessary for me to do so, madam," he answered, "until the +preliminaries are settled. In fact, it is quite possible I may have to +stay here until after the meeting of creditors." </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mrs. Mortomley paused and reflected. She did not know he was letting her +down easily, and there was a feasibility about his statements which to +her mind stamped them with a certain authenticity.</p> + +<p>"Should you like tea or supper?" she asked after that mental +conference—unconscious still, poor Dolly! that there sat the +representative of the legal owner of Homewood and all it contained. +"Either can be sent to you here immediately."</p> + +<p>"If you have no objection ma'am," he answered, "I will go into the +kitchen out of the way—and I can take share of what is going—"</p> + +<p>"You are very thoughtful," said Mrs. Mortomley, "but I could not really +think of allowing such a thing. You can have your own rooms here and—"</p> + +<p>"I would rather go into the kitchen, ma'am," he persisted. "In these +cases I like to be out of the way and give no trouble."</p> + +<p>"That's extremely kind of you," said Mrs. Mortomley, and he failed, for +a reason, to hear <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>the ring of sarcasm in her tone. "You shall be made +comfortable wherever you are, for I suppose now you are come—the men in +possession will go out."</p> + +<p>"Not to-night," he answered; "I have no instructions in the matter. +To-morrow, Mr. Swanland purposes to be here, and then no doubt, +everything will be gone into and arranged."</p> + +<p>So on Tuesday evening a third man joined the kitchen family circle at +Homewood, and added the smoke of his pipe to the smoke of those already +in possession. Wednesday came, the morning and the noon and the +afternoon passed without incident.</p> + +<p>Dolly had been much with her husband. Mr. Meadows took occasion to +wander into the works, and was treated at first with much respect. +Really anywhere Mr. Meadows might have passed—to those who did not know +he elected to live in the kitchen—for a small manufacturer—for a +master reduced to take a clerk's place.</p> + +<p>And Mr. Meadows had once occupied a very <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>different position to that of +an accountant's bailiff, and how he ever chanced to occupy himself in +Mr. Swanland's service astonished all the people employed about +Homewood.</p> + +<p>He had a good, not to say superior, address. He spoke very fair English, +he wrote a capital hand, and possessed a considerable amount of +education. The routine of business was evidently familiar to him, though +he was of course utterly ignorant of every detail of the colour trade. +Still he asked a sufficient number of pertinent questions, to convince +Lang he felt determined to acquire such a smattering of knowledge as +might enable him to talk glibly on the subject hereafter to people who +did understand about the matter.</p> + +<p>At the end of two days Mr. Lang had taken the "new man's" measure, but +still he was puzzled to imagine what he could have been originally, and +how he ever came to adopt so low a calling.</p> + +<p>With Hankins the first question of interest was, whether the chemicals +were still to be had from St. Vedast Wharf.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You had better ask Mr. Swanland about that," was the answer. "He will +be here this evening."</p> + +<p>"What does he know about chemicals or colours either?" inquired Hankins.</p> + +<p>"Well, he is obliged to know something about everything," replied Mr. +Meadows. "He is an uncommonly clever gentleman."</p> + +<p>"One of those who can learn without being taught, I suppose," suggested +Hankins.</p> + +<p>"You have hit it pretty nearly," answered the other, in a tone which +checked any further inquiries at that moment on the part of Mr. Hankins.</p> + +<p>In the evening Mr. Swanland accompanied by Mr. Benning arrived, to make, +in his double capacity of trustee and manager, arrangements for carrying +on a business of which he knew almost as much as Mrs. Mortomley did of +algebra.</p> + +<p>Lang and Hankins and a subordinate foreman had been instructed to wait +his coming, and perhaps to this trial of patience the remark <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>of the +latter, that "Swanland was the greatest swell for a man in possession he +had ever seen," might be ascribed.</p> + +<p>And indeed in one way his observation was strictly true, for whereas the +individuals sent from time to time by descendants of all the twelve sons +of Jacob, to keep watch and ward over the Mortomley goods and chattels, +only came in for a slice of the estate, Mr. Swanland came for all.</p> + +<p>At one swoop he had everything in his hand; without inventory or +formality of any kind, save announcing himself as manager and trustee, +he took a comprehensive grasp of Homewood and all it contained. The +horses in the stables, the chemicals and colours in the works, the bed +the sick man lay upon, the flowers in the garden, the exotics in the +greenhouse, the cat curled up before the hall fire, the dogs raving at +the length of their chains at the intruder, the pigeons in the dovecote, +and the monarch of the dunghill, all belonged to Mr. Swanland. On the +Saturday morning previously he had scarcely been aware that such a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>man +as Mortomley was in existence. If he had accidentally heard his name, no +memory of it remained; whilst as for Homewood, the place might have been +a station in Australia for aught he knew about it.</p> + +<p>And now he was master. Nominally the servant of the creditors, and +ostensibly acting for the bankrupt, he was as truly the lord of +Mortomley, the controller of his temporal destiny, as any southern +planter ever proved of that of his slaves.</p> + +<p>Whether the gentlemen, commercial and legal no doubt, who concocted the +Bankruptcy Act of 1869, and the other gentlemen of the Upper and Lower +Houses who made it law, ever contemplated that an utterly irresponsible +person should be placed in a responsible position it is not for me to +say, but I cannot think that any body of men out of Hanwell could have +proposed to themselves that the whole future of a bankrupt's life should +be made dependent on the choice of a trustee, since it is simple +nonsense to suppose a committee selected virtually by him and the +petitioning creditor have the slightest voice in the matter. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p> + +<p>And if any man in business whose affairs are going at all wrong should +happen to read these lines, which unhappily is not at all probable, +since literature at such a time chiefly assumes the form of manuscript, +let him remember liquidation means no appeal, no chance of ever having +justice done him, nor even, remote contingency,—supposing the trustee a +cool hand like Mr. Swanland,—of setting himself right with the business +world.</p> + +<p>He who goes into liquidation without first being sure of his trustee, +his lawyer, and his committee passes into an earthly hell, over the +portals of which are engraved the same words as those surmounting +Dante's 'Inferno.'</p> + +<p>He has left hope behind. God help him, for nothing save a miracle can +ever enable him to retrace the path to the spot where she sits immortal.</p> + +<p>At Homewood Mr. Swanland was in possession, and yet Dolly never +suspected the fact. Her first uneasiness arose from a few words uttered +by Mr. Benning.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I suppose the business will be carried on," he remarked, sitting in the +pleasant drawing-room with his feet stretched out towards the fire and +his hands plunged in his pockets. Dolly could not avoid noticing that +all these dreadful men did keep their hands in their pockets, as if they +had no use for them anywhere else. "We must get a manager, I suppose."</p> + +<p>Now was Dolly's opportunity.</p> + +<p>"The business cannot be carried on except by some one who understands it +thoroughly," she said.</p> + +<p>"I do not suppose there will be any difficulty about that," he answered. +"Competent people are always to be had if one knows how to look for +them."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean," she inquired, "that my husband will not have the +management of his own business. Under Mr. Swanland I mean of course," +she added.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Mortomley's health seems quite broken up," said Mr. Benning. "It +would be simple cruelty to ask him to attend to business. After the +meeting of creditors the best thing he can <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>do will be to go to some +pretty seaside place in Devonshire or Cornwall, and live there +comfortable upon your money."</p> + +<p>For a minute the wretched woman sat silent facing her misery. Leave +Homewood! leave the business of which her husband thought so much! +Perhaps it was not true, perhaps she had not understood him.</p> + +<p>"Do you really think we had better go away, away altogether," she +gasped.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," he answered.</p> + +<p>At that moment, that critical moment, when she was about to ask if such +a proposal were possible what the meaning of liquidation could be, Mr. +Swanland, pale, bland, pleasant, courteous, Mr. Asherill's perfect +gentleman the accountant cat, with his claws sheathed in velvet, folded +in his muff, purring complacently, re-entered the room.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mrs. Mortomley," he said, "everything seems most satisfactory. +The trade appears good and the men employed respectable. Yes, thank you; +I will take a cup of tea."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p><p>This was between the lines, and when Mrs. Mortomley handed him the tea +she noticed how he stirred it, not at all as Mr. Asherill's perfect +gentleman should have done, but holding the spoon upright.</p> + +<p>"It is a shame for me to be so hypercritical," she thought. "I dare say +he is a far honester man than this dreadful lawyer."</p> + +<p>And so she inclined her ear to his pleasant words.</p> + +<p>"Do not think, Mrs. Mortomley," he said, as he was leaving, with a +sudden uplifting of his Albino eyes, "that because I am placed here in a +disagreeable position I wish to make matters disagreeable to you. Pray +let me hear from you when you want anything, and be quite sure it is my +desire to act towards you as a friend in every way."</p> + +<p>And he put out his hand.</p> + +<p>Dolly took it, and thought she must by some accident have got hold of a +frog.</p> + +<p>Kleinwort was right. Mr. Asherill's partner had no digestion and no +heart.</p> + +<p>The more Mrs. Mortomley thought about <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>Mr. Swanland the less she +believed in him, spite of his plausible manner and his pleasant +utterances, and when she crept into bed that night she caught herself +wondering whether there could be any good in a person whose hand was +like wet clay and who stirred his tea as the accountant stirred his.</p> + +<p>Mr. Swanland left Homewood with an instinctive knowledge that the +<i>quondam</i> mistress of that place disliked him, which knowledge touched +the trustee in no vulnerable point.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p><p>It made, however, some slight difference to Mrs. Mortomley in the +future, that future which, lying awake in the darkness, she vainly tried +to forecast.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>IN THE 'TIMES.'</h3> + + +<p>If there was trouble at Homewood on that especial Wednesday, it had not +been a day of unmixed pleasure to two people in the city.</p> + +<p>His worst enemy might have pitied Mr. Forde when on opening the 'Times,' +lying over the back of the official chair at St. Vedast Wharf, the first +sentence which met his eye was,</p> + +<p>"Before Mr. Commissioner Blank." "<i>Re</i> Archibald Mortomley," and all the +rest of it.</p> + +<p>The paragraph was not altogether an inch long, but it proved enough to +make Mr. Forde turn as faint and sick as many a man brave enough and +honest enough had turned before in that very office.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p> + +<p>In imagination he saw looming in the distance ruin and beggary. He heard +the gates of St. Vedast Wharf close behind him for the last time. Things +were worse with him, much worse than they had been when Mortomley's +nephew came to say his uncle meant to go into liquidation, and Mr. Forde +felt impelled once again to take his hat.</p> + +<p>"I wish I had left then," he muttered.</p> + +<p>If a house be tottering, the removal of even a single stone may hasten +the impending catastrophe. As Mr. Forde believed, Mortomley was a most +important stone in the edifice of his own safety, and yet even at that +juncture it never occurred to him it was his own mad sledge-hammer blows +had driven it so completely out of place that no one could ever hope to +make it available at St. Vedast Wharf again.</p> + +<p>Really the manager was to be pitied. If there chanced to be one thing +more than another on which he piqued himself, it was his genius for +diplomacy, and, as Mr. Gibbons said, he had done a neat thing when he +employed his own solicitor to do Mortomley's work.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p><p>If everything could have been prevailed upon to work as he intended it +should, Mr. Forde would have been comparatively at ease; but edged tools +have sometimes a knack of cutting those who play with them, and already +one of Mr. Forde's tools had inflicted upon him a nasty wound.</p> + +<p>"I will go round to Basinghall Street," he said almost aloud, as though +some balm of Gilead might be extracted even from Salisbury House, and he +went round to find Mr. Swanland out, Mr. Asherill urbane and unctuous as +ever.</p> + +<p>Deriving little consolation from his unsatisfactory interview with the +latter gentleman, he walked on to Kleinwort's office, only to find him +absent also, and the time of his return uncertain.</p> + +<p>Then, because he was able to think of no other person to whom he could +speak on the subject, he turned into Werner's counting-house.</p> + +<p>As usual, Mr. Werner was within and visible.</p> + +<p>"Have you seen the 'Times'?" asked Mr. Forde, after the first greetings +were exchanged.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes," was the short reply.</p> + +<p>"Were you not surprised?"</p> + +<p>"I do not know. I suppose I was. I thought you would have expressed your +wishes more clearly."</p> + +<p>"Clearly!" No italics and no number of interjections could convey an +idea of the tone in which Mr. Forde uttered this word. "Why, sir, I told +Benning as plainly as I could speak I wanted the matter kept out of the +papers, and if that was not sufficiently explicit, I repeated the same +thing to Swanland, and now just see the mess they have got me into."</p> + +<p>"What do your directors say?"</p> + +<p>"I have not seen any of them yet. What I shall say to them I cannot +imagine."</p> + +<p>And Mr. Forde beat a dismal tattoo on the corner of the desk as he +spoke.</p> + +<p>Then ensued a pause, during which Werner looked out at the weather, +which was wet and cheerless, and Mr. Forde looked at him.</p> + +<p>"What do you think?" asked the manager at length.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p><p> "I do not think. What is the good of thinking? If you had not been so +decided on having your own way and insisting on Benning taking out the +order, this need never have happened; but you always imagine yourself +cleverer than anybody else, and so overshot the mark. Have you been to +Swanland?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he was out. I saw Asherill, however, who repudiated all knowledge +of Mortomley and his affairs and Swanland and his doings. He blessed me +and gave me a tract, and said he was going to speak at a meeting this +evening on behalf of a mission to some hopeful heathens in Africa. He +presented me with tickets and asked me to give them to any friend if I +could not make use of them myself. Here they are."</p> + +<p>Henry Werner took the tickets and tore them into small atoms, flinging +these contemptuously into his waste basket.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> "If he would speak on behalf of a mission to the heathens of the City of +London, I could furnish him with some anecdotes calculated to adorn his +address," he remarked. "But to return to Mortomley. In your place I +should meet the difficulty boldly. There is nothing disgraceful about +Mortomley's debt to you; nothing disgraceful about the man, spite of all +the mud with which you have been pleased to bespatter him. His worst +crime is illness, and that illness leaves you at liberty to make good +any story you like to tell. If it were Kleinwort now—"</p> + +<p>"Kleinwort would never serve me as Mortomley has done," interrupted Mr. +Forde.</p> + +<p>"It is very hard to tell what any man would do till he is tried," said +Mr. Werner sententiously.</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> would not fail me. <i>You</i> would always consider me. <i>You</i> would +remember I have a wife and family depending upon me," observed Mr. Forde +entreatingly.</p> + +<p>"If I were in a corner myself, I am quite certain I should do nothing of +the kind," was the frank reply. "My dear fellow bring the case home. Do +<i>you</i> never fail other people? Do <i>you</i> always consider me for instance? +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>Have <i>you</i> given throughout the whole of this affair of Mortomley's one +thought to his wife or child? No you have not, and no man in business +does. You would pitch Kleinwort and me and a score more over to-morrow +if you could do so safely, and we would pitch you over if any +extraordinary temptation came in our way. You do not believe in us, and +we do not believe in you; but we do believe we have amongst us got into +such a cursed muddle we cannot afford to throw anybody overboard who +might swim to land and tell the story of our voyage. That is the state +of the case, my friend. It is not a cheerful view of the position, but +it is the true one."</p> + +<p>"I have no doubt you would throw anybody overboard and jeer him while he +was drowning," said Mr. Forde bitterly. "Now let Kleinwort be what he +may, he has a heart. He is not like you, Werner."</p> + +<p>"Well that is a comfort at any rate," remarked Mr. Werner. "I do not +think I should care to be like Kleinwort."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p><p>Mr. Forde did not reply. He always got the worst of the game when he +engaged in a verbal duel with Mr. Werner, so he remained leaning against +the corner of the desk for a minute or so in silence thinking how +extremely disagreeable Werner was and how hardly every one dealt with +him.</p> + +<p>At length he roused himself and said, "I suppose there is no good in my +staying here any longer."</p> + +<p>"You are quite welcome to stay" was the reply; "but I agree with you +that there is no good purpose to be served by your doing so."</p> + +<p>"What a Job's comforter you are," sighed poor Mr. Forde.</p> + +<p>"Job came all right in the end, if you remember," Mr. Werner replied. +"If you only fare ultimately half so well as he did you will not have +much cause to complain."</p> + +<p>"Yes, to-morrow must come, no matter how much sorrow to-day holds," +answered Mr. Forde unconsciously paraphrasing one of Kleinwort's +utterances. "If you see any <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>of my people, Werner, do try to make things +a little pleasant for me."</p> + +<p>"You had better explain what you propose telling them, so that I may +know the statement I am expected to back up," said Mr. Werner. "These +things ought to be arranged beforehand."</p> + +<p>But Mr. Forde had already banged the door and departed, so that the last +utterance failed to reach his ears.</p> + +<p>When Mr. Werner went out during the afternoon he met Mr. Kleinwort.</p> + +<p>"Have not you some shares in that Spanish mine Green promoted," he +inquired.</p> + +<p>The German nodded.</p> + +<p>"Well, I heard this morning from good authority that the mine will never +pay, that the whole thing is a swindle, and was a swindle from the +beginning."</p> + +<p>"Ah! what a world is this," said Kleinwort with a pious and resigned +expression of countenance.</p> + +<p>"I do not think it is too late for you to sell," suggested Mr. Werner.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p> + +<p>The German shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"It matters not to me," he replied.</p> + +<p>"I thought you said you had shares," remarked his companion.</p> + +<p>"So I have; but they are in pledge don't you call it. That dear Forde +wanted them and he has got them. How nice it is when a man has got what +he wants."</p> + +<p>"Kleinwort, I am afraid you are a great rogue," observed Mr. Werner +severely.</p> + +<p>"Ditto to you half countryman of mine own," answered the other raising +his hat with a gesture of mock deference. "Have you been to St. Vedast +to-day? No. Neither have I. Seemed best, I thought, to leave poor Forde +to digest that neat little paragraph in the 'Times' without +disturbance!"</p> + +<p>"It will be a bad thing for him, I am afraid," remarked Werner.</p> + +<p>"It will be a bad thing for me, which is matter of much more interest to +Bertram Kleinwort," was the answer. "That accursed Benning and +thrice-accursed partner of the Christian wolf,—how I wish they were +both <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>hanging on a gibbet higher than Haman's, and that I was big man +enough to pull their legs!"</p> + +<p>Having giving utterance to which Christian desire Mr. Kleinwort +departed, leaving even Werner astonished at the tone of deadly hatred he +concentrated in one sentence.</p> + +<p>"I believe you would do it too, you little devil," he decided. "Well, I +will go and tell Forde about the mine, and give him a chance of +selling."</p> + +<p>But Mr. Forde was not at the wharf.</p> + +<p>"He had received a letter by the second post," explained one of the +clerks, "which obliged him to start at once for Newcastle."</p> + +<p>Mr. Werner smiled. He understood the cause of that sudden journey, but +he only said, "I will look round again on Friday."</p> + +<p>But when Friday came, it was useless for him to do so. The shares in +that especial mine were a drug in the market. Every one was hastening to +sell, and no man could be found to buy.</p> + +<p>Meantime, however, fortune, which never <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>proves more utterly capricious +than when we believe ourselves down for life in her black books, had +relented and done Mr. Forde a gracious turn.</p> + +<p>On the occasion of that meeting in behalf of the heathen, to which Mr. +Forde referred so contemptuously, Samuel Witney, Esq., took the chair, +and after various missionaries and others interested in the good work +had addressed the assemblage, and votes of thanks had been returned to +everybody for something, proposed to his dear brother in religion that, +as they must return to their respective homes from the Waterloo Station, +they should walk thither together.</p> + +<p>Perfectly well Mr. Asherill understood the reason of this suggestion, +and for one moment he hesitated whether he should not charter a cab to +the City and tell Mr. Witney the literal truth, namely, that he +generally travelled to and from his snug villa residence <i>viâ</i> the North +London Railway.</p> + +<p>But immediately he decided to face the difficulty. Sooner or later his +fellow Christian <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>was certain to question him about Mortomley, and the +sooner he did so, the less difficulty there might be in answering his +inquiries.</p> + +<p>"I was very much surprised to see in the 'Times' this morning that Mr. +Mortomley had gone into liquidation," began Mr. Witney.</p> + +<p>"Sad affair, is it not?" said Mr. Asherill, feeling his way.</p> + +<p>"It is sad for us. We are creditors, as of course you are aware."</p> + +<p>"I have been given to understand as much, but I am glad to know that you +are not creditors for any large amount, that is, I mean for anything +serious. A few thousands is of course a bagatelle, to a great concern +like the General Chemical Company."</p> + +<p>"Humph!" ejaculated Mr. Witney. He did not care to say the loss if total +would mean half dividend or none at all, and yet still he was too much +exercised in spirit to be able to remain silent under the grievance. +"One does not like to lose even a comparatively small sum," he observed +at length.</p> + +<p>"That is quite true," agreed Mr. Asherill, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>casting about in his own +mind to find the real reason why Forde, Werner, and Kleinwort had all +been so desirous to keep Mortomley on his feet.</p> + +<p>According to Mr. Witney, the state of whose feelings Mr. Asherill read +like a book, the colour-maker did not owe the Company such an amount as +to warrant the fuss made over and the anxiety exhibited about his +affairs.</p> + +<p>"What is your opinion on the subject of dividend?" asked Mr. Witney +after a pause.</p> + +<p>"Well, I can scarcely be said to have an opinion," was the reply. "I +have nothing to do with the matter. My young partner has it all in his +own hands. I did not wish our firm to undertake the management of the +affair."</p> + +<p>"Why?" inquired Mr. Witney.</p> + +<p>"I really could scarcely tell you why," answered Mr. Asherill, "except +that I have my whims and fancies, as some people would call them. +Mortomley's father was a friend of mine, and although a member of the +Church of England, a thorough Christian. He was, I assure you," +continued Mr. Asherill, as his <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>companion shook his head in a manner +which might either have expressed disbelief or a desire to imply that +wonders would never cease. "He gave me a helping hand once, when help +meant more than it usually does" ('more than you would have given your +brother,' added Mr. Asherill mentally) "and I did not like the notion of +winding up the son. One never knows how sadly these things may end, and +of course a trustee ought to have no personal feeling towards a +bankrupt. He ought to be as impartial as justice herself. Mr. Swanland, +however, has got the management of the estate, which from what I hear is +a good estate, a very good estate indeed," finished Mr. Asherill +unctuously, as though he were saying grace before partaking of a +plenteous and well-served dinner.</p> + +<p>"You think there will be a good dividend then?" suggested Mr. Witney.</p> + +<p>"Well, I did hear," was the cautious answer, "some talk of twenty +shillings in the pound, but that I do not credit. The expenses, go to +work as we may, must be considerable, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>then things may not fetch the +prices expected; and, further, poor Mortomley is ill, and that is always +a drawback; but if you get fifteen shillings, come now, you would not +grumble then?"</p> + +<p>"No, certainly; but we should like to see twenty," said Mr. Witney. "I +will call round and have a talk with Mr. Swanland on the subject."</p> + +<p>"Do," said Mr. Asherill cordially. "He will be able to tell you all +about it, much better than I," and the two men having by this time +arrived at Waterloo, they shook hands and blessed one another and +proceeded to their respective trains, Mr. Asherill thinking as he went, +"You do not know any more than I why your manager wanted this affair +kept quiet, but you will know to your cost some day, or I am greatly +mistaken."</p> + +<p>After all, it is never the straws which know so well the way the wind is +blowing as those who see them swept along with the gale.</p> + +<p>"I give the Chemical Company another year," went on Mr. Asherill, +mentally continuing the subject. "That I fancy will be about long +enough for them." <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> + +<p>And then he fell to considering whether he should like to have the +winding up of the St. Vedast Wharf estate, and decided he should not, +for the simple reason that he did not think there would be much estate +left to wind up.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p><p>There is often a touching directness about the secret motives of +professing Christians. Perhaps this may be the reason why carnal and +unconverted creatures love so little those who love themselves and +worldly prosperity so much.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>MR. SWANLAND WISHES TO BE INFORMED.</h3> + + +<p>Meantime at Homewood a nice little storm was coming up against the wind.</p> + +<p>Concerning misfortune, Kleinwort's theory may be accepted as correct. It +is rarely the expected rain-fall, rarely the anticipated storm, which +beats down the hopes of a man's life, destroys all the fair prospect of +his future. In nine cases out of ten the tempest creeps out of some +totally unlooked-for quarter; and behold ere one can quite understand +that the morning sunshine is overcast, or the mid-day glory clouded, the +heavens are opened, and out of them proceed lightnings and thunder and +blinding tempests which blast every bud <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>and flower and fruit a man has +looked on with hope and pride, before he can realise the nature of the +misfortune that has fallen upon him.</p> + +<p>Now something of this kind occurred at Homewood, and it assumed the +shape first of a most polite note from Mr. Swanland, asking Mrs. +Mortomley if she could oblige him by calling at his office at eleven +o'clock on the next morning, Saturday, as he was unable to go to +Homewood, and there were two or three matters about which it was +necessary for him to see her, and next of the following:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p class="ralign"><span style="margin-right: 3em;">"St. Swithin's Lane, E.C.</span><br /> +"September 29th, 187—.</p> +<p>"Mrs. Mortomley,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"> "Homewood.</span></p> + +<p>"Madam,</p> + +<p>"A Mr. Benning has been with us to make some inquiries concerning +the moneys bequeathed to you by Miss Dollabella Chippendale, of +which our Mr. Daniells is trustee. In Mr. Daniells' absence we have +deferred answer <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>ing these inquiries, but we think it might be +advisable for you to request your solicitor to call upon us with +reference to this matter, Mr. Benning, as we understand, being only +engaged about some liquidation affair in which Mr. Mortomley is +concerned.</p> + +<p class="ralign"><span style="margin-right: 4em;">"Your obedient Servants,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">"Herson, Daniells, and Co.</span>" +</p></blockquote> + +<p>Dolly sat and pondered over these letters as she had sat and pondered +over the letter signed John Jones, mentioned in a very early chapter.</p> + +<p>That epistle she had regarded in the light of a gratuitous piece of +impertinence emanating either from Mr. Kleinwort or Mr. Forde, and under +this impression she worded the advertisement which so annoyed Mr. +Asherill; but when the last post of the next day brought those two +missives, she began to wonder whether John Jones might not really have +been some humble friend gifted with greater prescience than she +possessed, who, unknowing of the remnant of her quarter's income she +still <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>possessed, might imagine her so short of money that even two +pounds four shillings might prove acceptable.</p> + +<p>Moved by some incomprehensible impulse, she, the most careless of +created beings, searched for that letter and locked it away in her +dressing-case.</p> + +<p>There was no Rupert to talk to now. Twice since his departure he had +appeared at Homewood, the first time to say Antonia was busy purchasing +her trousseau, and that old Dean had acted most generously in the matter +of money, on the next occasion to ask Dolly not to expect to see him +before Monday, as he was obliged to go down to Bath; the real truth +being Rupert had thought the Homewood matter over, and decided that +until Antonia had become Mrs. Dean, the less he saw of that place the +better.</p> + +<p>On the occasion of his first visit, Turner, the man already mentioned as +having incited Esther to remove those vases and statuettes which seemed +to them both desirable possessions, stopped him on his way to the gate.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p><p> "You and Mr. Lang, sir, saw a man the other morning looking over the +fence, I believe?"</p> + +<p>Rupert nodded assent.</p> + +<p>"And you asked Lang who he was, and Lang could not tell you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," agreed Mr. Halling.</p> + +<p>"Well, I know, sir; he's a detective, and there are more of them about."</p> + +<p>Rupert stepped back as if he had received a blow, he stepped back so far +he was brought up by a tree of <i>arbor vitæ</i>, out of which he emerged +dripping with wet.</p> + +<p>"Detectives?" he repeated, taking off his hat and smoothing it +mechanically. "What can they want here?"</p> + +<p>"If I am not greatly out in my calculation, sir, there are those in this +business who would cheerfully give a hundred pounds to catch Mr. +Mortomley tripping, or to be able to prove he ever did trip."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Mortomley may safely defy them then," said Rupert, but he did not +turn back and warn Dolly there were spies round and about watching the +old familiar place.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mr. Turner stood contemplating his retreating figure.</p> + +<p>"A fine young man," he thought, "but cut out and made up after the +world's pattern. And so he won't tell her. Well, then, I will; for a +lady like Mrs. Mortomley ought not to be kept in the dark. And her +husband too ill to look after aught for himself," added Mr. Turner, who +in truth was with the Mortomleys heart and soul, so far as the +exigencies of his delightful profession allowed him to have sympathy for +any one beyond the "one" who had put him in possession.</p> + +<p>So he told Esther, who told her mistress, who was naturally incredulous +of, and indignant at, Turner's statement.</p> + +<p>"Detectives!" she repeated scornfully. "Does the man suppose we are +thieves or murderers?"</p> + +<p>"No, ma'am, but I—I do really think he is sorry for you—and—the +master."</p> + +<p>Esther was brushing Mrs. Mortomley's hair, as she uttered this sentence +slowly, and with considerable hesitation.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the glass she could see reflected her mistress's downcast face—the +sudden compression of her lips—the quiver about her mouth.</p> + +<p>They had sunk very low Dolly felt, when even the bailiffs pitied them!</p> + +<p>That was her first thought. Her next was, that in his way Turner was +trying to do his best for her and her husband, but she could not trust +herself to speak upon the subject, so she refrained from answering, and +the brushing proceeded in silence.</p> + +<p>Next morning Esther detected some white hairs amongst the brown. Of late +this had been a matter of no rare occurrence.</p> + +<p>"What does it signify?" Mrs. Mortomley exclaimed. "If these men stay +here much longer my hair will be white as snow. Oh! I wish!—I wish—I +wish!" she added passionately, "we had a house to ourselves once again. +If it were the humblest cottage in England in which I could shut the +door and feel we were alone, I should thank God for his mercy—"</p> + +<p>"It cannot be for long, ma'am, Turner <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>says—" Esther was beginning, +when Mrs. Mortomley faced round upon her.</p> + +<p>"If you mention that man's name again, I will give you notice."</p> + +<p>Which certainly most servants so situated would have taken without +further ceremony on the spot.</p> + +<p>If Mrs. Mortomley had possessed the wisdom of the serpent, she would not +have arrayed herself in the gorgeous attire she selected as especially +suitable for a visit to Mr. Swanland's offices; but Dolly could not yet +realize the fact that her husband was bankrupt, that a trustee ruled at +Homewood, that the last man in possession was his lord-lieutenant, that +the men were no longer Mortomley's men, but belonged to Mr. Swanland, as +did the works and everything else, themselves scarcely excepted, about +the place.</p> + +<p>So, arrayed like the Queen of Sheba, Dolly started away on foot to catch +the train from Leytonstone which should enable her to reach Mr. +Swanland's office by eleven.</p> + +<p>There were horses in the stable, but Mrs. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>Mortomley forbade them being +harnessed for her benefit.</p> + +<p>"It was a fine morning and she preferred walking," she said; though Mr. +Meadows with some effusion of manner assured her, if she wished, he +would have the carriage brought round directly, and he continued to +press his offer till she cut him short by saying,</p> + +<p>"As it seems I can no longer order my carriage for myself, I shall walk. +You have taken very good care, Mr. Meadows, during the course of the +last two days to let me know I am not mistress here or my husband +master. Kindly stand aside and let me pass. I have to see your employer +at eleven o'clock."</p> + +<p>And she opened the gate for herself, and walked out into the road as if +not Homewood alone but all the stately homes of England had belonged to +her of right; walked out to hear the worst which could befall.</p> + +<p>It was a splendid morning. After raining for a whole week with scarcely +a moment's intermission, the weather that day seemed to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>have made up +its mind to turn over a new leaf and to be bright for evermore.</p> + +<p>Athwart all the forest glades sunbeams fell in golden bars on the vivid +turf; the trees were still in full leaf, the songs of birds sounded in +Dolly's ears; all nature seemed careless and happy and prodigal; and as +the woman upon whom such trouble had fallen so suddenly looked first on +this side and on that, she thanked God involuntarily for the beauty of +this beautiful world, and then exclaimed almost aloud,</p> + +<p>"And there <i>must</i> be some way into the sunshine for us, if I could only +see which turning to take."</p> + +<p>There was, my dear, and you had taken the turning. All unconsciously +your feet were already treading a path leading into the +sunshine—through dreary wastes it is true—along places stony and +thorny; across wilds hard to traverse, but still a path conducting to +the sunshine, out of the blind, maddening, perplexing darkness, into +light.</p> + +<p>It has always been a puzzle to me why <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>the newest offices in London are +those which seem most frequently under the hand of the house decorator.</p> + +<p>If you happen to have an account at an old banking establishment, to +have entrusted your affairs to the management of an old-fashioned +solicitor, or to be acquainted with a broker who is one of a firm known +in the City for years, you may call upon each and all of them, season +after season, without fearing to encounter that villainous smell of +paint which meet those who do business with new people at every turn, on +every landing.</p> + +<p>As for Salisbury House, painters, white-washers, paper-hangers, and +varnishers pervaded it with a perpetual presence.</p> + +<p>A man given to punning once suggested the reason for this was—the +dreadful cases taken in there—but Mr. Asherill, to whom the remark was +made, would not see the intended joke, and observed it might be well for +some people, who did not possess a saving faith, if men were able to +perform a similar cleansing operation on their souls.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> + +<p>On the occasion of Mrs. Mortomley's first visit to Salisbury House, Mr. +Swanland's own office was undergoing a course of purification, and he +was therefore compelled to receive her in the room where a week +previously Messrs. Kleinwort and Werner had been admitted to an audience +with the senior partner.</p> + +<p>In acknowledgment of his own comparatively subordinate standing in the +firm, Mr. Swanland's papers were ranged upon a table covered with green +baize, drawn close beside the window, while Mr. Asherill maintained his +position at the ponderous mass of mahogany and morocco leather which +occupied the centre of the room.</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Mortomley entered, Mr. Asherill rose, and, with a profound bow +and studied courtesy of manner, handed her a chair.</p> + +<p>Mr. Swanland availed himself of this opportunity of feebly indicating +his senior as "my partner;" then, while Mr. Benning who was present +advanced to shake hands, Mr. Asherill resumed his seat and his +occupation with an air which said plainly to all who cared to +understand,</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Now don't interrupt me or trouble me about your trumpery business. Here +am I with the whole future of mercantile London on my shoulders, and it +is absurd to expect me to give the smallest attention to this +ridiculously poor affair."</p> + +<p>At intervals he touched his office bell, and sent the clerk who appeared +in answer, to Mr. So-and-So, to know about such and such an affair; or +had a book big enough to have contained lengthy biographies of all the +Lord Mayors of London from the time of Fitz Alwyn downwards brought in, +from which he made a feint of extracting some useful information; but +really all the time he was watching Mrs. Mortomley.</p> + +<p>Without appearing to do so, he took her in from the enormous rolls and +plaits on the very summit of which her bonnet was perched to the +high-heeled boots, the tops of which reached high above her ankles. +There was not a flower or ruche or frill or furbelow or bow about her +dress of which he did not make a mental inventory. He noted the lace <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>on +her mantle, and the fit and colour of her gloves; and while he thus +noticed her face, dress, manner, and tried to piece a consistent whole +out of the woman's appearance, her position, and Kleinwort's account of +her, the talk went on smoothly and easily enough at first.</p> + +<p>"It will be necessary for us, Mrs. Mortomley, to know something about +your own money in the event of any questions being asked at the meeting +of creditors," began Mr. Swanland, after he had asked after Mr. +Mortomley and apologised for bringing her to town. "It was left to you +by a relation, I believe?"</p> + +<p>"No," Dolly explained, "not a relation exactly. By my godmother, Miss +Chippendale."</p> + +<p>"Before or after your marriage?"</p> + +<p>"You need not trouble Mrs. Mortomley with all those questions," Mr. +Benning here interrupted. "I have been to Doctors' Commons and +ascertained all the particulars."</p> + +<p>Dolly turned and looked at him as he said this; turned sharply and +suddenly, and then <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>for the first time Mr. Asherill decided she was not +a person whom it might be quite safe to offend.</p> + +<p>Already he saw that there was secret war between her and Mr. Benning; +already he understood she scented danger afar off, and was standing at +bay waiting for its coming.</p> + +<p>"I am sure," said Mr. Swanland in his smoothest tone, with his blandest +and falsest smile, "I do not want to trouble Mrs. Mortomley +unnecessarily about anything; but it is for the interest of all +concerned that we should know at first precisely how we are placed. How +we are placed," repeated Mr. Swanland with some self-satisfaction at the +neatness of his sentence.</p> + +<p>"That is just what I want to know," agreed Dolly, "though it seems to me +we could scarcely be in a more miserable position than is the case at +present."</p> + +<p>At this juncture Mr. Asherill cleared his throat vehemently. Mr. Benning +seated with his legs stretched out crossed one foot over the other and +contemplated the polish <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>on his boots while Mr. Swanland remarked, +"Ladies are always so hasty. They jump at conclusions so rapidly, and I +must say, if you will forgive me, Mrs. Mortomley, frequently so +erroneously."</p> + +<p>"You mean, I suppose, that we may find ourselves in a more miserable +position still?" said Dolly flushing a little. "If that be your meaning, +let me know at once whether this fresh trouble refers to my money."</p> + +<p>"I assure you—" began Mr. Swanland.</p> + +<p>But she interrupted him by a quick impatient gesture.</p> + +<p>"Why did you ask me to come here this morning? What is it you wish to be +told that Mr. Benning cannot tell you better than I?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Asherill laid down his pen and began to turn over the leaves of his +diary softly and with a great show of interest. Mr. Benning lifted his +eyes from his boots to stare at Mrs. Mortomley, while Mr. Swanland +looking across at him asked,</p> + +<p>"Was there anything to that effect in the will?" </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No. If you had given me five minutes' interview, as I asked, I could +have told you there was not."</p> + +<p>"And Herson?"</p> + +<p>"Knows nothing, or will know nothing, except the fact that money has +been withdrawn for business purposes, and that Daniells refused to allow +any more to be used, which all tallies with Forde's statements."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Mortomley," asked Mr. Swanland, "you can save us a vast amount of +trouble if you will kindly inform us whether there has been any +settlement made upon you of this money."</p> + +<p>"I do not know," she answered. "I suppose so; however, the money is +mine, it was left to me."</p> + +<p>"Of course, of course, we understand all that," said Mr. Swanland. "What +I want you to tell me is whether Mr. Mortomley ever made any settlement +of this money on you."</p> + +<p>"No. It did not come from any of his relations or friends; it was +bequeathed to me as I have already stated by—" <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p> + +<p>"She does not know," suggested Mr. Swanland, speaking across Dolly to +Mr. Benning.</p> + +<p>"No; but I think we may draw our own conclusions. Was the subject of +settlements ever discussed between you and your husband?" he inquired, +turning to Mrs. Mortomley.</p> + +<p>"No; certainly not. We never had separate purses, we never could have. +What was his was mine, and what is mine shall of course always be his."</p> + +<p>"We do not mean to suggest that you and Mr. Mortomley ever were or ever +will be on other than the most affectionate terms," retorted Mr. Benning +with a slight sneer.</p> + +<p>"Fortunately the domestic happiness or unhappiness of our clients is not +a matter we are called upon to investigate," said Mr. Swanland with a +light laugh. "Eh, Asherill?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Asherill looked up with an expression of face which implied he had +come up from the profoundest depths of thought to hearken to his +partner's babble.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p> +<p>"No, no, no," he agreed hastily. "Matrimony is an account out of which +it would take wiser heads than ours to make a fair balance-sheet," and +he was resuming his occupation, when Mrs. Mortomley addressed him.</p> + +<p>"Sir," she said, his white hair and large head inspiring her with a +momentary confidence in his integrity and straightforwardness, "you look +like a gentleman who might have daughters of your own, daughters as old +as I am, and who may yet be—though I earnestly hope not—in as great +difficulty and perplexity as I am this day. Will you tell me what is the +meaning of all this—why do they ask so many questions about my money?"</p> + +<p>"I do not know anything about the matter, my dear," he answered, in his +most patriarchal manner. "I have not the faintest idea what it is my +young partner has in his mind, but you may be quite certain it is +nothing except what will turn out for your good eventually. You may +trust him implicitly."</p> + +<p>Dolly surveyed the trio while Mr. Asherill <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>was speaking, and when he +finished she felt she had never seen at one time three men together +before less calculated to inspire confidence.</p> + +<p>"The days of highwaymen are over," she said when describing the +interview subsequently to Mrs. Werner, "but I felt instinctively I had +got amongst banditti."</p> + +<p>"Supposing," she said, turning to Mr. Swanland, "that there were no +settlements, how will it affect me?"</p> + +<p>"How will it affect Mrs. Mortomley, Benning?" inquired Mr. Swanland +innocently.</p> + +<p>"What is the use of asking such a question of me?" exclaimed Mr. Benning +irritably. "You know as well as I that in such a case what is hers is +her husband's, and—"</p> + +<p>"Go on please," said Dolly, as he paused.</p> + +<p>"And what is your husband's, I was going to say," he proceeded, spite of +Mr. Swanland's look of entreaty, "is his creditors'."</p> + +<p>"Then you mean to have my money?" she said, "you mean to take the only +thing left to us?" </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p> + +<p>"There may be a settlement you know," observed Mr. Swanland in a +soothing voice.</p> + +<p>"There is not, I feel there is not," she interrupted.</p> + +<p>"And in any case," continued Mr. Swanland, "it is not we who take, but +the law; it is not we who have, but the creditors. We must hope for the +best, however, Mrs. Mortomley. No one will be more truly rejoiced than I +to know this money is secured to you."</p> + +<p>She seemed as if she had not heard his sentence, but sat for a minute +like one stunned. Then she said bitterly,</p> + +<p>"A 'Well Wisher' sent me two pounds four the other day, and I forwarded +the amount to the London Hospital. It seems to me I may yet have reason +to repent of my haste at my leisure."</p> + +<p>In an airy manner Mr. Swanland, apparently treating her words as a mere +jest, remarked, "I am not quite sure, Mrs. Mortomley, that in my +capacity as trustee the two pounds four you mention ought not to have +been handed over to me." </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> + +<p>If his words conveyed any meaning to her she made no sign of +understanding it. After sitting for a few moments lost in thought she +rose, and saying "I shall go at once to a solicitor," inclined her head +to the accountants and Mr. Benning, and left the office, before Mr. +Asherill could open the door for her to pass out.</p> + +<p>That same evening Mr. Meadows received a note from his employer +containing various directions and instructions. After the signature came +a postscript, "How does it happen <i>Mrs.</i> Mortomley's letters have not +been forwarded to me? See to this <i>at once</i>, and never let me have to +complain of such negligence again."</p> + +<p>For with all the flocks and herds of the Mortomley +Estate held in his hand, Mr. Swanland's +soul sickened, because of that two pounds four +shillings he could never now hope to liquidate.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3>MRS. MORTOMLEY'S FORTUNE.</h3> + + +<p>Mr. Leigh, Mortomley's solicitor, was all that in an early chapter of +this story Mr. Asherill stated him to be, and perhaps a little more.</p> + +<p>He was honest and honourable, a kind father, a devoted husband, an +affectionate son, and a staunch friend, but he was human, and being +human his reception of Mrs. Mortomley proved cool and formal.</p> + +<p>No one knew more of Mortomley's estate than he—not even Mortomley +himself. His father had managed the legal affairs of Mortomley's father, +and he personally had been <i>au fait</i> with every in and out of the son's +hopes and disappointments, successes and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>failures, gains and losses, +liabilities and expectations, until the death of Richard Halling.</p> + +<p>At that time, some outspoken advice was given on the one side, which +caused a certain amount of vexation on the other; and although Mr. Leigh +had never ceased to act as the colour-maker's solicitor, still from the +day that grievous connection—so madly continued with the General +Chemical Company began—he knew so little of the actual position of his +former friend, that when Mortomley walked into his office, out of which +he was subsequently dragged by a clerk from St. Vedast Wharf, and stated +it was absolutely necessary for him to lay the state of his affairs +before his creditors, the lawyer stared at him aghast.</p> + +<p>Then after that patched up truce with fate, the terms of which were +evolved out of the workings of Mr. Forde's ingenuity, things went on as +before, and he had no more idea his client was on the verge of +bankruptcy, until he saw that paragraph previously men <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>tioned in the +'Times,' than he had of going into the 'Gazette' himself.</p> + +<p>Well might Mr. Leigh consider he had been hardly done by. At least he +was an honest man, and yet Mr. Mortomley evidently preferred that a +black sheep should manage his affairs.</p> + +<p>Faithfully, through every chance and change of life, he had dealt by his +client; and now when he really might have made some amount of money +worth having out of his estate, that client pitched him over.</p> + +<p>And finally, as if all these injuries were not enough, here was Mrs. +Mortomley herself, a woman he had never taken to or understood, sitting +in his office, dressed out as if liquidation by arrangement meant +succession to an earldom and a hundred thousand a year.</p> + +<p>He sat and looked at her, not speculatively, as Mr. Asherill had done, +but disapprovingly.</p> + +<p>Mr. Leigh entertained some old-fashioned ideas, and one of these +happened to be that a woman who, at such a juncture, could think of her +dress, was not likely to be of much assistance when the evil days +arrived in which pence should take the place of pounds,—and stuffs, of +silks and satins. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p> + +<p>Nor did he, of course, incline more favourably to Mortomley's wife, when +she explained how small a share her husband had in the selection of Mr. +Benning.</p> + +<p>If Mortomley had not been ungrateful, she had proved herself so little +better than a simpleton, that he could not find an excuse for her folly, +in her ignorance.</p> + +<p>All this made it hard for Dolly to tell her tale; indeed for ever Mr. +Leigh had only a hazy idea that, in the event of his having happened to +be in town instead of absent from it, things might have turned out +differently.</p> + +<p>A week only had elapsed since Mrs. Mortomley took her early walk to seek +that vague advice and assistance, which last is never given, which first +is always utterly useless; but so many events had crowded themselves +into the space of eight days, that the incident slipped out of the +sequence of her story, and was only mentioned accidently by her.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p> +<p>Indeed, she was so full of the horrible idea suggested by the interview +at Salisbury House that she began at the end of her narrative, instead +of the beginning. She asked questions, and failed to answer questions +which were put to her.</p> + +<p>"What was a settlement—had any been made—was it true, as Mr. Benning +said, that if there were no settlement, everything went to the +creditors. If so, what was to become of her husband, Lenore, and +herself?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Leigh replied to her last inquiry first.</p> + +<p>"There will be an allowance made out of the estate, of course," he said.</p> + +<p>"Are you certain," she persisted; "for if they can avoid doing so, I am +sure we shall not have a penny."</p> + +<p>Whereupon, Mr. Leigh read her a mild lecture warning her of the danger +of being prejudiced, and making enemies instead of friends. He gave her +to understand that Mr. Swanland was a member of a most respectable +profession, and that she had not the smallest reason to suppose he was +inimical to her husband, or <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>disposed to act in other than the kindest +and most honourable manner.</p> + +<p>With an impatient gesture Mrs. Mortomley averted her head.</p> + +<p>"I shall never be able to make any one comprehend my meaning," she said +wearily, "until events have verified my forebodings. It seems of no use +your talking to me, Mr. Leigh, or my talking to you, for you think me +foolish and prejudiced, and I think you know just about as much of what +liquidation by arrangement really is as I did a week ago."</p> + +<p>"In that case—" he began coldly.</p> + +<p>"You think I ought to say good morning, and refrain from wasting your +valuable time," she interrupted.</p> + +<p>"My dear Mrs. Mortomley," he said gently, for he saw that her eyes were +full of tears, and that her trouble was very genuine, "pray compose +yourself, and try to look calmly at your situation. You are frightening +yourself with a bugbear of your own creation, I assure you. The new +Bankruptcy Act was framed for the express purpose of relieving honest +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>debtors from many hardships to which they were formerly exposed, and to +assist creditors to obtain their money by a cheaper and more simple mode +than was practicable previously. You cannot suppose a trustee has the +power to act contrary to law, and the law never contemplated beggaring a +man merely because he chanced to be unfortunate. You may make your mind +quite easy about money matters. I do not say you will be able to have +the luxuries you have hitherto enjoyed;" here he made a slight stop, as +if to emphasise the fact on her comprehension, "but you will have +everything needful for your position. And with respect to your own +fortune, which I am afraid cannot be saved, there are two sides to +everything, and there are two sides to this. As a lawyer of course I +think every husband ought to secure the pecuniary future of his wife and +family, but really my unprofessional opinion is that settlements which +place a woman in a position of affluence, and consequently provide a +handsome income for a man, no matter how reckless or improvident he has +been, can <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>scarcely be defended on any ground of right or reason. Do you +follow my meaning?"</p> + +<p>She looked up at him as he made this inquiry, and answered,</p> + +<p>"Do not think me rude. I cannot give my mind to what you are saying. +Possibly you are right. I heard your words, and I shall remember them +sufficiently, I have no doubt, to be able to argue the matter out by +myself at some future time—if—if we ever get into smooth water again; +but I cannot think of anything but ourselves now, I cannot. While you +are speaking my thoughts run back to Homewood, and I wonder what has +happened there, and whether, if I told this great trouble to Archie, it +would kill him outright. Through everything, I know, he has calculated +on that money for me and Lenore. If he had not been satisfied, if he had +ever doubted my right to it for a moment, do you suppose he would have +run such a risk? Do you think he would have failed to make any necessary +arrangement to keep us beyond the possibility of want?" </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I am certain he would if he could have foreseen a time like this," the +lawyer answered. "But you must remember men do not anticipate bankruptcy +as a rule. When they do, it is far too late to talk of settlements. If +every one were prudent and foreseeing, misfortunes such as these could +not occur; but bankruptcy is not a pleasant eventuality for a person to +contemplate, though it is undoubtedly true that every business man ought +to order his course just as if he expected to go into the 'Gazette' +within a week."</p> + +<p>"We hear something like that every Sunday about living as if we were +dying, don't we, Mr. Leigh?" she asked, with a little gasping sob, "but +we none of us practise what we are told. I wonder now," Dolly added, +addressing no one in particular, but speaking her thoughts out loud, +"whether the clergy are right after all, whether, if we all go on as we +are going, we shall, men and women alike, prove utter bankrupts at the +Judgment-day. An immortality of insolvency is not a pleasant future to +contemplate; but it may be true. I <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>dare say it will be perfectly true +for some of us."</p> + +<p>Mr. Leigh was eminently a safe man—safe in morals, religion, politics, +and money matters, and nothing offended his ideas more than wild +utterances and random talk, for which reason Mrs. Mortomley's last +sentence proved more distasteful than even her candidly expressed doubt +as to his thorough acquaintance with the new Bankruptcy Act.</p> + +<p>But he was kind, and if his visitor had occasionally a curious and +unpleasant way of communicating her ideas, he could see underlying all +external eccentricities that she was in fearful trouble, not because she +dreaded being unable to renew her laces and replace her silks—truth +being, Dolly had never descended even mentally to such details—but +because she had taken a phantom to nurse and reared it into a giant.</p> + +<p>Some one, it was necessary, should adopt measures to destroy the giant, +he decided, ere it destroyed her.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Mortomley," he began, "you ought to get out of town for a short +time—" </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And leave my husband?"</p> + +<p>"No, take him with you."</p> + +<p>She shook her head. "You do not know how ill he is. No one knows how ill +he is but me, not even the doctors."</p> + +<p>"He would get stronger if he were away, and he must be strong before the +meeting of creditors. Ask the doctors, and be guided by their advice. +Now let me entreat of you to be influenced by what they may say."</p> + +<p>"If it were possible to move him it might be better," she said +thoughtfully, "but he could not go without me, and I suppose I ought to +be at Homewood."</p> + +<p>"Why, are Miss Halling and her brother and all those men you told me +about not sufficient to take care of the place?" asked Mr. Leigh.</p> + +<p>She opened her lips to tell him that Rupert and Antonia had left, but +closed them again, feeling ashamed to say how utterly desolate she and +her husband were in their extremity.</p> + +<p>"I think I ought to stay," she remarked at last.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p> +<p>"Really I cannot see the necessity. The presence of Mr. Swanland's clerk +of course relieves you from all real responsibility."</p> + +<p>"I suppose so—but still—"</p> + +<p>"But still what?"</p> + +<p>"When we leave Homewood we shall leave it for good. I feel that. I mean +we shall leave it altogether, whether for good or for ill, whichever may +befall."</p> + +<p>"If you were to go from home for a few weeks, you would look at your +position much more cheerfully," answered Mr. Leigh, who was not himself +utterly unacquainted with some of the moods and tenses of a woman's +mind.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Benning said we should be quite free to go when once the meeting of +creditors was over," Mrs. Mortomley remarked.</p> + +<p>"That was an absurd observation," returned Mr. Leigh, "for you are +perfectly free to go now."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but he meant <i>for ever</i>," Dolly explained. "I am not mistaken," +she went on. "He said they could get a manager, that my <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>husband's +health was broken, and that the best thing we could do was to go to some +pretty seaside place and live there comfortably upon my money."</p> + +<p>Mr. Leigh's face darkened. "I must see to this," he said, speaking +apparently to himself; then added, "Trust me, Mrs. Mortomley, I will do +all in my power for you. I am afraid you have made one false step, but +we must try to remedy it as far as possible. In the meantime most +certainly I should get Mr. Mortomley away for a time. The state of his +health complicates matters very much. Have you—excuse the question, but +I know how suddenly these things sometimes come upon men of +business—have you money?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, thank you," she answered. "I have enough for the present; at +least, Rupert has money of mine, and I can get it from him."</p> + +<p>"And you will try to remove Mr. Mortomley," he went on, "and pray let me +hear from you, and send me your address. Do not be so despondent, Mrs. +Mortomley. Only get your husband well and everything will yet be right."</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p> + +<p>She smiled, but shook her head incredulously.</p> + +<p>"You are very kind, Mr. Leigh," she said, "and I only hope your pleasant +words may prove true prophecies. If they do not, when once we know the +worst, whatever that may prove, we must try to bear it. I think we shall +be able," added Dolly a little defiantly, drawing herself up about a +quarter of an inch. She was so little she had generally to go about the +world stretched out as much as possible.</p> + +<p>"She is not a bad specimen of a woman, if she only knew how to dress +herself suitably," thought Mr. Leigh after her departure, "but I am +afraid she is not the wife poor Mortomley ought to have had at a crisis +like this."</p> + +<p>Which was really very hard upon Dolly, who had not the slightest +intention of ever reproaching Mortomley—as a model wife might have +done—because of the ruin that had come upon them.</p> + +<p>Rather she was considering as she walked to Fenchurch Street how she +should keep knowledge of this latest misfortune from him.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p> + +<p>And then as regarded her dress, so objectionable in the eyes of a man +who knew exactly the sort of sad-coloured garments appropriate for such +an errand as Mrs. Mortomley's, does any intelligent reader suppose it +was one atom too rich or too rare in the opinion of those four young +ladies from Chigwell with whom Mrs. Mortomley travelled on her return +journey?</p> + +<p>Nay, rather they reported when they reached their own home, that Mrs. +Mortomley looked nicer than usual, was pleasanter and more talkative +even than her wont, and <i>beautifully dressed</i>, they added as the +crowning point in her perfections.</p> + +<p>If they had known what Dolly thought about them, they might not have +been so enthusiastic in her praise.</p> + +<p>Having no one near at hand in whom she could confide, she marvelled to +herself,</p> + +<p>"I wonder whether on the face of the earth there is any creature so +utterly wearisome as a human being." <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3>LEAVING HOMEWOOD.</h3> + + +<p>Days passed—days longer than had ever previously been known at +Homewood—the weather, which brightened up for Mrs. Mortomley's visit to +Salisbury House, became on the Sunday as bad as ever again, and +continued rainy and miserable during the early part of the week. The men +in possession did not leave. It was understood they were to be paid. Mr. +Swanland had hoped to get rid of them without going through this +ceremony, but finding the law against him, and having an objection to +part with money, arranged for them to stay on till he had "sufficient in +hand," to quote his own phrase, to settle their claims.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p> + +<p>Meantime on the Saturday there had been almost a turn out of the +workmen, who were kept waiting for their wages until it suited Mr. +Bailey's convenience to go down from London to pay them.</p> + +<p>They grumbled pretty freely concerning this irregularity; so freely, +indeed, that Mr. Bailey told them if they did not like Mr. Swanland's +management they had better leave. Whereupon they said they did not like +Mr. Swanland's management if it kept them kicking their heels for five +hours when they might have been at home, and that they would leave.</p> + +<p>On hearing this, Mr. Bailey drew in his horns, and said they had better +not be hasty, and that he would speak to Mr. Swanland. To both of which +suggestions they agreed somewhat sullenly, and so ended that week.</p> + +<p>The next opened with the valuation of the Homewood furniture and other +effects—as a "mere matter of form," so Mr. Swanland declared—but, like +the trustee's, the auctioneer's men took possession of the place as if +it belonged to them, and without either with <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>your leave or by your +leave, walked from room to room making their inventory.</p> + +<p>Up to the time of their arrival Dolly had entertained hopes of inducing +her husband to make an effort to get downstairs. For days previously she +had been artfully striving to make him believe his presence in the works +was earnestly needed. She had suggested his spending an evening in the +drawing-room. She had on Sunday drawn a picture of the conservatory +sufficient to have tempted any ordinary invalid to hazard the +undertaking, but Mortomley's malady was as much mental as physical, and +not any medicine she could administer was able to cure that mind +diseased, which, no less than bodily illness, had stricken him with a +blow so sudden and so sharp.</p> + +<p>"We will see to-morrow, dear," was all the answer she could ever elicit.</p> + +<p>All in vain she guaranteed him immunity from indignant creditors, who +would persist in visiting Homewood in order to recite their wrongs, and +to hope Mr. Mortomley would see <i>them</i> safe at all events; in vain she +promised that <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>not a man in possession should cross his sight; in vain +she spoke of the brighter days dawning before them; in vain she employed +eloquence, and it may be a little deceit.</p> + +<p>It was always, "We will see to-morrow;" but once the morrow came, the +evil hour was again deferred when Mortomley should look on the face of +his fair house dishonoured, when he should nerve himself up to pass +where sacrilegious feet had trodden down the beauty and the grace, +destroyed all the sweet memories which once clustered round and about +the place where his father had lived, where he himself was born.</p> + +<p>And sometimes Dolly felt angry and sometimes sad, but she never felt +hopeless until those men intruding into the very room where Mortomley +sat listlessly looking out at the gloomy sky, taught him the precise +position he occupied.</p> + +<p>With a white face Dolly watched their movements, and when in a short +time they shut the door behind them, she went up to her husband and +kissed his forehead.</p> + +<p>"Should you not like to be away from all this?" she asked.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, if there were any place to which we could go away," was the +answer.</p> + +<p>"We must leave," said Dolly, and then—for she was growing wise—she sat +down to calculate the cost.</p> + +<p>She wanted to take him to the seaside, but she failed to see how that +was to be managed.</p> + +<p>She could have done it by running into debt, for her credit was good at +those seaside places where she had been the idol of landlords and where +tradespeople had delighted at her reappearance. But she had no intention +of going into debt unless she saw some means of being able to repay +those who put trust in her honesty.</p> + +<p>She could not take her husband to the seaside, and yet she felt he must +be got away from Homewood. The changed atmosphere of that once charming +home was killing him. With the rare sympathy which women like Dolly, +capable of putting themselves and their interests entirely on one side, +possess, she understood that air breathed by those dreadful men was +death to a person in his state of health; <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>and she racked her brains to +think of some plan by which she might get him away, even for a +fortnight, from the sound of strange voices, from the haunting presence +of Messrs. Turner and Meadows, and the other more insignificant +sheriff's officer.</p> + +<p>Not in the worst time they ever previously passed through, had Mrs. +Mortomley experienced such utter misery as that which fell to her lot +after Mr. Swanland took the reins of government.</p> + +<p>She knew utter anarchy prevailed in the works. She knew the men were at +daggers drawn with each other, unanimous only in one desire viz., that +of circumventing Mr. Meadows and outwitting his vigilance. She knew the +horses were not properly attended to; and when Lang justly indignant at +the proceeding, told her Bess had been put in one of the carts and sent +out with a load for the docks, Mrs. Mortomley was fain to make an excuse +to get rid of the man, that he might not see the passion of grief his +news excited in her.</p> + +<p>Helpless they were, both Mortomley and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>his wife. Ciphers where they had +once had authority; mere paupers, living on sufferance in a house no +longer theirs; by rapid degrees Dolly was learning what liquidation by +arrangement really meant, and why Mr. Kleinwort had said her husband +would find bankruptcy not all pleasure.</p> + +<p>While she was pondering how to get away from it all, how to escape from +the sight of ills she was powerless to cure, and the sound of complaints +to which she was weary of listening, Thursday came, and with a, to her, +startling discovery. Mr. Meadows, who after the first morning or so, +decided it was more comfortable to lie in bed late than to get up early, +had on the Wednesday evening left on Mr. Lang's desk a memorandum +concerning some account-books which he wished sent up to Salisbury +House, said memorandum being pencilled on the back of part of the very +note at the end of which Mr. Swanland had made that inquiry concerning +Mr. Mortomley's letters previously recorded.</p> + +<p>This precious morsel Lang carried to Esther, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>who carried it to her +mistress, who in her turn demanded from Mr. Meadows an explanation as to +how it happened his employer dared to intercept her letters.</p> + +<p>Mr. Meadows was civil but firm. He told her Mr. Swanland had a right to +everything about the place or that came into the place. He had a right +to Mr. Mortomley's letters, and inclusively Mrs. Mortomley's. Mr. +Meadows did not think it was usual for a lady's letters to be opened; +but Mr. Swanland had law on his side. He had also law on his side when +he refused to pay the corn-chandler for oats sent in for the horses the +day before the petition was presented. Mr. Meadows had no doubt the man +thought himself hardly done by in the matter, but he must be regarded as +a creditor like every one else.</p> + +<p>Further, Mr. Meadows admitted—for Mrs. Mortomley having at length +commenced to speak concerning her grievances, thought it too good an +opportunity to be lost about airing them all—that there might be an +appearance of injustice in setting down small country <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>traders who had +paid for their colours in advance as creditors, but Mr. Swanland could +only deal with the estate as he found it, and if he sent on the goods +ordered, he might have to make up the different amounts out of his own +pocket. Moreover, after various indignant questions had been asked and +answered in a similar manner, Mr. Meadows professed himself unable to +imagine why Mrs. Mortomley had paid, and was paying for the maintenance +of himself and the other two gentlemen in waiting. He was quite certain +Mr. Swanland would not be able to satisfy the creditors if he repaid her +the amount so disbursed.</p> + +<p>"I assure you, ma'am," finished Mr. Meadows, "I have often felt that I +should like to mention this matter to you, and would have done so, but +that I feared to give offence. I know you imagine I have taken too much +upon me since I came here; but indeed I have endeavoured to keep +unpleasantnesses from you. In cases like these, if a lady and gentleman +will remain in the house, as you and Mr. Mortomley have done, it is +impossible they should find <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>things agreeable. As I have often said to +your servants, you ought to have left the morning after Mr. Swanland +came down, and then you would have been out of the way of all this."</p> + +<p>Having delivered himself of which speech, spoken quietly and +respectfully, Mr. Meadows waited for any observation which it might +please Mrs. Mortomley to make.</p> + +<p>She made none. She stood perfectly silent for about a minute.</p> + +<p>Then she said—"You can go," and quite satisfied with his morning's +work, Mr. Meadows bowed and—went.</p> + +<p>When he had closed the door after him, Mrs. Mortomley rang the bell.</p> + +<p>"Esther," she began as the girl appeared, "directly you are at leisure +begin to pack."</p> + +<p>"You are going to leave then, ma'am?" said Esther interrogatively.</p> + +<p>"Yes, at once. I do not know where we shall go," she added, +understanding the unspoken question. "I must think, but upon <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>one thing +I am determined, and that is not to stop another night in this house +until Mr. Mortomley is master of it again. And if he never is again—"</p> + +<p>"Oh! ma'am," exclaimed the girl in protest, and then she burst into +tears.</p> + +<p>"Don't cry," commanded her mistress imperiously. "We shall all of us +have plenty of time for crying hereafter; but there are other things to +be done now. Pack your own clothes as well as mine. I will see to your +master's, and tell Susan to put up hers also."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean, ma'am, that you mean to leave the house with no one in it +but those men. What will become of all the things?"</p> + +<p>"I do not care what becomes of them," was the answer. "Now go and do as +I have told you."</p> + +<p>On her way upstairs Esther encountered Mr. Meadows, who about that house +seemed indeed ubiquitous.</p> + +<p>"She is a good deal cut up, ain't she?" he said confidentially.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It is no business of yours whether she is or not," Esther retorted +indignantly.</p> + +<p>"Whether she is or not," mimicked Mr. Meadows, "you need not fly out at +a fellow like that. It is none so pleasant for me being planted in such +a beastly dull hole as this. The governor might as well have sent me to +take charge of a church and churchyard. That job would have been about +as lively as this precious Homewood place."</p> + +<p>"Pity you and your governor are not in a churchyard together," said +Esther, with her nose very much turned up, and the corners of her mouth +very much drawn down, and her cheeks very red and her chin held very +high. "If there wasn't another trade in the world, I would rather starve +than take to yours."</p> + +<p>Having fired which shot—one she knew would hit the bull's eye—Esther +went swiftly on her way, while Mr. Meadows proceeded, the weather being +still wet, to solace himself by smoking a pipe in the conservatory; the +consequence being that when Mrs. Werner, a couple of hours later came to +call upon Mrs. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>Mortomley, she found the drawing-room reeking of +tobacco.</p> + +<p>"They will bring their beer in here next," observed Dolly when she +entered the apartment, and then she flung open the windows and commenced +telling her story, for which Mrs. Werner was utterly unprepared.</p> + +<p>She told it with dry eyes, with two red spots burning on her cheeks, +with parched lips and a hard unnatural voice.</p> + +<p>She did not break down when Mrs. Werner took her to her heart and cried +over her as a mother might have done.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Dolly," she sobbed. "Dolly, my poor darling—oh! the happy days we +have spent together," and then she checked herself, and holding Dolly a +little way off looked at her through a mist of tears.</p> + +<p>"Why did I know nothing of this?" she went on. "Dolly, why did you not +write and tell me? I thought everything was going to be straight and +comfortable. I had not an idea you were in such trouble. Yes, you are +right, you must leave Homewood. You have <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>remained here too long +already—where do you think of going?"</p> + +<p>"I have not been able to think," Mrs. Mortomley answered. "Advise me, +Lenny. I will do whatever you say is best."</p> + +<p>"Will you really, darling, follow my advice for once?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—really and truly—unless you wish us to go to Dassell. I should +not like, I could not bear to take Archie there now."</p> + +<p>"No, dear, I do not wish you to go to Dassell. We have taken a house at +Brighton for a couple of months, and I am going down with the children +to-morrow. Come home with me this afternoon, and we can all travel +together. That is if Mr. Mortomley is fit to travel. If not you and he +must stay for a few days in town till he is able to follow. That is +settled, is not it Dolly? I have to pay a visit at Walthamstow and will +return for you in less than an hour. You will come, dear."</p> + +<p>Dolly did not answer verbally. She only put her arms round Mrs. Werner's +neck and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>drawing down her face, kissed it in utter silence.</p> + +<p>There was no need for much speech between those two women. Dolly had +known Leonora Trebasson ever since she herself was born. They had grown +up together. They had been friends always, and Mortomley's wife felt no +more hesitation about accepting a kindness from Mrs. Werner in her need +than Mrs. Werner would have experienced had it been needful for her in +the halcyon days of old to ask for shelter and welcome at Homewood.</p> + +<p>And as the visit was to be paid at Brighton, Dolly did not find the +contemplation of Mr. Werner a drawback to the brightness of the picture.</p> + +<p>Perfectly well she understood that when his wife and family were out of +town, he never favoured them with much of his society.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p><p>Mr. Werner's god was business, and he did not care to absent himself +for any lengthened period from the shrine at which he worshipped.</p> + +<p>"I must just mention this to Archie," Mrs. Mortomley said at last.</p> + +<p>"I will mention it to him," proposed Mrs. Werner. "We shall never get +him to come for his own sake, but he will do so for yours."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Lenny," answered Mrs. Mortomley. "It does not signify for +whose sake the move is made, so that it is made."</p> + +<p>"Upon second thoughts," observed Mrs. Werner, "I shall not go on to +Walthamstow to-day. I will stay and carry you off with me. You can give +me some luncheon and let the horses have a feed, and that will be a far +pleasanter arrangement in every way."</p> + +<p>Dolly laughed and summoned Esther. "Mrs. Werner will lunch here," she +said; "and find Mr. Meadows and send him to me."</p> + +<p>"What do you want with that creature," asked her friend, and Dolly +answered, "You shall hear."</p> + +<p>Mr. Meadows entered the room and bowed solemnly to its occupants.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You wanted me, ma'am," he said, standing just inside the doorway and +addressing Mrs. Mortomley.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I wished to know if you think Mr. Swanland can answer any +questions that my husband's creditors may put to him, if Mrs. Werner's +horses have a feed of corn—because if not, I must ask her coachman to +put up at the public-house."</p> + +<p>Mr. Meadows turned white with rage at this cool question and the sneer +which accompanied it.</p> + +<p>"That woman is a fiend," he thought, "and will trouble some of our +people yet, and serve them right too;" but he answered quietly enough,</p> + +<p>"I am certain, madam, that Mr. Swanland would wish every consideration +to be paid to you and your friends, and I can take it upon myself to +tell this lady's coachman to put up his horses here."</p> + +<p>"You are very good," remarked Dolly. She could not have said, "Thank +you," had the salvation of Homewood depended on her uttering the words.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p> + + +<p>"Has it come to that?" asked Mrs. Werner as Mr. Meadows retired, and +Mrs. Mortomley answered—</p> + +<p>"It has come to that."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Werner found it a more difficult task to induce Mortomley to accept +her invitation than she had expected it would prove; but eventually her +arguments and his love for Dolly carried the day, and he agreed to go to +Brighton, and stay with his wife's friend for a week, or perhaps ten +days.</p> + +<p>"I must get well," he said, "before the meeting of creditors, and I feel +I can never get well here. You are very, very kind, Mrs. Werner. Dolly +and I will be but dull guests I fear; but you must put up with +our—stupidity."</p> + +<p>And he stretched out his thin wasted hand which she took in hers, and +there came before them both a vision of the old house at Dassell, +embowered in trees, with its green lawns and stately park, its low, +spacious rooms, its quiet and its peace, where he first met Dolly in the +summer days gone by.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p> + +<p>Looking back over one's experience of life, it seems marvellous to +recollect how few words one ever has heard spoken in times of danger or +of trial; how the once fluent tongue is paralysed by the overflowing +heart; how trouble stands sentinel beside the lips, and bars the +utterance of sentences which in happier times ran glibly and smoothly +on.</p> + +<p>In the time of their agony, Mortomley had nothing to say, and his wife +but little.</p> + +<p>He made no lamentation nor did she. Ruin had come upon them, and how +they should make their way through it no man could tell; but they were +silent about their griefs. It was upon the most ordinary topics Mrs. +Werner and Mortomley discoursed, whilst Dolly's utterances to Esther +were of the most commonplace description. How a portion of their luggage +was to be sent to Brighton, and the remainder, except the small amount +Dolly proposed taking with her, left at Homewood until further orders.</p> + +<p>How Esther was to be certain to look after her own comforts, and +purchase trifling <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>luxuries for herself, how Mrs. Mortomley depended on +her writing every day, and trusting the posting of the letters only to +Lang or Hankins—with fifty other such little charges—this was all she +found to say while packing up to leave the dear home of all her happy +married life in the possession of strangers. <i>And such strangers.</i></p> + +<p>As she thought of it, Dolly flung open the window and looked out.</p> + +<p>Oh! fair—fair home—smiling with your wealth of flowers under the dark +autumnal sky, can it be that when those whose hearts have been entwined +about you are gone, who have loved you with perhaps too earthly a love, +are departed, you shall turn as sweet a face and give as tender a +greeting to the future men and women destined to look upon your beauty +as you did to those who are leaving you for ever?</p> + +<p>No, thank God, there comes a desolation of place as there comes a wreck +of person; nature seems to sympathize with humanity, and when the old +owners have been torn from <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>the soil, the soil as if in sympathy grows +weeds instead of flowers—grows a tangle of discontent where sweet buds +were wont to climb.</p> + +<p>If in prophetic vision Dolly had been able at that moment to see +Homewood as it appeared six months after, she would have felt comforted. +As it was, she looked forth over the sweet modest home which had been +hers and his with a terrible despair, but she bore the pain in silence.</p> + +<p>"First or last," as Esther said afterwards, "she never heard a murmur +from husband or wife."</p> + +<p>Which was perhaps why she loved them both so well. With every vein in +her heart that simple country girl, who was not very clever, but whose +heart stood her amply instead of brains, loved the master and mistress +upon whom misfortune had fallen so suddenly, and to her thinking so +inexplicably.</p> + +<p>Physically she was not brave, but she would have faced death to keep +trouble from them. She was not possessed of much courage; no, not the +courage which will go downstairs alone <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>if it hears a noise in the +night, but she would have encountered any danger had Dolly asked her to +do so.</p> + +<p>It was well Mrs. Mortomley possessed a larger amount of common sense +than any one gave her credit for, otherwise she might have incited her +maid to deeds the execution of which would have filled Mr. Forde's soul +with rejoicing. Dolly sternly prohibited all looting from the premises. +Not a trunk she packed or saw packed, but might have borne the scrutiny +of Mr. Swanland himself, and yet the modest bonnet-box and portmanteau +carried down into the hall failed to meet with the approbation of Mr. +Swanland's man.</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry, ma'am," he said, "but I cannot allow these things to +leave the house without Mr. Swanland's permission."</p> + +<p>Dolly turned and looked at him. I think if a look could have struck him +dead where he stood, he had never spoken more.</p> + +<p>With all the authority of Salisbury House behind him, Meadows quailed at +sight of her face, wondering what should follow.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span></p> + +<p>But nothing followed except this:</p> + +<p>"Take those things upstairs at once," she said, turning to Esther and +Lang, "put them in my dressing-room with the other boxes, and bring me +the key of the door."</p> + +<p>"I do not know, madam," remarked Mr. Meadows, emboldened by what he +considered her previous submission, "whether you are aware that if you +lock the door we can break it open."</p> + +<p>Then Dolly found tongue.</p> + +<p>"Do it," she said; "only break open <i>any</i> door I choose to lock, and I +will make things unpleasant for you and your master too. I have endured +at your hands and his what I believe no woman ever endured before, but +if you presume another inch I will have justice if I carry our case into +every court in England."</p> + +<p>She did not know, poor soul, her cause had been settled in a court +whence there is no appeal, and for that very reason speaking fearlessly +her words carried weight.</p> + +<p>Mr. Meadows shrank out of the hall as if she had struck him a blow, and +Dolly leaning <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>against the lintel of the porch and looking at Mrs. +Werner's carriage and horses, which were framed to her by a wreath of +clematis and roses, felt for the moment as if she had won a victory.</p> + +<p>And by her retreat she had; but it is only after the battle any one +engaged can tell when the tide of war began to turn.</p> + +<p>It turned for the Mortomleys then. It turned when Mrs. Mortomley lifted +up her voice and defied Mr. Swanland's bailiff. In that moment she +ensured ultimate success for her husband—at a price.</p> + +<p>The years are before him still—the years of his life full of promise, +full of hope—that past of bankruptcy, recent though it may be, is, +nevertheless, an old story, and the name of Mortomley is a power once +more.</p> + +<p>There is nothing the man is capable of he need despair of achieving, +nothing this world can give him he need fail to grasp, and yet—and +yet—I think, I know, that rather than go forth and gather the pleasant +fruits ripening for him in distant vineyards, rather than pay the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>price +success exacted ultimately for her wares, the man would have laid him +down upon the bed a man in possession held in trust for his employer, +and died a pauper, entitled only to a pauper's grave.</p> + +<p>But no man can foresee. Happily, or else how many would live miserable.</p> + +<p>Dolly could not foresee; she could not foretell the events of even +four-and-twenty hours.</p> + +<p>But she was nice to others in that her time of trial, and the fact +served her in good stead in the evil hours to come.</p> + +<p>"I think," she had said to Esther, "that Lang and Hankins would like to +see Mr. Mortomley before we go. Lang had better give my husband his arm +downstairs, and Hankins can help him into the carriage."</p> + +<p>It was nice of Dolly, it was never forgotten about her for ever. It +never will be till the children's children are greyheaded. By the +carriage door stood the pair, hats in hand, tears running down their +cheeks, speaking across Mrs. Werner to their master; their master whom +they had loved and robbed, cheated and served <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>honestly, believed in and +grumbled concerning through years too long to count. And away in the +background were a group of men, the faces of whom appalled Mr. Meadows, +men who would have pumped on him had Mrs. Mortomley given the signal, +who loved their master, though it might be they had not acted always +honestly or straightforwardly by him, and who would at that moment have +done any wickedness in his service, had he only pleased to show them the +way.</p> + +<p>With a mighty effort Dolly choked back her tears.</p> + +<p>She heard the men say,</p> + +<p>"And we wish you back, sir, better."</p> + +<p>To which Mortomley replied,</p> + +<p>"I hope I shall be better, but you will see me here no more."</p> + +<p>"No more." Lang opened the door of the carriage for Dolly, who shook +hands with him and his colleague ere the vehicle drove off.</p> + +<p>"No more." Mortomley had said in those two words farewell to Homewood.</p> + +<p>No more for ever did a Mortomley pace the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>familiar walks, or cross the +remembered rooms. No more—no more—with the wail of that dirge in their +ears the men went back to their labour exceedingly sad in spirit.</p> + +<p>Mr. Meadows, however, was not sad. He sought out Esther crying in a +convenient corner.</p> + +<p>"Well, I am glad they are gone," he exclaimed, "and shall I tell you +why?"</p> + +<p>"You can if you like," Esther agreed, wiping her eyes with her muslin +apron, which she had donned in honour of Mrs. Werner, "though for my +part I do not care whether you are glad or sorry."</p> + +<p>"Well, when I came here I was told to <i>watch your mistress</i>, and it has +not been a pleasant occupation. I told Swanland it was all gammon +thinking she was not on the square. Of course we know all about that, +but he said his information from some one—Forde, I suppose, was clear, +and that money was put away, and I must find out where. As if," added +Mr. Meadows, with a gesture of ineffable contempt, "people like your +people did not <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>fight to the last shot, did not eat the last biscuit +before surrendering. Of course I understand the whole thing, and I have +but to repeat, so far as I am concerned, I am——glad they are gone."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span></p><p> "Let me pass, please," said Esther with a shudder. "I do not want to +hear anything more about you or your master, or Mr. Forde—or—anybody," +and her tone was so decided, he stepped aside and allowed her to pass +without uttering another word.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h3>DOLLY WRITES A LETTER.</h3> + + +<p>It may be questioned whether that particular member of the Mortomley +family, who made ducks and drakes of the Dassell ancestral acres, felt +anything like the grief at losing his patrimony which Archibald +Mortomley endured when he stepped across the threshold of Homewood with +the conviction strong upon him that he should return there no more.</p> + +<p>Everything in this world is comparative. To lords temporal and +spiritual, and to honourable gentlemen of the House of Commons, and to +millionaires east of Temple Bar, that clinging of the Irish peasant to +his mud cabin and couple of acres of bog, would seem a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>most ridiculous +piece of foolery were it not for the bullets with which Patrick +contrives to make such a tragedy out of his comical surroundings. +Nevertheless, eviction means as much misery to the shiftless Hibernian +as his cup is well capable of holding.</p> + +<p>This is a fact, I think, we are all rather too apt to lose sight of when +considering the extent of our neighbour's misfortunes.</p> + +<p>Because the house is not grand, or the furniture nice, or the wife +beautiful, or the children winning to our imaginations, we are apt to +think the man's loss has been light to him.</p> + +<p>Whereas his modest home set about with gods of his own making and +creating, may have been more desirable in his eyes than Chatsworth +itself, and he may mourn over his dead with a grief less palpable, it is +true, because the work-a-day world is intolerant of grief among the poor +and lowly, but as real as that our Sovereign Lady feels for her husband, +or as that wherein the sweet singer of Israel indulged when the +messenger came swiftly and told him though not in words, "Absalom is +slain." </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p> + +<p>To a business man especially the world is in this respect hard and +unsympathetic.</p> + +<p>Because we do not understand his trade, and should not care for it if we +did, we fancy he has regarded his mills, his works, his factory as we +look upon such erections. And yet the place where he has made his money, +or lost it, has been most part of his world to him; as much his world as +camps to the soldier, courts to the diplomatist, ball-rooms to the +beauty, Africa to Livingstone.</p> + +<p>A man cannot continue year after year to exercise any calling, if it be +even the culture of watercresses, and not centre a large portion of his +interest in it, and to a man like Mortomley it was a simple +impossibility for his laboratory, his home, his works, his men, his +colours to become matters of indifference to him.</p> + +<p>There had been a time when it would have well-nigh broken his heart to +leave Homewood and all its associations behind, but there were bitter +memories now superadded to the sweet recollections of the olden time, +memories <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>which, throughout all the future, he should never be able to +recall save with a galling sense of pain.</p> + +<p>The old Homewood was dead to him, and in its place there was a new +Homewood, the thought of which could never cross his mind save with a +sense of shame and degradation.</p> + +<p>It had been bad enough for the sheriffs' officers to hold the place in +temporary possession, but when Mr. Swanland sent in his man Mortomley +felt all hope had departed out of his life. If he was ever to do any +good for himself and those belonging to him again, he must first go to +some quiet place where he should have a chance of getting strong once +more, and then having given up Homewood and everything belonging to him, +compulsorily it might be, but still most thoroughly, commence life anew, +commence at the very foot of the business ladder, and strive to work his +way upward to success.</p> + +<p>To both husband and wife the sensation of driving for their own mere +ease and comfort through the suburbs of London was strange as <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>though +they had been labouring upon the pecuniary treadmill all the years of +their life. Money anxieties had so long been present with them at bed +and at board, that they found it difficult to realise the fact that they +were free from these fetters.</p> + +<p>By comparison beggary seemed heaven to the misery of their late +existence; and Mortomley, weak as he was, seemed benefited by the +change, whilst Dolly, all the time she had a strange feeling upon her of +having started on a pilgrimage without the faintest idea of what her +ultimate destination might prove, still experienced a sense of relief as +mile after mile lengthened itself out between her and Homewood.</p> + +<p>Had Mrs. Mortomley and her husband been royal guests, Mrs. Werner could +not have paid them more devoted attention than was the case.</p> + +<p>In a great airy bedchamber a fire blazed cheerfully, and on a sofa drawn +close up to the hearth she insisted on Mortomley taking his ease, where +no one could intrude to disturb him.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the same room she and Dolly had their afternoon cup of tea, and then +Dolly and her hostess repaired to Mrs. Werner's dressing-room, and sat +chatting there until it was time for one of them to dress for dinner, to +which a select party had been invited.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mortomley declined to join that party, but sat idly in a great +arm-chair, watching the progress of her friend's toilette, and thinking +that Leonora grew handsomer as she grew older.</p> + +<p>When she was fully arrayed in all the grand apparel in which it rejoiced +Mr. Werner's heart to see her decked, Dolly put her arms round her neck +and kissed and bade her good-night.</p> + +<p>"For I shall not see you again till the morning, dear," she said. "If I +want anything I will ask your maid to get it for me. No; I shall not be +hungry, or thirsty, or anything, except thankful to remember we have +made a wise move at last and left Homewood."</p> + +<p>"Very well, Dolly," answered Mrs. Werner, humouring her fancy. "You +shall be called <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>in good time to-morrow, so as not to be hurried; and if +you want to write any letters you will find everything you want in my +little room," saying which she pushed aside a curtain and passed into an +apartment scarcely larger than a closet, but fitted up with dainty +furniture, pretty inlaid cabinets, and a few water-colour drawings.</p> + +<p>"No one ever comes in here except myself," said Mrs. Werner, "and you +will be quite uninterrupted. See here is note-paper and there are +envelopes. And—"</p> + +<p>"Thank you," interrupted Dolly, "but I shall not want to write any +letters again for ever," and with one more good-night and one more +lingering look at the stately figure, which in the pier-glass she had +mentally balanced against her own, Dolly opened the door which gave +egress on to the landing, and stepped swiftly and lightly along the +passage leading to the apartment where she had left her husband.</p> + +<p>On the thick carpet the sound of her tread fell noiseless, and failed to +disturb the sound <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>sleep into which Mortomley had sunk. When before had +she seen him slumber so quietly? Dolly sat down before the fire, and +still full of thankfulness for the deliverance from Homewood and its +thousand and one petty annoyances, tried to look out over the future and +shape her plans.</p> + +<p>After she had been thus occupied for about half an hour, she suddenly +recollected she had not left with Esther an address which should find +her at Brighton, and vexed at an omission which might cause even a +night's anxiety to a girl who had been so faithful to her, she stole +quietly out of the room, intending not merely to send a note to Esther, +but also a few lines to Rupert and a letter to Miss Gerace, whose +epistles probably had been intercepted by Mr. Swanland.</p> + +<p>In the apartment of which Mrs. Werner had made her free, the gas was +lighted. Dolly turned it up a little, and after searching for a pen to +suit her, began her correspondence.</p> + +<p>For some time she wrote on without interruption. She finished her short +note to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>Esther; she scribbled a few hasty words to "My dear little +girl," and was half way through her rambling epistle to Miss Gerace, +when her attention was distracted by the sound of a door shut violently, +and by hearing Mr. Werner pronounce her husband's name in a tone of the +keenest annoyance.</p> + +<p>"Mortomley!" he exclaimed. "Damn Mortomley!" which, though perhaps not +an unusual form of expression, fell cruelly on Dolly's ear.</p> + +<p>With the pen still in her fingers, she rose from her chair while he went +on.</p> + +<p>"I would rather have lost five hundred pounds than that you should have +brought either of them here. A man in business cannot afford to be +Quixotic, and I cannot afford to be mixed up with Mortomley or his +affairs. They must not stay here, that is flat, and they must not go to +Brighton. Make what excuse you like, only get them out of the house."</p> + +<p>"I presume you do not mean to-night," said Mrs. Werner, in a voice Dolly +could have scarcely recognized as belonging to her friend.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Hang it, Leonora," he retorted, "you need not look at me like that. I +suppose I am master in my own house, and have a right to say who shall +and who shall not visit here."</p> + +<p>"A perfect right," she replied. "I merely asked a question, and I wait +for your answer. Am I to turn <i>my friend</i> and her husband out of <i>your</i> +house to-night?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose not. I suppose they must stay," he said; "but, good Heavens, +Leonora, what could you have been thinking of to bring a bankrupt and +his penniless wife here! And I involved as I am with that infernal +Chemical Company, and Forde full of the notion that as Mrs. Mortomley's +money is condemned, at any rate, he can get her to sign some antedated +paper, securing the bulk of her husband's so called debt to him. Upon my +soul it is enough to drive a fellow mad. I tell you I will not be mixed +up with the affairs of people too foolish or stupid to take care of +themselves.</p> + +<p>"Forde will get them into some mess they <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>will not readily extricate +themselves from; Mortomley either wants sufficient moral pluck or +physical energy to face the difficulty, and yet you bring them here!"</p> + +<p>"They shall not trouble you after to-night," she answered.</p> + +<p>"They had better not," exclaimed Mr. Werner, infuriated by her tone.</p> + +<p>"And still you used to speak of Mr. Mortomley as your friend," remarked +his wife.</p> + +<p>"How often am I to tell you a business man can have no friends except +those capable of advancing his interests, and bankruptcy cuts all ties +of that sort. If Mortomley had been possessed of sufficient common sense +to secure his flighty wife's fortune, there might have been some faint +hope for him; but as matters stand there is none. If her friends do not +come forward, they will have to apply to the parish within six months, +and serve them right too."</p> + +<p>Dolly gathered up her letters and laid down her pen, and stole from the +room.</p> + +<p>She had heard enough—she had heard how <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>they stood—where lay their +danger—what they had to guard against; and she stood for a moment in +the passage leading to the apartments Mrs. Werner had selected for them, +with her hand pressed tightly over her heart, trying to realize that she +had listened to Mr. Werner's words in her waking moments instead of in a +dream.</p> + +<p>And then next moment came the question, "When were they to go."</p> + +<p>They could not remain another hour in Mr. Werner's house, that was +certain. She could not take her husband back to Homewood, that seemed +more impossible still. She doubted, though her experience was small, +whether any hotel-keeper would beam with smiles at sight of a sick man +accompanied by his wife and destitute of luggage.</p> + +<p>Dolly sat down on the mat outside the bedroom door to think it all over.</p> + +<p>They must go somewhere, and at once, where should it be?</p> + +<p>She sat there plucking the wool out of the mat in her restless +imaginings, while her <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>head grew hot and her eyes heavy with weary +self-communing; she heard Mr. and Mrs. Werner go down stairs; she heard +the stir and bustle of arriving guests; she listened to the buzz of +talking and the light rippling of laughter, as one drifting out to sea +in a rudderless boat might listen to the voices and the merriment of +those safe on a shore fading away in the distance; she heard the rustle +of the ladies' dresses as they passed in to dinner, and then it came to +her like an inspiration—where she should go.</p> + +<p>"I will do it. I will," she said almost audibly, and she turned the +handle of the door gently, and crossing the room caught up her hat and +shawl, and then closing the door behind her, went carefully down stairs, +surveying the country she had to pass through over the bannisters.</p> + +<p>Strange waiters were about and she passed through them unobserved, and +sped off to the nearest cab-stand.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p><p>There she hired a vehicle, which she left waiting her return some +half-dozen yards from Mr. Werner's house.</p> + +<p>The door was fortunately open to admit of some guests invited to "come +in the evening," and she entered with them and, unnoticed save by Mr. +Werner's butler, crossed the hall and ran up stairs.</p> + +<p>Arrived at her husband's side she touched him gently.</p> + +<p>"Are you rested dear, at all? It is time for us to be going."</p> + +<p>"Going!" he repeated, between sleeping and waking, "are we not at home?"</p> + +<p>"No love, at Mr. Werner's."</p> + +<p>He raised himself a little and looked at her.</p> + +<p>"I think I have been asleep," he said. "Oh! now I remember, but I +thought we were to stay here all night. It was arranged that we were, +was it not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear, but I find it is not convenient for us to do so. Visitors +have come, and we ought not to intrude under the circumstances. There is +a cab at the door. Can you walk with my arm or shall I ring for +assistance?"</p> + +<p>He rose, still looking dazed and bewildered, and she put her arm round +his body and he <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>placed his arm round her neck; it was thus he had with +weak and uncertain steps often paced his room at Homewood.</p> + +<p>Trembling over the descent of each stair, she got him at length to the +bottom of the last flight, and then beckoning one of the waiters, she +asked him to help her husband to the door, while she herself searched +for his top-coat and hat.</p> + +<p>Whilst she was so engaged the butler appeared,</p> + +<p>"Why, ma'am," he said, "you are surely never going back to Homewood +to-night?"</p> + +<p>"I find we must go," she answered; "I had forgotten something. I have +left a note for Mrs. Werner upstairs, but do not tell her we have left +until all the company have left. She—she—might be uneasy. I have +borrowed a rug, tell her I will return it in a few days; and help Mr. +Mortomley to the cab. Thank you, good night, Williams," and she put +half-a-crown in his hand.</p> + +<p>Poor Dolly! and half-crowns were not plentiful, and likely to be less +so.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p> + +<p>The driver touched his horse, and the hansom was out of sight in a +minute.</p> + +<p>"I wonder what <i>that</i> means," thought Mr. Williams. "For certain the +governor was in a rare taking when he heard they were here."</p> + +<p>But all the "takings" in which Mr. Werner had ever been were as nothing +compared with that which overwhelmed Mrs. Werner when she heard of +Dolly's departure.</p> + +<p>She heard of that sooner than Dolly intended; for Messrs. Forde and +Kleinwort, having driven down in the evening to see what pressure could +be put upon Mrs. Mortomley to induce her to do what ought in Mr. Forde's +formula "to have been done long before, make the St. Vedast Wharf people +secure," came straight onto Mr. Werner's house in quest of the missing +lady.</p> + +<p>"Mr. and Mrs. Mortomley have gone, sir," explained the butler, who knew +the manager as an occasional guest at his master's table.</p> + +<p>"Gone, nonsense!" repeated Mr. Forde, pushing his way into the hall, and +looking askance at the signs of feasting pervading the Werner +establishment with an expression which said plainly,</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p> + +<p>'Just like all the rest of them. He can give parties while I am standing +on the edge of a precipice. He has no thought for <i>me</i>.'</p> + +<p>"I assure you, sir," answered the man, "Mr. and Mrs. Mortomley left here +more than an hour ago. I assisted Mr. Mortomley into the cab myself."</p> + +<p>"Then I must see Mr. Werner," said Mr. Forde determinedly.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid—that he is engaged. We have company to-night, sir."</p> + +<p>Mr. Forde turned as if he would have annihilated the speaker.</p> + +<p>"He will see me," he shouted; "tell him I am here." And he strode into +the so-called library, the door of which stood open, followed by +Kleinwort, who, perhaps because he felt ashamed, perhaps because he was +cold, looked curiously small and down-hearted.</p> + +<p>After all, as he confided subsequently to Mr. Werner, it was none so +pleasant being dragged across country and through town like a dog on the +chain by even a companion charming as Forde.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Shall I take your hat," inquired Williams, whose ideas of propriety +were outraged by the sight of Mr. Forde seated in Mr. Werner's own chair +in that sacred and solemn chamber, his hat on, his fingers beating the +devil's own tattoo on the table.</p> + +<p>"No," he growled, and the man retreated, catching sight as he went of a +significant shrug of Mr. Kleinwort's shoulders.</p> + +<p>Almost instantly Mr. Werner appeared. The butler opened the door for him +to enter and forgot to shut it again.</p> + +<p>"I want to see Mortomley," began Mr. Forde, without preface of any kind; +"if he is well enough to travel, he is well enough to face his +creditors."</p> + +<p>"I will send and tell him you are here," answered Mr. Werner.</p> + +<p>"No, I will go to him without any first message being delivered," said +the other with an angry sneer.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Pardon me," interposed Mr. Werner, "but you will do no such thing. It +is not with any good-will of mine that Mr. Mortomley is my guest, but +since he is my guest he shall not be treated by you or anybody else like +a criminal. If he choose to see you he can do so, if he do not choose +you shall not see him."</p> + +<p>"Do you dare say that to me?" asked Mr. Forde.</p> + +<p>"Yes," was the reply, "and if you speak in that tone to me, I shall say +a good deal more which you may not like to hear."</p> + +<p>"Now—now—now—Werner," interposed Kleinwort, "you are always so much +in too great haste. He meant it not. He would not order about in your +house for ten thousand worlds."</p> + +<p>"He had better not," Mr. Werner said, cutting short the thread of Mr. +Kleinwort's eloquence, for he was indignant at being taken from his +guests, and furious at the fact of Mortomley having taken shelter under +his roof, and being instantly hunted there by Mr. Forde. "Williams," he +continued going to the door, and addressing his butler, who was bustling +about the hall,</p> + +<p>"Let Mr. Mortomley know Mr. Forde is <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>here, and desires a few minutes' +conversation with him. Now, gentlemen, <i>I</i> must bid you good-night. +Williams will bring you wine or brandy if you only tell him which you +prefer."</p> + +<p>"Beg pardon, sir," interposed Williams at this juncture, "but—"</p> + +<p>"Did you not hear me tell you to let Mr. Mortomley know Mr. Forde wishes +to see him?" said Mr. Werner, emphasising each word with painful +distinctness.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, but Mr. Mortomley is gone."</p> + +<p>"Gone!" repeated Mr. Werner, while Mr. Forde remarked audibly, "I do not +believe a word of it."</p> + +<p>And Kleinwort, pulling his companion's sleeve, entreated him piteously, +"To be impulsive not so much."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, went away with Mrs. Mortomley in a cab an hour and a half +ago."</p> + +<p>"Where did he go to?" asked Mr. Werner.</p> + +<p>"Don't know, sir. No orders were given to the cabman in my presence or +hearing."</p> + +<p>Mr. Werner stood silent for an instant, then he said, turning to +Williams,</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ask your mistress to come down here. Say I will not detain her a +moment." And while the man went to do his bidding, he walked up and down +the room evidently as ill at ease as his visitors.</p> + +<p>Into the room Mrs. Werner walked stately and beautiful, her rich dress +rustling over the carpet, jewels sparkling on her snowy neck, amid her +dark hair, and on her white arms.</p> + +<p>She started at sight of the two visitors, but quickly recovering +herself, gave her hand frigidly to each in succession.</p> + +<p>"Ah! but, madam, we have no need to ask if your health be admirable," +Kleinwort was beginning, when Mr. Werner interrupted his ecstacy with +ruthless abruptness.</p> + +<p>"Leonora," he said, "these gentlemen want to know where Mr. and Mrs. +Mortomley have gone. If it is no secret, pray inform them."</p> + +<p>"They are here," she instantly replied.</p> + +<p>"No, they are not; they left in a cab an hour ago or more. Can you +imagine where they have gone?" </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I cannot imagine that they have left," she answered. "You must be +mistaken."</p> + +<p>"If you please, ma'am," here interrupted Williams, who had remained +standing at the door after Mrs. Werner's entrance, with an apologetic +grasp upon the handle, "Mrs. Mortomley left a note for you. She told me +not to mention this till all the company had left, but I suppose, under +present circumstances, it is correct for me to do so."</p> + +<p>"I will go for it," Mrs. Werner said, with a little gasp, but Mr. Werner +prevented her intention. "Let your maid do so."</p> + +<p>There ensued an awkward pause, during which Mr. Kleinwort, with much +<i>empressement</i>, handed Mrs. Werner a chair.</p> + +<p>"No, thank you," she remarked, and the pause continued, and the depth +and gloom of the silence increased minute by minute.</p> + +<p>At length the maid, having found the note, brought it into the room.</p> + +<p>"Give it to me," exclaimed Mr. Forde, trying to snatch it off the +salver, but Mrs. Werner's face warned him of the impropriety he had +committed.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The note is intended for me, Mr. Forde, I think," she said quietly, and +opened the envelope after a courteous "Pray excuse me."</p> + +<p>As she read her face darkened.</p> + +<p>"Where are they, where have they gone?" demanded Mr. Forde eagerly.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Werner lifted her eyes and looked at him slowly and absently, as if +she had forgotten his existence.</p> + +<p>"I do not know," she answered. "Mrs. Mortomley does not say, and I have +not an idea unless they have returned to Homewood. Mrs. Mortomley +unfortunately understood Mr. Werner objected to my having invited her +and her husband here, and she hastened to leave a house where their +presence was unwelcome."</p> + +<p>Having unburdened herself of which statement, Mrs. Werner gathered up +her ample skirt, and with a distant bow to both gentlemen left the room.</p> + +<p>Mr. Werner went after her.</p> + +<p>"Leonora," he said as she ascended the staircase, but she never answered +him. "Leonora," <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>he repeated, but still she made no more sign than if +she had been deaf.</p> + +<p>Then following rapidly, he stood beside her on the landing.</p> + +<p>"Leonora," he entreated, laying his hand on her arm with a pleading +gentleness difficult to associate with Henry Werner.</p> + +<p>She stood quite still and looked at him with an expression he had never +seen on her face before through all their married life, which God pity +any man who ever sees it in the face of his wife, in the face of the +mother of his children.</p> + +<p>"Do not speak to me about them to-night," she said. "Hereafter perhaps, +but not now," and her voice was changed and hard as Dolly had heard it.</p> + +<p>"Will you give me her note?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is your right," and she gave him the paper she held crushed in +her hand, a paper on which Dolly had traced mad words in wonderful +hieroglyphics.</p> + +<p>After his guests had all departed, when the house was silent and quiet +and lonely, and he <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>was quite by himself, Henry Werner smoothed out that +crumpled manuscript and read the sentences Dolly had written in her +haste.</p> + +<p>There was much she had better have left unwritten, as there is in all +such effusions, much that was feminine and foolish, and passionate and +exaggerated. But it ended with two sentences which burned themselves on +Mr. Werner's brain.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"If it were not for your sake, darling, I would wish that the man +you have had the misfortune to marry might be beggared and ruined +to-morrow—beggared, more completely ruined, more utterly even than +we have been.</p> + +<p>"As it is, I shall never forgive him—never for ever—never.</p> + +<p class="ralign">"<span class="smcap">Dolly.</span>"</p> +</blockquote> + + +<p>With a shiver Mr. Werner folded up Dolly's epistle and placed it in his +pocket-book. Then he did a most unwonted thing for him; indeed, I might +say unprecedented,—he poured out nearly a glass of brandy and drank it +off.</p> + +<p>"After all," he thought, "there is more in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>having a wife who is fond of +her husband than most fellows think. That little woman is as brave over +her sick husband as a hen about a brood of young chickens. I wonder if +she has taken him back to Homewood; or rather I do not wonder, for I +know she would sooner do anything than that."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p><p>And in this idea he was perfectly correct; Dolly had found a shelter +for her sick husband, but not at Homewood.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h3>THE BEGINNING OF A NEW LIFE.</h3> + + +<p>Off one of the cross roads leading from Stoke Newington and Stamford +Hill to Upper Clapton, there stood a few years back, and still stand, +for aught the writer knows to the contrary, a few pairs of semi-detached +houses, undoubtedly respectable as to position and appearance, but +painfully small in their internal arrangement—houses suitable both as +regarded rent and position for a couple of maiden ladies, for a widow +and her son, for a newly married couple, or for any one in fact whose +family chanced to be as circumscribed in number as his income in amount.</p> + +<p>All told, these desirable residences contained <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>only seven rooms; but +the windows of those rooms overlooked, both back and front, pleasant +gardens, and the road in which they stood ended in a brick wall covered +with ivy, so that the inmates were crazed with no noise of passing +vehicles. Altogether a quiet out-of-the-world little Grove, for by that +name it was called, which a person might have wandered about Stamford +Hill and Clapton for ever without discovering, had he not chanced upon +it by accident, or happened to know some one resident in it.</p> + +<p>But Dolly Mortomley was familiar with that out-of-the-way nook.</p> + +<p>A widow with whom she had been well acquainted in the old Dassell days, +coming to London for the sake of being near her only son, had asked Mrs. +Mortomley to look her out a house, <i>small</i>, <i>genteel</i>, <i>cheap</i>, in a +<i>respectable neighbourhood</i>, <i>readily accessible to the City</i>—all these +requirements being italicised; and after weary searching, Dolly wrote +down triumphantly that she had found and taken the very residence +described, and that if her friend would <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>send up her furniture, and come +and stay for a week at Homewood while the place was put in order, +everything should be made comfortable for her, so that she might walk, +without any fuss or trouble, into her new home.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Baker was the name of the new tenant who took possession of number +eight, in which she lived for nearly two years,—to the great +contentment of tradespeople, tax-collectors, and landlord, for she lived +regularly and paid regularly, as only persons possessed of a fixed +income punctually received, can do.</p> + +<p>At the end of that time, however, her son fell ill, and the doctors +advised that she should take him abroad for the winter.</p> + +<p>Then ensued a difficulty. She had taken the house on a three years' +agreement, and she did not wish to sell her furniture.</p> + +<p>Clearly then, as all her friends said, the best thing for her to do was +to let the house furnished until the end of her term, by which time she +would be able to arrange her future plans.</p> + +<p>This was in July. October had now come, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>and the house was still on +view. Keys to be had at Mr. Stilton's, Blank Street, Clapton, while once +a week the rooms were swept, the furniture rubbed and dusted, and fires +lighted, by a former servant, who having married only a few months +previously, resided in the neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>The house would not let furnished. The class of people who require +furnished houses are not those desirous of renting one at about a pound +or five-and-twenty shillings a week, and Dolly had already written to +inquire whether the chairs and tables and other effects had not better +be stored, and the residence let unfurnished.</p> + +<p>As she sat plucking the wool out of Mr. Werner's mat, the memory of this +house had recurred to her. They would be quiet there. She could pay Mrs. +Baker's rent without saying who were her tenants. Mr. Stilton knew her +well, and would let her have the keys at once if she said the house was +taken. She would have Susan over, and she would tell no one, except +Esther and Mr. Leigh, and perhaps <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>Rupert Halling, where she and her +husband had taken refuge, and she would nurse him back to health in that +quiet house where not a sound would disturb his rest, for she remembered +Mrs. Baker telling her the people next door had neither chick nor +child—nor piano.</p> + +<p>It all came back to her like a vision of safety and peace. There Messrs. +Forde and Kleinwort could not intrude; there they might shut their door +and bar out the world, and not even Mr. Swanland could compel them to +shelter a man in possession; there she could go into her kitchen +undeterred by the thought of strangers loafing around the fire; there +they might have their dry morsel in quietness; there she would be free +from the scrutiny of Mr. Meadows, and the eternal bickering of workmen; +there Mr. Bayley would have no right to come at early morn and dewy eve, +and neither would Mr. Swanland's head and confidential clerk, who +appeared perpetually at Homewood to hear Mr. Meadows' report, and to +make sure the Mortomleys were not interfering with the business, or +making <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>away with goods, or inciting the men to rebellion, or, in a +word, misconducting themselves in any way which should authorise Mr. +Swanland in taking active steps to teach them their true position.</p> + +<p>As for Mr. Werner and all their former acquaintances, she tried to +forget she had ever called a human being friend.</p> + +<p>"What I have to do now I must do for myself," she decided, as she drove +through the night, her husband's head pillowed on her shoulder. "If we +must pass through the valley of humiliation, it shall henceforth be +alone. We have trod it long enough in sight of the public."</p> + +<p>Perhaps she underrated the extent of the responsibility she thus +assumed; perhaps in her anger against Mr. Werner, and her remembrance of +all the misery she had endured at Homewood, she omitted to look on the +other side of the canvas, and see the picture of solitude, anxiety, +poverty, and lingering illness ultimately painted there; but spite of +this, though she took her bold step in haste, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>she never repented it had +been forced upon her—never, not even when she was weary and +downhearted, not even when the burden seemed greater than she could +bear, did Dolly regret she decided not to take her husband back to +Homewood.</p> + +<p>And yet, as she stood at the gate struggling with an unknown lock, her +heart did sink within her for a moment.</p> + +<p>It was only for a moment, however, for when after another fight with the +key of the hall-door, she entered the house and lighted the gas with +some matches she had been wise enough to purchase on her way, together +with some other articles, a great sense of security and contentment came +over her, and she felt, so far as she was concerned, if there had not +been a bed or table in the house, if she had been compelled to sleep on +the bare boards, she would cheerfully have done so rather than pass +another night under the same roof with Mr. Meadows or any person of his +profession.</p> + +<p>Full of this feeling she returned to the cab, and asked the driver to +assist her husband to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>alight. Fortunately, he was a strong, capable +fellow, or they must have sent for further assistance.</p> + +<p>To her utter dismay, Dolly found it impossible to rouse the sick man to +a sense of what was required from him, the moderate exertion of +struggling to a standing position, and almost in despair she strove with +all her strength to lift him from his seat.</p> + +<p>"Let me try, ma'am," said Cabby, and he took Mortomley in his arms, and +the moment after was supporting him on the side-path; then the strange +man and she managed between them to lead him up the short walk and the +little flight of steps leading to the hall door.</p> + +<p>"Can we get him upstairs?" Dolly asked in despair, for one look at his +face under the gaslight showed her his illness had returned, that he was +as bad as he could well be.</p> + +<p>"We can try, ma'am," was the answer.</p> + +<p>"You must stay with him while I run up and light the gas," she remarked.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p> + +<p>The man looked at the unpromising staircase, and at Mrs. Mortomley, +panting and out of breath, and shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't try it if I was you," he said.</p> + +<p>They placed him in an arm-chair, and then with mattresses brought from +upstairs, made a comfortable enough couch in the back drawing-room.</p> + +<p>When these preparations were completed, Dolly motioned the cabman to +follow her into the hall.</p> + +<p>"Haven't you got anybody here with you, ma'am?" he asked, with a rough +sympathy in his voice and manner.</p> + +<p>"I am all alone for the present," she answered. "Will you do something +for me?"</p> + +<p>"Aye, that I will, if so be I can," was the ready answer.</p> + +<p>"First, how much do I owe you?" and when that pecuniary matter was +settled to his entire satisfaction, Mrs. Mortomley said,</p> + +<p>"I want you to fetch a doctor. Find one and bring him here as soon as +you can. We won't quarrel about your fare." </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I am not afraid of that," he replied, muttering to himself as he +climbed up to his box, "but I am afraid it is an undertaker rather than +a doctor you will be wanting soon."</p> + +<p>He was not absent more than half an hour, but in that time Dolly had +arranged matters somewhat to her mind.</p> + +<p>She discovered coals in the cellar, and a few pieces of wood in the +kitchen-grate, and so managed to light a fire in the sick-room. She +carried the chairs, upholstered in damask, and other items of +drawing-room furniture into the front room, and substituted in their +place articles from the upper rooms, which proved that Dolly had no +intention of moving her husband to the first floor for some time to +come.</p> + +<p>From the contents of a travelling-bag, which having been taken straight +out to Mrs. Werner's carriage, had escaped Mr. Meadows' scrutiny, she +set out the dressing-table with a few toilet necessaries, and thus it +came to pass that when the doctor arrived he found the house inhabited +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>not merely by human beings, but by that subtle essence of womanhood +which may be felt but never described.</p> + +<p>Already the house was a home, and this man who entered so many houses +which were not homes did involuntarily homage to her achievement.</p> + +<p>With a quiet tread he walked to the side of his patient, and stooping +down over him felt his pulse, pulled up his eyelids, drew down the +coverings, and laid his hand on his heart, then placed his own cool palm +on the sick man's forehead. Then leaning his elbow on the mantelpiece, +he proceeded to question Dolly.</p> + +<p>"How long has he been ill?"</p> + +<p>"Several weeks. I cannot now remember how many," she answered, making a +movement as if to leave the room.</p> + +<p>"He won't hear us," said the doctor. "You need not trouble yourself +about that. Some one has been attending him, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she answered, "but not in this neighbourhood; we have only just +come here."</p> + +<p>"So the cabman told me," he replied. "Has <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>he," indicating Mortomley +with a turn of his head, "been living low?"</p> + +<p>"He has had everything the doctor told me to give him."</p> + +<p>"Beef-tea, wine, and so forth?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, all sorts of wine, and everything we could think of or imagine."</p> + +<p>"Just as I supposed," remarked the doctor. "And medicine, of course, +draughts and drops, and those sort of things?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; all that was ordered."</p> + +<p>"And how does it happen a man in his state of health was out at such a +time of night—out, in fact, at all?" asked the doctor suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Because where we lived was killing him," Dolly answered; "because a +dear friend wanted to take us to Brighton with her. And—and—well if I +must tell you, other members of her family did not make us welcome when +we got to her house in London, and I was obliged to bring him here."</p> + +<p>"That is right," he said, nodding approvingly. "Always tell the truth to +your <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>doctor. In return I will be frank with you. What your husband +wants is not so much wine, or meat, or change, or anything of that sort +usually recommended, but sleep. If he can rest, and I think he can, that +may save him; but I tell you candidly his recovery will be tedious, and +nothing except rest <i>can</i> save him. Good night. I will not send you any +medicine at present, but I will look round early in the morning, and see +what sort of a night he has passed."</p> + +<p>And he held out his hand and departed, and Dolly was left alone.</p> + +<p>When she paid the cabman for his second journey she gave him a letter, +and put him upon honour to post it at some pillar-box where the +collections were made at three in the morning.</p> + +<p>That letter, written hurriedly and directed in pencil, ran as follows:—</p> + +<blockquote><p class="ralign">"Thursday night.</p> + +<p>"Dear Esther,—I have decided <i>not</i> to go with Mrs. Werner to +Brighton. Directly you <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> receive this, please send Susan to Mrs. +Baker's. You know the address. I will try to get over to Homewood +to-morrow, but cannot do so till Susan comes here. Mr. Mortomley is +very ill. Do not mention where we are to any one till I have seen +you.</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">"Yours,</span><br /> +"<span class="smcap">D. Mortomley.</span>"<br /> +</p></blockquote> + +<p>The cabman was faithful. Though he might never see Mrs. Mortomley again, +he honestly did her bidding, and accordingly about half-past ten o'clock +the next morning Susan arrived, bringing the following note with her +from Esther:—</p> + +<blockquote><p class="ralign">"Friday morning.</p> + +<p>"Dear Madam,—I have not kept Susan to take any of her clothes, as +I wanted to get her away before Meadows was up. I think you will be +quieter at Mrs. Baker's than any place else.</p> + +<p>"Susan will tell you about Mr. Forde and Mr. Kleinwort; but perhaps +you have seen them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p> + +<p>"They were greatly put out at finding you gone. I would not have +told them where, but Meadows he did. No more at present from</p> + +<p class="ralign"> +<span style="margin-right: 3em;">"Your humble servant,</span><br /> +"<span class="smcap">E. Hummerson.</span><br /> +</p></blockquote> + + +<blockquote><p>"Dear Madam,—I am sorry to hear Mr. Mortomley is so ill again. +Please do not send Susan here, as Meadows might get talking to +her."</p></blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p><p>After reading and re-reading this epistle, Mrs. Mortomley decided not to +visit Homewood for some time to come.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h3>MR. FORDE MAKES A MISTAKE.</h3> + + +<p>Matters were not progressing pleasantly at Homewood. Relieved from his +task of watching Mrs. Mortomley's movements, Mr. Meadows had spent the +evening of her departure in the company of Messrs. Lang and Hankins at +the public-house which they patronised, and the consequence was that he +came downstairs next morning very late, and feeling, after a debauch +following a period of enforced sobriety, not at all himself.</p> + +<p>And there was nothing prepared for breakfast which he liked. Turner and +the other man having been first in the field, had finished such +delicacies as Esther had seen fit to set <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>before them, and when at +length Mr. Meadows appeared he found to his disgust nothing to tempt his +appetite. A pot of tea, with sugar and milk accompaniments, a boiled +egg, a loaf, and a small quantity of butter, alone graced the board.</p> + +<p>"I can't eat this, you know," said Mr. Meadows, pushing away the egg +with an expression of loathing.</p> + +<p>"Well, you can leave it then?" retorted Esther.</p> + +<p>"Bring me some ham," he commanded.</p> + +<p>"There is not any," she answered.</p> + +<p>"Then send for some."</p> + +<p>"Send for some yourself, and send the money with it," replied Esther, +who was not destitute of that spice of the virago which gives flavour +and variety to a woman's character.</p> + +<p>Mr. Meadows looked at her darkly, then put his hand in his +waistcoat-pocket, and produced some silver.</p> + +<p>"Where is Susan?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"She is out," was the curt reply.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p> + +<p>"When will she be in?"</p> + +<p>"I do not know," Esther answered. "Never perhaps. She has gone after a +fresh place, and that is what I intend to do before long."</p> + +<p>"And that is just what you won't do, my fine young woman," he declared, +"for you cannot leave without a month's notice."</p> + +<p>"Well, we will see," she replied. "I have not to give notice to you +anyhow. I am not your servant."</p> + +<p>"You are Mr. Swanland's, which is about the same thing," was the answer. +"You chose to stay on after he took possession here for your own +pleasure, and you will stay on now for mine, or else we will go before +the nearest magistrate and know what he says on the subject."</p> + +<p>But he spoke to space, for Esther, too indignant to listen further, had +already left the kitchen, and he was compelled himself to go out into +the works and send a lad for the viands his soul desired.</p> + +<p>He had not finished his repast before a cab drove up, containing Messrs. +Forde and Kleinwort.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p> + +<p>Turner, sauntering idly about the lawn, was accosted by them.</p> + +<p>"I want to see Mrs. Mortomley," Mr. Forde exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"She has not returned. She left yesterday, as Mr. Meadows told you, sir, +with Mrs. Werner."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but she has come back here."</p> + +<p>"That she certainly has not," was the quiet reply.</p> + +<p>The two men looked at each other; then Mr. Kleinwort said,</p> + +<p>"We should like to speak just one word with that bright little maid, +Esther I think you call her. Will you tell her so?"</p> + +<p>"I will find her myself," said Mr. Forde, and he strode into the house, +followed by Kleinwort. As they entered the kitchen, Meadows, looking +little better for his breakfast, rose to meet them.</p> + +<p>"Where is Mrs. Mortomley?" repeated Mr. Forde, evidently believing that +iteration would bring him knowledge.</p> + +<p>"At Mr. Werner's sir," <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>Mr. Forde muttered an impatient oath.</p> + +<p>"Where is that girl?—Esther, I mean."</p> + +<p>Mr. Meadows went in search of her, and when she appeared, Mr. Forde +remarked once again, that he wanted to see Mrs. Mortomley.</p> + +<p>"She is not here, sir, she went away with Mrs. Werner yesterday."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but she left Mrs. Werner's last night, and you know where she is +now."</p> + +<p>The arrow was shot at a venture, but it told. Esther coloured and looked +confused.</p> + +<p>"Come now, tell us where she is," said Mr. Forde in his mildest accents.</p> + +<p>It was not of the slightest use trying to fence with the difficulty, so +Esther grappled it.</p> + +<p>"I do not know, sir," she answered; thinking she might as well tell a +sufficient falsehood when she was about it.</p> + +<p>"That is not the truth," remarked Mr. Forde.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p><p> "And if I did know where she was, sir," continued Esther, "I should not +give her address to you or any one else without her permission."</p> + +<p>"You are all a pack of thieves and swindlers together," observed Mr. +Forde; including, with a comprehensive glance, Meadows and the two men +and Esther, in the statement levelled against the Mortomley +establishment; "and I don't know that I ought not to give you all in +charge for conspiracy. I will send for a policeman, and see if he cannot +induce some of you to find your tongues."</p> + +<p>"I wish you would hold yours for a while," interposed Kleinwort. "Fact +is, my good peoples, we want to see that dear, distressed Mrs. +Mortomley, and do much good to her and that poor invalid husband, and +after a day or two it will be too late by far. You come with me," he +added, addressing Turner; "you, I see, have brains and can understand; +let me talk with you."</p> + +<p>And so he and Turner walked into the conservatory.</p> + +<p>"I will give you one—two—dree—foar—five gold pounds, if you get me +the place where to find our little lady," he remarked.</p> + +<p>But Turner shook his head.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p> +<p>"I can't get it for you," he said.</p> + +<p>"But that maid so nice knows where she is. You worm it out of her. You +extract that knowledge."</p> + +<p>"No, sir," answered Turner. "I will not. I am not aware she has the +slightest idea where her mistress is; but if she has, I am not going to +pump her to please you. Put up your money, sir. God knows I have always +thought badly enough of our calling, but I think it respectable in +comparison to the callings I have seen followed by rich people since I +came here; and badly as I want five pounds, if I could take it to play +the spy on a lady like Mrs. Mortomley, I ought to be shot—that is what +ought to be done with me; and I have no more to say."</p> + +<p>"What can these beastly English brutes see in that Mrs. Mortomley to +make them loyal so senselessly," considered Mr. Kleinwort. "She has not +golden hair like mine dear wife, nor eyes so blue; nor presence so +imposing; nor that red and white so lovely; neither is she +house-mistress so clever; nor big brains as have <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>some women. All she +seems to be owned of is a sharp tongue and a big temper. But these Bulls +are so stupid, they like to be goaded; they need not repose at home, as +do we whose heads know no rest abroad."</p> + +<p>For above an hour the pair remained at Homewood, thinking what could be +done, but every one about the place they found either senselessly honest +or stupid beyond belief; and at last, wearied and angry, Mr. Forde +returned to the kitchen, and addressing Esther, remarked, "I suppose if +I leave a note here, Mrs. Mortomley will have it?"</p> + +<p>Then answered Esther demurely, "I'm sure I don't know, sir; you had +better ask Mr. Meadows."</p> + +<p>"What the —— has Mr. Meadows to do with the matter," inquired Mr. Forde.</p> + +<p>"Only, sir, that he sends all my mistress' letters to Mr. Swanland," +explained Esther, delighted at a chance of at last airing that +grievance.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p><p> "What does she mean?" inquired Mr. Forde, turning to Meadows.</p> + +<p>"Nothing, sir, only that Mr. Swanland, as trustee, of course opens <i>all</i> +letters."</p> + +<p>Whereupon Mr. Forde made some remarks about Mr. Swanland, which, though +a true chronicler, I must refrain from setting forth in print.</p> + +<p>"I should think, sir," suggested Esther, when the storm had blown over a +little, "that, if you sent a note either to Mr. Leigh or to Mrs. Werner, +my mistress would have it. She is quite certain to send her address to +them."</p> + +<p>"Look here, my girl," said Mr. Forde, "I will give the note to you, and +trust to chance. If Mrs. Mortomley has not given her address to you, +which I believe she has, she will within twenty-four hours. Give me pen, +ink, and paper."</p> + +<p>And though letter-writing was against all Mr. Forde's principles, he +thereupon sat down and wrote a note to Mrs. Mortomley, stating with what +regret he had heard of her consulting a solicitor, and asking for an +interview which he had no doubt would prove of ultimate <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>advantage to +all concerned, "including Mr. Mortomley himself."</p> + +<p>When he had finished, he laid the envelope and a florin on the table and +summoned Esther.</p> + +<p>"That is the letter," he remarked.</p> + +<p>She took the letter and pushed aside the florin.</p> + +<p>"My mistress left me enough money, thank you, sir," she said; "and I +would rather not take any more from any one."</p> + +<p>Mr. Kleinwort shrugged his shoulders as she retreated, and his friend +pocketed the florin.</p> + +<p>"Asherill had reason," remarked the German.</p> + +<p>"What reason, and for what?" asked Mr. Forde.</p> + +<p>"He would do nothing with those people," was the reply; "and, my faith, +before you have finished, I think it may come to pass you shall wish you +had let them choose their own lawyer, their own trustee, and liquidated +their own estate for their own selves."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p><p> "But you yourself advised—" began Mr. Forde.</p> + +<p>"Advised on your story which you swore was true. You said Mortomley was +shamming sick; that the nephew was a rogue and fool combined; that the +little woman had her own fortune secure; that besides, they had made one +great <i>coup</i>, and put away money beyond count. Ah! bah! you great, +stupid head—these two, man and wife, have been as senselessly honest as +foolish, as even I, looking around, using my eyes, using my ears, can +see, and you had better have treated them as such. Now I have said my +say, now do as you like for the future."</p> + +<p>"You are a clever fellow, Kleinwort, but you do not understand England +or English people."</p> + +<p>"That may be well," agreed Mr. Kleinwort, with a face like a judge, all +the time he was laughing to himself at the innocence of his companion. +As for Mr. Forde, what he liked to do in the future was this.</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Mortomley received his letter she sent it to Mr. Leigh, +requesting him to attend to it; and although the lawyer considered <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>it a +somewhat curious and involved epistle, he repaired forthwith to St. +Vedast Wharf.</p> + +<p>Mr. Forde was within and visible.</p> + +<p>"I have called," said Mr. Leigh, after the first ordinary courtesies had +been exchanged, "to speak about a letter you sent to Mrs. Mortomley a +few days ago."</p> + +<p>Mr. Forde rose and put his hands in his pockets. "You will not speak to +me about it, my good sir; depend upon that," he observed.</p> + +<p>"I think you must have misunderstood me," ventured Mr. Leigh in +amazement.</p> + +<p>"No, sir, I have not," was the reply. "I wrote a friendly letter to Mrs. +Mortomley, and instead of coming to me herself she sends a lawyer. I +will have nothing to do with you, sir. There is the door; be kind +enough, as you came through it, to go out through it."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," agreed Mr. Leigh, "but—"</p> + +<p>"Leave the room, sir," roared Mr. Forde. "Will you go out of the +premises peaceably, or must I put you out?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Forde," remarked the lawyer, "you <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>must be mad or drunk. In either +case I can have no wish to remain in your company. Good morning."</p> + +<p>"Leave the room, sir," repeated Mr. Forde. He was one of those men who +think some charm lies in shouting out a certain form of words so long as +any one can be found to listen to it.</p> + +<p>"Good morning," said Mr. Leigh again in reply, and he left St. Vedast +Wharf boiling over with rage.</p> + +<p>As he proceeded up the lane he met a man with whom he had some +acquaintance—a man recently elected one of the directors of the General +Chemical Company, Limited.</p> + +<p>"Why, Leigh," said this gentleman, "where are you coming from?"</p> + +<p>"I am coming from being ordered off your premises by your manager," +replied Mr. Leigh, still white with passion.</p> + +<p>"My dear fellow, impossible—"</p> + +<p>"Not merely possible, but true," was the answer. "I have a client of the +name of Mortomley, who, some years ago, became <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>acquainted with your +firm, and who has never done a day's good since. He is now in +liquidation, and Mr. Forde wrote a note to Mrs. Mortomley, which I can +show you if you are at all interested in so small an affair, wanting to +see her. She did not want to see him, and so sent his communication on +to me; but when I went to speak to him he flamed out on me as if I had +been a pickpocket, ordered me off the premises, and behaved, as I told +him, as if he were either mad or drunk."</p> + +<p>"Humph!" said the new director. Mr. Forde had within the previous +half-hour dealt himself a worse card than had ever before lain in his +hand. "If you want an apology, Leigh, the idiot shall send you +one—but—"</p> + +<p>"Apology!" repeated the lawyer, "do you suppose I would accept one if +the maniac sent it; but look to yourself, Agnew. There is something +awfully rotten about your company, or I am much mistaken."</p> + +<p>"I quite agree with you," was the reply; and the pair parted company; +but instead of entering St. Vedast Wharf, Mr. Agnew turned <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>along a +cross lane, and thought Mr. Forde over quietly and at his leisure.</p> + +<p>When he had thought him over he retraced his steps, and entered the +offices, where Mr. Forde greeted him as though he had never spoken an +insolent or unkind word to any one.</p> + +<p>"Fine morning, sir," he declared. It was a curious fact that the moment +the Mortomleys left Homewood the rain ceased.</p> + +<p>"Yes, very fine," Mr. Agnew agreed, walking to the window. He was the +most silent person Mr. Forde had ever encountered. He wore his hair +parted down the middle, he used scent, his hands were very small and +white, his clothes came from a West-end tailor, and he had married the +daughter of some country magnate. Altogether, every one liked him at the +board, because he did not interfere, because he was a gentleman, and +because, as one of his fellow-directors said,</p> + +<p>"He is a <span class="smcap">Hass</span>. If you want my opinion of him, that's what he is—a +<span class="smcap">Hass</span>."</p> + +<p>And so nobody feared and no one cultivated him, and he moaned about the +premises at <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>various hours, asking unconnected questions, looking at the +books in a desultory sort of way, tolerated at the wharf as a simpleton +might have been, and seeing much more than any one gave him credit for.</p> + +<p>One of the questions he asked Mr. Forde quietly and in a corner on that +especial day related to the estate Mr. Swanland was liquidating.</p> + +<p>"About Mortomley now," he said confidentially.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to tell you, sir, I have been entirely deceived in that +blackguard," answered Mr. Forde. "I trusted him as I would my own +brother, and he has run away with I should be sorry to say what amount +of money; but we shall catch him yet I hope," added Mr. Forde; "and +Swanland says there will be a capital dividend. But one does not know +who is honest, one does not, indeed. I shall never advise giving another +man time."</p> + +<p>"I really do not think I should were I you," said Mr. Agnew. "It makes +matters unpleasant if things go wrong."</p> + +<p>"Aye, that it does," said Mr. Forde, "though <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>that would not matter much +if all my directors were such Zanies as you," he added mentally.</p> + +<p>For it was a curious fact that Mr. Forde conscientiously believed if he +could only be rid of the interference of his directors for a month, or +obtain an entirely new set whom he could direct as he pleased, fashioned +perhaps upon the model of Mr. Agnew, he should be able to make such play +with the resources of the Chemical Company, that he might raise it to +the pinnacle of commercial success.</p> + +<p>Beyond keeping his situation he had really very little good for himself, +notwithstanding his manœuvring, notwithstanding the risks he had run, +the almost maddening anxieties in which he had managed to entangle +himself.</p> + +<p>Heaven knows the game had not been worth the candle, but then, when a +man begins a game, he cannot tell the end; and when the game is ended, +it is too late to fret about the cost.</p> + +<p>If ever an essentially round person had the misfortune to be placed in a +square hole, that person was Mr. Forde; and not all his loud talk and +vehement self-exertion could fill the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>vacant corners or give him any +real sense of security in his position.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, to that position he held on as a man might cling to the +last to a sinking vessel.</p> + +<p>So long as he could keep his head above water at St. Vedast Wharf, there +was hope that some friendly ship might rescue and bear him off to +safety.</p> + +<p>"You wait," said Kleinwort to him, when they were discussing the +pig-headedness of the directors and the general and disgusting +ingratitude of small customers, who would keep failing, and thus drew +attention to those accounts which were of regal magnitude. "You wait; do +not inquiet yourself more than you can avoid. I have one idea that we +should be able to do much good together. Once I make a great <i>coup</i> that +is in mine head, then we shall see much. Amongst more if Bertrand +Kleinwort cannot put a fortune in the way of his friend."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Kleinwort," replied Mr. Forde gratefully. "I know I can +trust <i>you</i>." </p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p> + +<p>Which showed an amount of faith difficult to conceive of any one +possessing in the sceptical nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>But Mr. Forde had an enormous capacity for believing in things he +desired should come to pass.</p> + +<p>And this was really a great pity.</p> + +<p class="center">END OF VOL. II.</p> + + +<p class="center"><small>PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO.,<br /> +LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.</small></p> + +<div class="notebox"> +<p><b>Transcriber's Note:</b> Minor changes have been made to spelling and +punctuation. For example, the word hold was changed to holding and +neighbourood to neighbourhood.</p></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mortomley's Estate, Vol. II (of 3), by +Charlotte Elizabeth Lawson Cowan Riddell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORTOMLEY'S ESTATE, VOL. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mortomley's Estate, Vol. II (of 3) + A Novel + +Author: Charlotte Elizabeth Lawson Cowan Riddell + +Release Date: April 28, 2012 [EBook #39552] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORTOMLEY'S ESTATE, VOL. II (OF 3) *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Sue Fleming and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + MORTOMLEY'S ESTATE. + + A Novel. + + BY + + MRS. RIDDELL, + + AUTHOR OF + "GEORGE GEITH," "TOO MUCH ALONE," "HOME, SWEET HOME," + "THE EARL'S PROMISE," ETC. ETC. + + _IN THREE VOLUMES._ + + VOL. II. + + LONDON: + TINSLEY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND. + 1874. + + _All rights of Translation and Reproduction are Reserved_. + + + + PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO., + LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. + + + + TO + + Emma Martin, + + OF + + WADESMILL, HERTS, + + THIS STORY IS DEDICATED, + + AS A TOKEN OF THE AUTHOR'S RESPECT AND AFFECTION. + + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + CHAP. PAGE + + I. MR. FORDE AT HOMEWOOD 1 + + II. KLEINWORT AND CO. IN CONSULTATION 18 + + III. MR. DEAN AND HIS FUTURE RELATIVES 50 + + IV. PREVISION 70 + + V. MR. DEAN GLORIFIES HIMSELF 85 + + VI. MR. GIBBONS' OPINION ON THE STATE OF AFFAIRS 107 + + VII. STRAWS 123 + + VIII. MR. SWANLAND STIRS HIS TEA 147 + + IX. IN THE 'TIMES' 169 + + X. MR. SWANLAND WISHES TO BE INFORMED 186 + + XI. MRS. MORTOMLEY'S FORTUNE 208 + + XII. LEAVING HOMEWOOD 223 + + XIII. DOLLY WRITES A LETTER 251 + + XIV. THE BEGINNING OF A NEW LIFE 277 + + XV. MR. FORDE MAKES A MISTAKE 292 + + + + + MORTOMLEY'S ESTATE. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + MR. FORDE AT HOMEWOOD. + + +Said Mrs. Mortomley to Lenore, + +"Run away, love, I do not want you here. I am busy." + +"Shall I take her?" asked Rupert, seeing a little trouble in the child's +eyes, a pucker about the corners of her mouth. + +"Thank you, yes," answered Dolly; and so, without leave-taking of any +kind, the little girl and Rupert departed through one of the French +windows already mentioned. + +"Should you like to go to the Forest with me?" he asked, when they +turned the gable of the house and were sauntering across the side lawn +where the great walnut-tree, which was the talk of all that part of the +country, grew. + +As they walked under the spreading branches, Rupert looked up and +sighed. He had a prevision that no Mortomley for ever should eat of the +fruit again. + +There is an instinct which is as far beyond knowledge as omnipresence is +beyond sight, and from the moment Mortomley succumbed to Mr. Forde, and +adopted his tactics, Rupert felt his uncle's days of prosperity were at +an end. + +Personally, he, Rupert Halling, could do no more good for any one by +intermeddling in his uncle's affairs. + +And it was quite time he considered his own more fully, even than had +been the case latterly. + +In his selfishness, however, he was good-natured, and offered to allow +Lenore to accompany him, while he pursued his meditations and perfected +his plans; at which offer Lenore, who had latterly been somewhat +neglected by every one about the house, delightedly clapped her hands +and shouted for joy. + +There had been a time when Mrs. Mortomley would have dreaded taking upon +herself the responsibility of an interview with Messrs. Forde and +Kleinwort. But that dread was over now. + +She was in the middle of the battle, and the Gerace nature knew no +faltering when the trumpet sounded, and every man (or in default of man, +woman) was called to do his best. + +After Lenore's departure there ensued a moment's silence. + +Mr. Forde was so lost in astonishment at the audacity of the whole +family that he lacked power to give expression to his feelings. + +Mr. Kleinwort, having spoken, was thinking what he should say next, and +Mrs. Mortomley was struggling between her repulsion against the man and +her desire to offer some apology for a rudeness which had been as +involuntary as irresistible. + +"I beg you to pardon my incivility," she began at last, bringing out her +words with a slow reluctance which was almost perceptible. "Trouble does +not tend to increase politeness." + +"That is indeed true," agreed Mr. Kleinwort, "but you must remember, +madam, other people also are troubled with your troubles." + +"What is the use of talking in that way," interrupted Mr. Forde. "Do you +suppose they care for anything or person but themselves? Do you imagine +if Mr. Mortomley had the smallest consideration for us, he would be laid +up at such a time as this?" + +"Do you think he is not really ill, then?" inquired Mrs. Mortomley. + +"I neither know nor care what he is," was the answer. "It is enough for +us to be told we cannot see him,--and he will find it more than enough +for him,--and you can tell him with my compliments that I say so." + +"Yes, bankruptcy is not all pleasure," remarked Mr. Kleinwort with a +solemn shake of his round head. + +"At least it must be freedom," suggested Dolly. + +"You think so?" said Mr. Forde with a nasty laugh. "They'll know more +about that in six months' time. Eh! Kleinwort?" + +"Most like," agreed the German. "No, madame, a man had better by much +be dead than bankrupt. I, Kleinwort, tell you no lie. You do not +understand; how should you? Mr. Mortomley does not understand neither; +how should he? You talk to him. You say, it is best we should use our +two brains to avoid so great disgrace; you think over all the good +friends who you own; you see what money can be found. That will be +better than bankruptcy; that word so ugly, bankruptcy--bad--bad." + +"Let us go into the works, Kleinwort," suggested Mr. Forde at this +juncture, and he walked out into the garden followed by his friend. + +"I will fetch the key," said Mrs. Mortomley, and having done so, she +would have given it to them, but Mr. Forde asked, + +"Is there no person who can go with us?" + +"I--I will go with you myself," she hesitated, not liking to confess +Rupert was not about the grounds, which fact she had learned during her +absence from the room; "I thought perhaps you wished to be alone." + + +Up the laurel walk they paced, Mr. Kleinwort going into ecstasies over +the flowers; Mr. Forde muttering, "Pretty penny it must cost to keep up +this place;" while the scent of heliotrope and late mignonette pervading +the air, made Dolly feel faint and sick as did the very peace and beauty +of the scene. + +"Where are all the men?" asked Mr. Forde, as he beheld the deserted +buildings. + +"They have gone for the evening," Mrs. Mortomley answered. "Excepting at +very busy times, they never work later than half-past five." + +"Nice management!" commented Mr. Forde. + +"I believe that is the usual hour in most factories," she ventured. + +He did not contradict her, but contented himself with shaking his head +as though he would imply that it was useless further to comment on the +bad management of Homewood, and walked about the premises, peering into +this vat and that cask, as if he expected to come suddenly upon a mine +of silver, or a heap of gold dust. + +Anything funnier to an uninterested spectator than Mr. Forde looking +about the colour works, to see what Mortomley had done with his money, +could not possibly be conceived; but, then, there chanced to be no +uninterested spectator,--not even Messrs Lang and Hankins, who happened +to be making up some goods accounts in a little sentry-box of an office +that stood near the outer gates. + +"Who are they?" asked Hankins of his companion, who, while thrusting his +arms into his coat which he had thrown off for greater convenience +during his arithmetical calculations, answered, + +"One of them, the biggest, is Forde. Let me get away before they see us! +he asks as many questions as an Old Bailey lawyer and about as civilly, +and I am afraid his being here means no good to our governor!" + +"Oh! that's the chap, is it?" replied Mr. Hankins. "Well, he may ask me +as many questions as he likes;" and as one who smelleth the battle afar +off, Mr. Hankins stepped out of his sentry-box, and walked in a +_debonnaire_ manner across the yard to meet the visitors. + +"Who was that went out just now?" inquired Mr. Forde. + +"Our manager, sir." + +"Fetch him back. I want him." + +Mr. Hankins went rapidly enough to the outer gate, and passed into the +road, where he saw Lang turning a not remote corner. + +Hearing the gate slam, Lang looked round and would have paused, but +Hankins made him a sign to proceed. Then Hankins, having hurried to the +corner, took up a position which commanded a good view of his friend's +retreating figure; and it was only when Lang was out of sight that he +retraced his steps to the door where, as he expected, Mr. Forde was +waiting for him. + +"I couldn't overtake him, sir," he said, panting a little as if he had +made mighty efforts to do so. + +"Humph!" exclaimed Mr. Forde; "I'll be bound I could have overtaken +him." + +"I don't think you could, sir." + +"And who asked you to think, pray?" inquired Mr. Forde. + +"No one, sir. I beg your pardon; I won't do it again." + +Mr. Forde looked at the man to see if he was making game of him, but +there was not a suspicion of a smile on Mr. Hankins' self-sufficient +face. + +"And who are you, sir?" inquired Mr. Forde, in the tone of a man who +meant, "Now don't try to trifle with me or it will be the worse for +you." + +"Oh! I am foreman here," answered Mr. Hankins. + +When he repeated this conversation afterwards, which he did many and +many a time to admiring and appreciative audiences, he stated that when +Mr. Forde began to "sir" him, he said to himself, "If you are going to +get up it's time I got down, as the Irishman said when his pony got his +foot in the stirrup." + +"This seems a remarkably well-conducted business," observed Mr. Forde +with a sneer. + +"Well, I don't think it is what it once was," admitted Mr. Hankins with +a touching modesty. "We do what we can, but since the governor's health +has taken to failing, I am free to confess our colours ain't what they +used to be." + +And Mr. Hankins picked up a leaf and began to chew the stalk in a manner +calculated to inspire confidence in his companion's bosom. + +"Your colours are not what they used to be, then?" remarked Mr. Forde, +imagining he was leading the man on. + +"No, they ain't, sir. Not a day passes but we have a complaint or +returns or a deuce of a row about the change in quality. And things were +never like that when the governor was at his best. Ay, it was a bad day +for Homewood when he quitted his old connection and took up with new +people." + +Now Mr. Forde believed this remark referred to Mr. Mortomley's new +customers, and Mr. Kleinwort having by this time approached the pair, +drew by a look his attention to the conversation. + +"You don't think the new people so good as the old, then," he said, +italicizing the observation for Mr. Kleinwort's benefit with a wink. + + +"I can't say for the 'people,'" answered Mr. Hankins. "It's the goods +I'm speaking about. We never used to have our materials from any but +tip-top houses, Marshalls, Humphries, and the like, but of late the +governor has dealt at some place in Thames Street, and of all the rot +that ever I saw theirs is the worst. I have often told the governor he +ought not to ask any man to take in the rubbish, but somehow or another +he ain't what he used to be, and there is no use in talking sense to +him." + +With a very red face Mr. Forde turned and walked through the factory all +by himself, while Kleinwort, who enjoyed and appreciated the position as +only a foreigner could, continued to discourse with Mr. Hankins, asking +him about the value of the stock, the cost of the plant, whether the +trade could not be extended almost indefinitely, whether he was aware of +the nature of Mr. Mortomley's illness and so forth, until Mr. Forde, who +soon grew weary of his fruitless search after the concealed treasure, +shouted in his most strident tones, + +"What is the good of talking to that fool, Kleinwort? Let us be getting +back again." + +And he strode through the postern door into the laurel walk without +waiting for Mrs. Mortomley, who stood leaning against a desk in the +office as they passed through. + +"I will follow you in a moment," she said to Mr. Kleinwort, who, all +smiles and politeness, made way hat in hand for her to precede him; +then, as the foreigner passed out through one of the arches into the +pleasant, peaceful-looking garden, she turned to Hankins, and saying, +"Get me some water--quick," fell back in a faint so suddenly that the +man had barely time to prevent her dropping to the floor. + +"By jingo, she's as light as a feather!" exclaimed Mr. Hankins, and the +remark as he uttered it almost attained the dignity of an affidavit. + +As it happened there stood on the desk a water-bath used for copying +letters. The contents of this sprinkled not too carefully over Dolly, +brought her back to consciousness more rapidly than might have been +expected, but she could not stand alone for a minute or so, during +which time she supported herself by clinging to the office stool. + +"Are you better, ma'am?" asked Hankins anxiously. He had beheld his own +wife, when he or worldly affairs did not do according to her mind, taken +with a "turn;" but he had never seen a woman's face look like Mrs. +Mortomley's before. + +"Yes, yes, thank you, I am well," she said. "And if you believe me," +continued Mr. Hankins, addressing a select assemblage of his mates, "she +walked straight out of that office and across the court like a man +blind, it is true, but still straight with a sort of run, and shut the +door after her, and locked it; and that a woman, who looked like a +corpse, and was as near being one as she'll ever be, till she's laid in +her coffin. I wish I had pitched it heavier into Forde. I would if I had +'ave known she was going to turn up in that way." + +Meantime, Mr. Forde was back in the drawing-room pishing and pshawing at +the furniture and effects, and Mr. Kleinwort was walking about the lawn +feeling, spite of his anxiety, almost a childish pleasure in treading +the velvet turf, in looking at the flowers which were still blooming +luxuriantly. + +To him came Mrs. Mortomley. + +"Ah! dear madame," he said, "this thing must not be; such a place, such +a plant, such a business. You think and see what can be done to prevent +so great misfortune. You have but to tell Bertram Kleinwort what to do, +and he will strive his best to fulfil." + +It might have had its effect once, but Dolly, like her husband, was now +too ill to temporize. + +"This must end," she said, "for good or for evil; I say we can strive no +more. We are tired--so tired of pouring water into a sieve." + +"You will not like bankruptcy," he answered. + +"We must take our chance," she said, and then they re-entered the house. + +"Had not we better see those men," asked Mr. Forde of his friend. + +"Well, yes," agreed Mr. Kleinwort. + + +"Shall I tell them to come to you," asked Mrs. Mortomley, but Mr. Forde +put her aside. + +"I will go and find them myself," he answered, evidently under the +impression they were apocryphal creatures conjured up for the occasion. + +Mrs. Mortomley sat down again. For five minutes--five blessed minutes +she imagined Messrs. Forde and Kleinwort were going to pay out the men, +and rid Homewood of their presence. Then romance gave way to reality, +and she heard Mr. Kleinwort ask, + +"Well, what is your say now?" + +"Stop," answered Mr. Forde, drawing on his gloves. + +"You say that?" + +"Yes, but," turning to Mrs. Mortomley, "your lawyer must not take the +order out; ours shall. There is no objection, I suppose?" + +"I suppose not," she answered. + +"If you leave the matter with us, we will not oppose," he observed. + +"That will be a great relief to my husband," she said. "He did not think +any one else would." + +"Well, well, we shall not, I am sure," was the unlooked-for reply. "You +shall hear from me to-morrow." + +"Thank you," was Dolly's humble answer. + +"Good day. I hope we shall all have better times hereafter," and he held +out his hand. + +"Good day, madame," added Kleinwort, dropping a little behind. "Your +dear husband must make health, and, you madame, I shall trust ere long +time, to see red and not white. You must not mind Forde," he said, +almost in a whisper. "He is rough, he is, that is why I comed; but +good--so good when you get under his crust." + +Mrs. Mortomley put her cold hand in Kleinwort's as she had put it into +that of Forde, and said good-bye to the one man as she had said it to +the other, with a wintry smile. + +So they parted. Never--for ever did she see either of the two again. + +Meantime, they drove back to London together in silence--silence broken +only once. + +"What are you doing, Kleinwort; why don't you speak?" asked Mr. Forde. + +"I am thinking--thinking, my friend," was the reply. + +"Then I wish to Heaven you would not think," said the unfortunate +manager. "It is deucedly unpleasant, you know." + +"You are so what you call droll," observed Mr. Kleinwort with cheerful +calmness. + +An Englishman must be artificially iced before he can ever hope to +attain to a foreigner's degree of coolness. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + KLEINWORT AND CO. IN CONSULTATION. + + +Drowning men catch at straws. It is not the fault of the straws that +they fail to save, and assuredly it is not the fault of the drowning men +that they carry the straws to destruction with them. + +The General Chemical Company on that Friday evening when Mr. Kleinwort +was asked to bring his persuasive powers to bear on the recusant family +at Homewood, chanced to be in precisely the state of a drowning man +making frantic clutches at safety, and Mr. Forde's worst enemy might +have pitied him had he understood all Mr. Mortomley's "going" meant to +the manager of St. Vedast Wharf. + +He had driven out to Homewood vowing that Mortomley, willing or +unwilling, should not stop, and it was only when he found affairs had +passed beyond his control, that he began to think whether there was no +way out of the difficulty. + +Like an inspiration the idea of keeping the whole thing quiet, of +hoodwinking his directors, and of holding the ball still at his feet, +occurred to him. + +He had to do with fools, and he humoured them according to their folly, +and indeed the notion of suggesting the substitution of the Company's +solicitor for the solicitor of Mr. Mortomley amounted almost to a stroke +of genius. + +To Kleinwort there was a certain humour in the idea of first gibbeting a +man as a rogue, and then treating him as a simpleton. It was a feat the +German performed mentally every day, but then he kept the affair secret +between himself and his brains. He did not possess the frankness of that +"so droll Forde," and the tactics of his friend tickled him extremely. + +And yet, truth to say, Mrs. Mortomley was not so supreme an idiot as +the autocrat of St. Vedast's Wharf imagined. + +She had her misgivings, which Rupert pooh-poohed, declaring that peace +was well purchased at so small a price, and that for such a purpose one +lawyer was quite as good as another. + +"Still, I should like to speak to Archie's solicitor about it," she +persisted. + +"That is what you cannot do, for he is out of town," answered the young +man; "and very fortunate that he is, for if you went to him and he went +to Forde there would only be another row, and the whole affair perhaps +knocked on the head again." + +"I thought no one could prevent Archie petitioning," she remarked. + +"Neither can any one," was the reply; "but it might be made confoundedly +unpleasant for him after he had petitioned." + +Which all sounded very well, and was possibly very true, but it failed +to satisfy Dolly. + +Sleep had not for many a long month previously been a constant visitor +at Homewood, and whenever Mrs. Mortomley awoke, which she did twenty +times through that night, the vexed question of Mr. Benning's +interposition recurred to her. + +Look at it in whatever light she would, her mind misgave her. If it made +no difference in the end, if it were no advantage to the Chemical +Company, she could not understand the object of so strange a proposal. +Rupert had indeed explained the matter by saying, "Forde wanted the +thing kept quiet;" but then why should the thing be kept quiet. In whose +interests and for whose benefit was it that such secrecy had to be +maintained. Pestered as her husband had been with demands for money, +with writs, and with sheriff's officers and their men, it seemed to Mrs. +Mortomley that all the world must already be acquainted with the +position of their affairs. + +"What can the object be they have in view?" she asked over and over +again whilst she lay thinking--thinking through the long dark hours. +"How I wish Mr. Leigh were in town?" And then all at once she bethought +her that within a walk of Homewood there resided a gentleman with whose +family she had some slight acquaintance, and who chanced himself to be a +solicitor. + +This fact had been stamped on Dolly's mind by hearing of the unearthly +hours at which even in the dead of winter he was in the habit of +breakfasting so as to admit of his reaching his offices, situated +somewhere at the west, by nine o'clock. + +"I will ask him, and be guided by his reply," she decided, and +accordingly she rose at cock-crow and, dressing herself in all haste, +went across the fields, along the lanes to that sweet residence the +lawyer prized so much, and of which he saw so little. + +She met him at his own gate, and asked permission to walk a little way +with him towards the station. "She wanted to ask only one question," she +said, "but it was necessary to preface that by a little explanation." + +In as few words as sufficed for the purpose--and Heaven knows very few +suffice to tell a man is ruined--Mrs. Mortomley laid the state of the +case before her acquaintance. + +"Will it make any difference to my husband if Mr. Benning applies to the +Bankruptcy Court instead of Mr. Leigh?" she finished by inquiring. + +"None whatever," was the unhesitating reply. + +"You are certain?" she persisted. + +"Yes; I cannot see why it should alter his position or injure him in the +slightest degree." + +"Does it not strike you as a very extraordinary proposition?" + +"Well, yes," he agreed, "but no doubt it will be desirable for Mr. +Mortomley to raise no obstacle against their wishes. It is always +advantageous for a man to have a large creditor on his side." + +"Mr. Halling says they want to keep the affair quiet," she went on. "Why +should they want that, and how should employing their own solicitor +enable them to do it?" + +"I can only conjecture," was the answer, "that they desire the extent of +their own loss not to be made public, and by employing their own +solicitor they will manage to keep the application out of the papers." + +"I am very, very much obliged to you," she said as they shook hands. + +"Not at all," he replied. "Command me at any time if I can be of service +to you," and they parted; but she had not retraced a dozen steps before +he ran after her and said, + +"I think, Mrs. Mortomley, were I in your place I should see Mr. Leigh +whenever he returns to town." + +Which in all human probability Mrs. Mortomley would have done without +his recommendation. Nevertheless, the hint was kindly meant, as his +previous opinion, spoken by an utterly honourable man, had been honestly +given. + +Upon the whole, however, I am not quite sure, seeing what one sees, +whether honourable men and thoroughly conscientious lawyers are exactly +the fittest people to help and counsel those who have reached the crises +of their lives. + +Through the years to come, at all events, +Dolly carried a certain agonised memory of that morning walk, and the +consequences her adviser's words ensured to her and hers. + +It was a fine September morning, the last fine morning that month held +in the especial year to which I refer. Had she been able to shake an +instinctive dread off her mind, she would, escaping for the hour from +the sight of sickness and the haunting feeling of men in possession, +have thoroughly enjoyed the calm landscape, the long stretches of +country across which her eyes, wearied though they were with night +watching, could roam freely. To right and to left lay the flat rich +Essex lands on which cattle were browsing peacefully, whilst at no great +distance were patches and pieces of woodland left still to tell Epping +once was more than a near neighbour to all the hamlets that formerly +nestled under its leafy shadows, and which are now becoming part and +parcel of the Great Babylon itself. In the distance she beheld dark +masses of foliage standing out darkly against the sky, showing that +there the monarchs of the forest still held the axe and the lords of the +soil at defiance, whilst ever and anon the light, rapid feet tripping +along field-paths, bordered by grass still wet and heavy with dew, +passed close by some stately park over which the silence and peace of +riches seemed brooding. + +But as matters stood, the fresh morning air and the silence and the +peace conferred upon other people by the riches possessed by them +brought little balm to Dolly. + +She had been told there was but one course for her to pursue, and she +had pursued it. She had been told it would lead to such comfort as was +now an utter stranger at Homewood, but she did not feel satisfied on +that point. + +A woman's instincts are always keener than her reason, and by instinct +Dolly vaguely comprehended there were dangers and difficulties ahead. +Sunken rocks and treacherous sandbanks, of which the amateur pilots +who advised the management of the business craft knew nothing. + +And yet she felt any sacrifice which could rid the house of its late, +and present, unwelcome guests would be worth making. In the centre of a +great field she stood still clasping her hands above her head and +breathed a luxurious sigh of relief at the idea of having Homewood to +herself and family once more. + +"Without those dreadful creatures," she said quite aloud, and then she +gave her fancy wing and planned a course of papering, painting, and +white-washing after their departure, as she might have done had fever or +cholera taken up its abode for a time in the house. + +Which was perhaps ungrateful in Mrs. Mortomley, seeing the obnoxious +visitors had tried to respect her feelings in every possible +manner--kept themselves as much out of sight as possible--smoked their +pipes so as to give the smallest amount of annoyance--offered such +assistance as their physical and mental habits of laziness rendered +available when Cook and Jane departed, and said to each other, they had +never seen a "house go on so regular under similar circumstances as +Homewood, nor a lady who took it all so quiet as the mistress of that +establishment." + +And this was true. No one connected with Homewood "took it so quiet" as +Mrs. Mortomley. + +I have a fancy that on those who turn the bravest and brightest face to +misfortune, the evil presence leaves the most permanent marks of its +passage. I think oftentimes while the face wreathes itself with smiles, +the cruel foot-prints are impressing themselves on the heart. + +Whether this be so or not, it is quite certain that although Dolly never +once, never showed through all that weary campaign a sign of the white +feather, the whole thing was to her as the single drop torture. + +It wore in upon her nature, it made a deep rugged channel through her +soul. And she was powerless to act. When Mortomley consented at Mr. +Forde's bidding to "go on" after he himself had decided to stop, when +Dolly consented that Mr. Benning should step into the shoes of their own +solicitor, they virtually threw up their cards and gave the game to +their adversaries. + +Not less did Samson, when he confided to the keeping of a woman the +secret of his strength, dream of the dungeon and the tormentors than did +Mortomley and his wife, when they so blindly surrendered their future, +dream of the misery and poverty in store. + +And yet Dolly had a prevision that evil must ensue. Well, not even the +gift of second sight can avert a man's doom when the hour draws near, +but it may help him to meet it bravely. + +Mrs. Mortomley herself often thought that vague dread and uneasiness +which oppressed her when all things seemed going as they wished, +prepared her in some sort for the future she was called upon to +encounter. + +Could she have been present at an interview which a couple of hours +later took place in Mr. Kleinwort's offices she would have faintly +comprehended how he and his friends wished to liquidate Mortomley's +estate. + +They desired to get the whole matter into their own hands, and "keep it +quiet," but when the pros and cons of how this could be managed came to +be discussed, unforeseen difficulties arose at each stage of the +conversation. + +"You had better be trustee," said Mr. Forde, turning to Henry Werner, +who for reasons best known to himself and Kleinwort and Co., had been +requested to grace the interview. + +"What the devil should I be trustee for?" asked that amiable individual. +"The man does not owe me sixpence." + +"All the better for you," was the reply, whereat all the rest of those +present laughed. At such times laughter does go round, and it certainly +was not unlike the sound of "thorns crackling under a pot." + +"And all the better for us and those others, the rest of the creditors, +because you must be so much disinterested," added Kleinwort, in his +caressing manner, laying a fat and insinuating hand on Mr. Werner's +shoulder. + +Mr. Werner shook it off as if it had been a toad. + +"Don't be a fool, Kleinwort. You know I am not going to be trustee to +any estate in which the General Chemical Company is interested. And if +that Company had no interest in Mortomley, I still should refuse to take +part in the matter. I have known Mrs. Mortomley ever since her +marriage, and I would have nothing to do with anything in which she is +concerned directly or indirectly. Between her and my own wife, and you +and the other creditors, I should lead a nice life. I thank you very +much, but I do not see it at all." + +"That is all very fine," remarked Mr. Forde, "considering it was through +you I knew this Mortomley, and through him we are all let into this +hole." + +"If you happen to have made a mistake about either statement," observed +Mr. Werner, "you can correct it in a few days. I am in no hurry." + +The manager opened his mouth to reply, but thinking better of the matter +shut it again. Whilst Mr. Benning who had been surveying the trio with +an expression of the most impartial distrust, said sharply, + +"Come, gentlemen, defer the settlement of your differences to some more +suitable opportunity. I cannot stay here all day whilst you discuss +extraneous matters. Whom shall we propose for trustee?" + +"Hadn't we better have Nelson," suggested Mr. Forde, with a quick glance +at Mr. Kleinwort. + +"Who is Nelson," asked Mr. Werner. + +"One of our clerks; don't you remember?" answered the manager +deprecatingly. + +"Hadn't you better recommend the nearest crossing-sweeper?" commented +Mr. Werner. "He would do quite as well, and perhaps be considered far +more respectable." + +"You come here, Forde. I know the very person. I want to tell you. Just +not for more than one second;" and with that Mr. Kleinwort, with an +apologetic smile to his other visitors, drew Mr. Forde out of the +office, and whispered a considerable amount of diplomatic advice in his +ear while they stood together on the landing. + +"I cannot think it is a good thing for you to appear as Mortomley's +solicitor in this, Benning," said Mr. Werner when he and that gentleman +were left alone. + +"I do not see any way in which it can be a bad thing for me," was the +calm reply. "Of course I shall keep myself safe." + +"I am sure you will do that so long as you are able," argued Mr. Werner. +"The question is can you keep your employers safe?" + +"I shall do the best in my power, of course, for Mr. Mortomley," +answered Mr. Benning. + +"Because if there should be any bother about the matter hereafter," +continued Mr. Werner, as coolly as if the lawyer had not spoken, "it may +be deuced awkward for the St. Vedast Wharf folks--and--and--some other +people." + +"I do not imagine there will be any bother," said Mr. Benning. + +"There is no help for it if you allow Kleinwort to dictate to you." + +"I do not intend to allow him to dictate to me," was the reply. + +"It was such folly the pair starting off to Homewood yesterday evening +and setting Mrs. Mortomley's mane up at once." + +"I do not attach much importance to that, but still I am surprised at +Kleinwort committing such a mistake; a man who thinks himself so +confoundedly clever, too." + +"He is clever; he is the cleverest man I knew," commented Mr. Werner. + +"I dare say he is," agreed Mr. Benning; "but you remember those who live +longest see most of the game, and some one, I doubt not, will live to +know how many trumps our little friend really holds." + +Mr. Werner laughed--not pleasantly. + +"You try to see the cards of all other men, Benning, but you do not show +your own." + +"I have none to show," was the reply. "A man in my position cannot +afford to play at pitch and toss with fortune. Great gains and great +losses, great risks and great successes I am forced to leave to--well, +say Kleinwort. His name is as good as that of any other man with which +to finish the sentence." + +"And yet to look at his office," began Mr. Werner. + +Mr. Benning had been in it a dozen times before, and knew every article +it contained. Nevertheless, he apparently accepted his companion's +remark as an invitation to have still another glance, and his eyes +wandered slowly and thoughtfully over every object in the room. + +When he had quite finished his scrutiny, he said, + +"You are quite right. To look around his office, Mr. Kleinwort ought +never to have had a transaction with the General Chemical Company, and +if I had any young client in whom I was interested, I should advise him +never to have a transaction with Mr. Kleinwort." + +"Indeed, you are mistaken," remarked Mr. Werner eagerly. "I never meant +to imply anything of the kind." + +"Oh! indeed," replied the lawyer. "Well, it does not signify, but I +thought you did." + +"I never do attempt conversation with any one of these fellows but I +have reason to repent it," Mr. Werner observed thoughtfully to himself, +and there was a considerable amount of truth in the remark. Conversation +in the City, if a man have anything to conceal, is about as safe and +pleasant an exercise as walking through a field set with spring guns. + +Kleinwort's _pour-parler_ kept him safe enough, skirting with pleasant +phrases and apparently foolish devices round and about dangerous ground, +but Werner did not chance to be quite so great a rogue as his friend, +and he certainly regarded life and its successes much more seriously, +though not more earnestly, than the man who was good enough to "make use +of England." + +Upon the whole Mr. Werner felt relieved that before Mr. Benning could +take up his parable again the door opened, and Messrs. Forde and +Kleinwort reappeared, the latter exclaiming, + +"We have got him now; the right man for the right place; Duncombe, you +know Duncombe." + +"I cannot say that I do," answered Mr. Benning, while Henry Werner, with +an impatient "Pshaw," turned on his heel, and walked to the window, +against the panes of which a fine drizzling rain was beginning to beat. + +"It seems to me, sir," began Mr. Forde irritably, "that as you are +unwilling to make any suggestion yourself, you might find some better +employment than objecting to the suggestions of others." + +"That is enough," was the reply. "Manage the affair after your own +lights, and see where they will ultimately land you." + +"Who is Duncombe?" inquired Mr. Benning. + +"A most respectable man; A1, sir," explained Mr. Forde. "The London +representative of Fleck, Handley and Company, whose works are at +Oldbury, Staffordshire." + +"Oh!" said Mr. Benning. He was beginning to recollect something about +Fleck, Handley and Co., and their London representative also. + +"A large firm in a large way," continued Mr. Forde. "They have extensive +transactions with the G. C. C. Limited." + +"Which fact in itself is a proof of respectability and solvency," added +Werner with his bitter tongue. + +"Ah! but they are not accountants," commented Mr. Benning, affecting +unconsciousness of the sneer. "And we must have an accountant, or we +shall meet with no end of difficulty. The position of affairs, as I +understand it, is this: Mr. Mortomley is either unable to go on or else +wishes to stop. The result is the same, let the cause be which it may. +He wishes the affair kept quiet or some of his creditors do. To effect +this object he wishes me to act for him in the matter. Now, if I am to +do so effectually, it is needful for us to have a trustee about whose +_bona fides_ there can be no question. It is not enough for us that a +man is a very honest fellow or useful or expedient. We must have some +one with a known name accustomed to this sort of work. It is perfect +waste of time racking our brains to think which Dick or Tom or Harry +will answer our purpose best. We can have no Dick or Tom or Harry. This +is not a small affair, and the Court will require some responsible man +to take the management of such an estate." + +"There is no estate to manage," interposed Mr. Forde. "The whole thing +has been muddled away, or made away with." + +"If that be your real opinion, the whole thing had better go into +bankruptcy at once," said Mr. Benning. + +"No--no--no--no, not at all; by no means, no," exclaimed Mr. Kleinwort +as the lawyer rose as if intending to depart. "That must not be. I, +Kleinwort, say no. Forde is rash--rash. He knows not what is good or +best. He talks beyond the mark." + +"Come, Forde, reckon up your respectable acquaintances, and tell us the +name of the blackest sheep you know amongst the accountant tribe," +suggested Mr. Werner. "Your experience has been large enough, Heaven +knows." + +"Will you stop jeering or not?" asked Mr. Forde. "Considering Mr. +Mortomley is your bosom friend, I think the way you talk of this matter +scarcely decent." + +"Nay," answered Mr. Werner. "Mortomley has been your bosom friend it +seems to me. Certainly, had he asked my advice a few years ago, we four +would not have had the arrangement of his destiny to-day. And as for +bosom friends," he added in a lower tone, "a businessman has none, and +no friends either for that matter. Such luxuries are not for us." + +"Do, for heaven's sake, let us keep to the matter in hand," exclaimed +Mr. Benning. "Will you name an accountant or shall I?" + +The manager looked at Mr. Kleinwort, and then once again the German led +his, so good friend, out of the room. + +Mr. Benning watched the pair till the door closed behind them, and then +turning to Mr. Werner, said, + +"Will you allow me to ask you one question? How does it happen so astute +a man as you has anything to do with St. Vedast Wharf?" + +"Trade, like poverty, makes one acquainted with strange bedfellows," was +the reply. + +"That is very true; but why are you mixing yourself up with this man +Mortomley?" + +Mr. Werner paused a moment before he answered, and a dull red streak +appeared on each side his face, while he hesitated about his answer. + +Then he looked his interlocutor straight in the eyes and said, + +"Because I want to keep Forde at St. Vedast Wharf for another +twelvemonth." + +Mr. Benning, between his teeth, gave vent to a low but most +unlawyer-like whistle. + +"That's it, is it," he commented. + +"That is it," agreed Mr. Werner. + +"And Kleinwort ditto?" said the lawyer, inquiringly. + +"So far as I know," was the reply. + +Then observed Mr. Benning, + +"I am infinitely obliged by your frankness. I could not see my way +before, but I think I can discern daylight now." + +"It must be through a very dark tunnel then," remarked Mr. Werner +bitterly. + +"We must keep Mortomley's business moving." + +"That is what Kleinwort says, but I confess I do not see how it is to be +done." + +"Where there is a will there is always a way," was the calm rejoinder. +"Well, gentlemen," he added, as Mr. Kleinwort returned leading his +friend with him. "Have you found a suitable man; because if not, I +must." + +"Yes, yes," answered Kleinwort irritably, for he and Mr. Forde had been +arguing a little hotly over the trustee question. "Do you happen to know +one very good man, one true dear Christian who makes long prayers, and +has snow hair hanging loose, and wears a white neckhandkerchief so pure +and faultless--" + +"What is his name?" interrupted Mr. Benning. + +"Asherill," answered Mr. Forde. + +"You mean the old humbug in Salisbury House I suppose," commented Mr. +Benning, after a moment's pause. "Well, I don't know but that he might +serve our purpose as well as any one if he will undertake the business. +But you know, in spite of its sheep's clothing, what a cunning old wolf +it is. He understands it behoves him to be careful, and he is. Give him +a straightforward case, however small, and he is satisfied. + +"He will strip the debtor clean as a whistle, and then sympathize with +the creditors over the depravity of debtors in general, and that +especial sinner of a debtor in particular. But take any estate to him, +no matter how large the liquidation of which _may_ subsequently be +called in question, and he says, even while his mouth is watering for +the _bonne bouche_, + +"'No, no, thank you, my dear kind friend, very much, but I have my +prejudices, foolish no doubt, but insurmountable. Other men have not +those prejudices, and will do your work better--far better. Thank you so +very, very much. Good-bye. God bless you.'" + +It was not in Kleinwort--who always loved hearing one Englishmen +ridicule or anathematize another--to refrain from laughing at the +foregoing sentence which the lawyer delivered with a solemn pomposity +Mr. Asherill himself might have envied, and even Mr. Werner smiled at +the imitation. But Mr. Forde, who could never see a joke unless he +chanced to be easy in his mind, which of late was an event of infrequent +occurrence, looked upon Kleinwort's merriment as unseemly, and telling +him not to be an ass, took up the broken thread of conversation by +remarking, + +"I do not think Asherill will make any objection in this case. In the +first place there is nothing doubtful about the transaction, and in the +second place Mr. Samuel Witney, who is--in religion--a friend of his, +and who has often done him a good turn, happens to be one of our +directors." + +"I should not feel inclined to place much dependence on either fact," +said Mr. Benning. "But as I suppose you understand your own +business--let us try Asherill. I have to attend a meeting of creditors, +and shall not be able to see him to-day; but you," turning to Messrs. +Kleinwort and Werner, "had better do so, and take a note from me at the +same time." + +"I have got my own business to attend to," remarked Mr. Werner. + +"And so have I in most good truth," echoed Kleinwort piteously. + +"Well, attend to your own and Mortomley's also for to-day. After that I +promise you shall be troubled no more about Mortomley or his estate." So +spoke Mr. Benning, and his words recommended themselves to Henry Werner. + +"On that understanding," he said, "I will do what you wish." + +"I must stay here till twelve," pleaded Kleinwort. "After that, any +time, anywhere." + +"I will be here at quarter past twelve;" and having made this +appointment, Mr. Werner bade good morning to the lawyer and the manager, +and ran down the stone stairs leading from Kleinwort's office as if the +plague had been after him. + +"There is nothing more to say I suppose," nervously suggested Mr. Forde +as the lawyer buttoned up his coat, and requested the loan of an +umbrella. + +"We are going to have a nasty day," he remarked. "I will send the +umbrella back directly I get to my place. No. I don't think there is +anything more to say. I understand the position, and hope everything may +go on satisfactorily." + +Mr. Forde buttoned up his coat, walked to the window, looked out at the +sky, which was by this time leaden, and at the rain, which had begun to +come down in good earnest. Then he grasped his umbrella, and after +saying, "I shall wait at the wharf till I see you, Kleinwort," heaved a +weary sigh, and departed likewise. + +"My dear, dear friend, how I should like to keep you waiting there for +me, for ever," soliloquised Kleinwort, in his native tongue, which was a +very cruel speech, inasmuch as if Mr. Forde had any strong belief, it +was a faith in Kleinwort's personal attachment to himself. + +In moments of confidence indeed he had told those far-seeing friends +whose confidence in the German was of that description which objects to +trust a man out of its sight, "I dare say he is a little thief, but I am +quite sure of one thing; he may swindle other people, but he will never +let in ME." A touching proof of the simplicity some persons are able to +retain in spite of their knowledge of the wickedness of their +fellow-creatures. Faith is perhaps the worst commodity with which to set +up in business in the City, since it is so seldom justified by works. + +When Mr. Werner returned to keep his appointment he found Mr. Kleinwort, +his coat off, a huge cigar in his mouth, busily engaged in writing +letters. + +"Just one, two minutes," he said, "then I am yours to command. Sit +down." + +"No; thank you. I will wait for you outside. I wonder what you think I +am made of if you expect me to breathe in this atmosphere." + +And he walked on to the landing, where Kleinwort soon joined him. + +"I must have some brandy," remarked that gentleman. "I am worn out, +exhausted, faint. Look at me," and he held up his hands, which were +shaking, and pointed to his cheeks, which were livid. + +Mr. Werner did look at him, though with little apparent pleasure in the +operation. + +"Have what you want, then," he said. "Can't you get it there?" and he +pointed to a place on the opposite side of the street where bottles were +ranged conspicuously against the window-glass. + +"There! My good Werner, of what are your thoughts made? The spirits +there sold are so bad no water was never no worse." + +"I should not have thought you a judge of the quality of any water +except soda-water," answered Werner grimly. + +"Ah!" was the reply; "but you are English. You have inherited nothing +good, imaginative, poetic, from your father's fatherland." + +"If by that you mean I have no knowledge of the quality of every tap in +the metropolis, you are right, and, what is more, I do not want to have +anything to do with poetry or imagination if either assumes that +particular development." + +"We put all those things on one side for an instant," suggested +Kleinwort, making a sudden dive into a tavern which occupied a +non-conspicuous position in an alley through which they were passing, +leaving Werner standing on the pavement wet as a brook from the torrents +of rain that were at last coming down as if a second deluge had +commenced. + +When Kleinwort reappeared, which he did almost immediately, his cheeks +had resumed their natural hue, and the hand which grasped his umbrella +was steady enough. + +"If I drank as much as you," commented Mr. Werner, "I should go mad." + +"And if I drank as you so little I should go mad," was the answer. "You +have got in your lovely English some vulgar saying about meat and +poison." + +"Yes, and you will have something which is called _delirium tremens_ one +of these days if you do not mind what you are about." + +"Shall I? No, I think not. When the engine has not need to work no +longer, it will be that I lower the steam. Some day, some blessed day, I +shall return to mine own land to there take mine ease." + +"I wish to God you had never left it," muttered Henry Werner, and it was +after the exchange of these amenities that the pair ascended to the +offices of Asherill and Swanland, Salisbury House. + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + MR. DEAN AND HIS FUTURE RELATIVES. + + +It was quite dark by the time Mr. Swanland's clerks reached Homewood on +the rainy Saturday in question. + +In the first place they lost their train by about half a minute, which +was not of much consequence as another started in less than half an hour +afterwards, but Mr. Bailey chose to lose his temper, and exchanged some +pleasant words first with a porter who shut the door in his face, and +afterwards with a burly policeman big enough to have carried the little +clerk off in his arms like a baby. + +The young gentlemen, engaged at a few shillings a week to perform +liquidation drudgery in Messrs. Asherill and Swanland's offices, were +so accustomed to regard the members of their firm as autocrats that they +affected the airs of autocrats themselves when out of the presence +chamber, and were consequently indignant if the outer world, happily +ignorant of the nature of accountants, treated them as if they were very +ordinary mortals indeed. + +Having nothing to do for half an hour save kick their heels in that +dingy, dirty, fusty, comfortless hall which the Great Eastern Railway +Company generously offers for the use of the travellers on its line who +repair to London Street, Mr. Bailey improved the occasion by delivering +a series of orations on the folly of that old sinner Asherill, who +detained them talking humbug till they lost the train, and having eased +his feelings so far, he next proceeded to relieve them further by +anathematizing Mortomley, who chose Saturday of all days in the week, +and that Saturday of all Saturdays in the year, to take up his residence +in Queer Street. + +"I won't stand it," finished Mr. Bailey, while his eyes wandered over +that cheerful expanse of country which greets the traveller who journeys +by train from London to Stratford, as he nears the latter station. "I'll +give them notice on Monday. They could not get on without me. I'd like +to know where they could possibly find a man able to work as I can who +would put up with such treatment. On Monday I will give them a piece of +my mind they won't relish as much as they will their cut of roast beef +to-morrow." + +Which was all very well, but as Mr. Bailey had been in the habit of +making the same statement about once a fortnight upon an average, since +liquidation came into fashion, his companion attached less importance to +it than might otherwise have been the case. + +"What a day it has turned out!" was all the comment he made. + +"Yes, and they are at home safe and snug before this, or on their way to +it. Well, it is of no use talking." + +"I wonder if we shall have far to walk," said the junior, whose name was +Merle. + +"Miles no doubt," answered Mr. Bailey, "and get drenched to the skin. +But what do they care! We are not flesh and blood to them. We are only +pounds shillings and pence." + +Which was indeed a very true remark, although it emanated from Mr. +Bailey. Had he been aware how exactly his words defined his employers' +feelings, he would not perhaps have been so ready to give utterance to +them. + +As matters stood, he grumbled on until they were turned out in the +drenching rain to get from Leytonstone Station to Whip's Cross as best +they could. Green Grove Lane was still leafy, and flowers bloomed gaily +in the railway gardens, and Leytonstone church stood in its graveyard a +picturesque object in the landscape, and there was a great peace about +that quiet country station with its level crossing and air of utter +repose which might have been pleasant to some people. + +But it did not prove agreeable to Mr. Bailey. A soaking rain. An +indefinite goal. An unknown amount of work to be got through! + +Very comprehensively and concisely Mr. Bailey read a short commination +service over Mr. Mortomley and his affairs, whilst he and Merle stood on +the down platform waiting the departure of the train ere crossing the +line. + +He had got his directions from the station master, and they did not +agree with those issued at head-quarters. + +"He should have gone to Snaresbrook. That was the nearest point, but, +however, he could not miss his way. It was straight as an arrow after he +get to the 'Green Man,' still keeping main road to the left." + +Which instructions he followed so implicitly that the pair found +themselves finally at Leyton Green. + +From thence they had to make their way back into the Newmarket Road, and +as that way lay along darksome lanes under the shade of arching trees, +through patches of Epping Forest, while all the time the rain continued +to pour down, steadily and determinedly, it may be imagined how much +Mr. Bailey was enamoured of Mortomley and his estate by the time the two +clerks reached Homewood. + +But once within the portals of that place, circumstances put on a more +cheerful aspect. A bright fire blazed in the old-fashioned hall, +glimpses were caught of well lighted and comfortably furnished rooms. +Rupert, with a rare civility, addressed them with a polite hope that +they were not very wet, and Mrs. Mortomley, after reading Mr. Swanland's +note, sent to inquire if they would not like some tea. + +With which, Mr. Bailey having readily responded in the affirmative, they +were provided presently. Rupert in the meantime having recommended half +a glass of brandy, which Merle gulped down thankfully, and Mr. Bailey +sipped sullenly, angry a whole one had not been advised. + +When the dining-room door was shut, and the pair had made an onslaught +on the cold fowl and ham sent in with tea for their delectation, Merle +remarked, + +"What a stunning place, ain't it!" + +"Ay, it is a snug crib enough," replied the other, who had already +beheld wreck and ruin wrought in much finer abodes. + +"They don't seem a bad sort," observed Merle, who, being young to the +business, still thought a bankrupt might be a gentleman, and who +moreover was not a tip-top swell like Bailey, whose father rented a +house at fifty pounds a year, and only let off the first floor in order +to make the two obstinate ends meet. + +"What do you mean?" inquired Bailey. + +"Why, asking us to have tea and all that," was the innocent answer. + +"Pooh!" replied his companion. "Why, it is all over now. They don't know +it, but the whole place belongs to us, I mean to our governors. The tea +is ours, and the bread and butter and the ham, and not this fowl alone, +but every hen and chicken on the premises. Hand me over the loaf, I am +as hungry as a hunter." + +Had little Mrs. Mortomley understood matters at that moment as she +understood them afterwards, she would, hospitable as was her +disposition, have turned those two nice young clerks out into the +weather, and told them to make up their accounts in the Works or Thames +Street, as they should never enter the house at Homewood so long as she +remained in it. + +But she did not understand, and accordingly after tea the making out of +the liabilities proceeded under Rupert's superintendence, Mrs. +Mortomley's presence being occasionally required when any question +connected with her own department had to be answered. + +"I do not see why these debts should be put down," said Dolly at last. +"Of course, all household liabilities I shall defray out of my own +money." + +"No, you won't," replied Rupert brusquely. "You will want every penny of +your money for yourself, or I am much mistaken." + +At length Mr. Bailey bethought him of asking Rupert about the return +trains, and finding that the last was due in three quarters of an hour, +stated that as it seemed impossible the work could be finished then, he +and Merle would be down at about eight o'clock on Monday morning. + +Having given which promise he went out into the night, followed by his +junior, and Homewood was shortly after shut up, and every member of the +household, tired out with the events of the day, went early to bed, and +woke the next morning with a sense of rest and ease as strange as it +proved transitory. + +In the afternoon Mr. Dean called and asked specially for Mrs. Mortomley, +and when Dolly went down to him, she found that he wished to tell her in +his own formal way that the idea of Miss Halling, his promised wife, the +future mistress of Elm Park remaining in a house where bailiffs were +unhappily located, had troubled and was troubling him exceedingly. Of +course, he felt every sympathy for Mrs. Mortomley in her sad position, +and for Mr. Mortomley in his present unfortunate circumstances, but-- + +"In a word," broke in Dolly, "you want Antonia to leave Homewood and go +to your sister. That is it, is it not, Mr. Dean? Of course I can make +no objection, and when affairs are arranged here she can return to be +married from her uncle's house." + +For a moment Mr. Dean was touched. He saw Dolly believed matters would +be so arranged that Homewood should still belong to Mortomley, and that +she offered hospitality to a woman she cordially disliked on this +supposition. And he thought it rather nice of the little woman, whose +face he could not avoid noticing was very white and pinched, though she +carried the trouble lightly, and, in his opinion, with almost unbecoming +indifference. But Mr. Dean quickly recovered his balance. These people +were paupers. Great heavens! literally paupers, except for the few +thousands left of Mrs. Mortomley's fortune. They might ask him to lend +them money. Presuming upon their relationship to Miss Halling, they +might even expect to be asked to stay at his house--at Elm Park--a +gentleman's mansion, across the threshold of which no bankrupt's foot +had ever passed. At the bare idea of such complications, Mr. Dean turned +hot and cold alternately. + +He had done much for these Mortomley people already. He had broke the +news of the impending catastrophe to Mr. Forde, and after that act of +weakness what might they not expect in the future! + +When Mr. Dean thought of this he felt horrified at the possible +consequences resulting from his extraordinary amiability. Indeed, he +felt so horrified that dismay for a minute or two tied his tongue, and +it was Dolly who at last broke the silence. Leaning back in an +easy-chair, her thin white hands clasped together, her eyes too large +and bright, but still looking happy and restful, she said, "I should +like very much, Mr. Dean, to know where your thoughts are wandering?" + +Mr. Dean, thus aroused, answered with a diplomatic truthfulness which +afterwards amazed himself. + +"I was thinking of you and Mr. Mortomley, and Miss Halling and myself." + +"Yes?" Dolly said inquiringly. There had been a time when she would have +remarked all four were interesting subjects, but on that especial +Sunday she was a different woman from the Mrs. Mortomley of Mr. Dean's +earlier recollection. + +"To a lady possessed of your powers of observation," began Mr. Dean, "I +need scarcely remark that difficulties might arise were Miss Halling to +take up even a temporary abode with my sister, and therefore--" + +"I comprehend what you mean, and I know why you hesitate," said Mrs. +Mortomley, as her visitor paused and cast about how to finish his +sentence, "but I really do not see what can be done. I am afraid," she +added, with a pucker of her forehead, which had latterly grown habitual +when she was troubled or perplexed. "Antonia would not like my Aunt +Celia. My aunt is goodness itself, but a very little eccentric. Still, +if she understood the position--" + +"I hope you do not think me capable of adding to your anxiety at such a +time as this," interposed Mr. Dean pompously. + +All unconsciously Mrs. Mortomley had managed to offend his dignity as +she had never offended it before when she suggested the idea of +quartering the future mistress of Elm Park on a spinster living upon an +extremely limited income in some remote wilds. + +"I should not for a moment entertain the idea of asking any of your +relations or friends to receive the lady whom I hope soon to call my +wife. I have anxiously considered the whole matter, and after mature +deliberation have arrived at the conclusion that Mr. Rupert Halling is +the only relative with whom Miss Halling can now with propriety reside +until she gives me the right to take her to Elm Park." + +"You propose then that Rupert shall leave Homewood also," said Mrs. +Mortomley. She wore a shawl thrown over her shoulders, for the rain had +made her feel chilly, and Mr. Dean did not notice that under it she +clasped both hands tightly across her heart as she spoke. + +"With that view," he answered, "I took suitable apartments yesterday in +the immediate vicinity of his studio." + +"I did not know he had a studio," she remarked. + +"With commendable prudence and foresight he secured one a couple of +months back in the neighbourhood of the Regent's Park." + +"And it was there I suppose he painted that picture he sold for twenty +pounds." + +"Twenty guineas," amended Mr. Dean. "A friend of mine did pay him that +very handsome amount for a sketch of a little girl which the purchaser +imagined bore some resemblance to a deceased daughter of his own." + +"His model being Lenore, doubtless." + +"I should say most probably." + +Dolly did not answer. She sat for a minute or two looking out at the +leaves littering the lawn, at the sodden earth, at the late blooming +flowers beaten almost into the earth by reason of the violence of the +rain--then she said, + +"And so they, Antonia and Rupert, go to those lodgings you spoke of?" + +"Yes, on Tuesday next, if Miss Halling can complete her preparations in +the time." + +"Rats leave a sinking ship," murmured Mrs. Mortomley to herself. + +"I beg your pardon," observed Mr. Dean, not catching the drift of her +pleasant sentence. + +"I said," explained Dolly, speaking very slowly and distinctly, "that +rats leave a sinking ship. So the story goes at all events, and I, for +one, see no reason to doubt its truthfulness. If you think of it, what +more natural than that they should go. They are detestable creatures in +prosperity. Why should they alter their natures in adversity?" + +"I am very stupid I fear," said Mr. Dean; "but I confess I fail to see +the drift of your remark." + +"I can make it plain enough," she retorted. "Here are a man and a woman +who must have starved unless we or you had provided them with the +necessaries of life. It was not very pleasant for me to have Antonia +Halling here, but she has had the best we could give her; and never a +cross look or grudging word to mar her enjoyment of the good things of +this life--things she prizes very highly. + +"As for Rupert, he has been treated by my husband as a brother or a son. +We made no difference between them and Lenore, except that I have +denied my child what she wanted sometimes, and they have never been +denied. + +"And the end of it all is that when my husband's affairs go wrong, they +leave us, and allow a stranger to break the tidings. That is why I call +them rats, Mr. Dean--your _fiancee_ and her brother. I am sure heaven +made Antonia Halling a helpmate--meet for you--for she is as selfish, as +worldly, as calculating, and as cold as even Mr. Dean, of Elm Park." + +Having finished which explicit speech, Dolly rose and gathered her shawl +more closely about her figure, bowed, and would have left the room had +Mr. Dean not hindered her departure. + +"Mrs. Mortomley," he said, "I can make allowances for a lady placed as +you are; but I beg leave to say you are utterly mistaken in your +estimate of me." + +"I am not mistaken," she replied. "I understand you better than you +understand yourself. Do you think I cannot see to the bottom of so +shallow a stream? Do you imagine for a moment I fail to understand, that +last Thursday night you turned the question over and over in your mind +as to whether you could give up Antonia Halling when I made you +understand the position of her uncle's affairs? You have decided and +rightly you cannot give her up. No jury would hold the non-success of a +relation a sufficient reason for jilting a woman. + +"And I really believe Antonia is so thoroughly alive to her own +interests that she would take the matter into court. Good-bye, Mr. Dean. +You and your future wife are a representative couple." + +"What an awful woman," said Mr. Dean, addressing himself after her +departure. "I declare," he added, speaking to Rupert, who immediately +after entered the room, "I would not marry Mrs. Mortomley if she had +twenty thousand a year." + +"How rare it is to find two people so unanimous in opinion," remarked +Rupert with a sneer. He did not like Mr. Dean at the best of times, and +at that moment he had a grudge against him, because he knew it was Mr. +Dean who must have told Mr. Forde about that twenty guineas for a +sketch of the small Lenore. "I am sure poor mistaken Dolly would not +marry you if you settled fifty thousand per annum on her. But what has +she been saying to cause such vehement expression of opinion?" + +"She says you and your sister are rats; that you have eaten of the best +in the ship, and leave it now it is sinking." + +"Upon my honour I am afraid Mrs. Mortomley is right," was the reply. +"Hers is a view of the question which did not strike me before; but it +is not open to dispute. Still what would the dear little soul have one +do? Stay with the vessel till it disappears? If she speak the word, I +for one am willing to do so." + +"I hoped to hear common sense from one member of this household at all +events," was Mr. Dean's reply, uttered loftily and contemptuously. + +"So you would from me if I were not in love with my aunt," Rupert +answered tranquilly. "More or less, less sometimes than more, I have +always been in love with Dolly. She is not pretty, except occasionally, +and she can be very disagreeable; and she is some years older than +myself; and she is an adept at spending money; and upon the whole she is +not what the world considers a desirable wife for a struggling man. But +she has--to use a very vulgar expression--pluck, and by Jove if I live +to be a hundred, I shall never see a woman I admire so thoroughly as my +uncle's wife. But this is sentimental," Mr. Halling proceeded. "And I +stifle it at the command of common sense. On Tuesday I leave Homewood +for those desirable apartments in which you wish me to play propriety to +the future lady of The Elms." + +Through the rain Mr. Dean drove away foaming with rage. Could he have +lived his time over again, no Miss Halling would ever have been asked to +grace his abode. No young person, with a vagabond brother in a velvet +suit, should ever have been mistress of The Elms. + +But Mrs. Mortomley had put the case in a nutshell. He must marry +Antonia, though Mortomley were bankrupt ten thousand times over. + +And Antonia knew it, and under the roof which had sheltered her for so +many a long night, she returned thanks for the fact to whatever deity +she actually worshipped. + +It is not for me to state what god hers chanced to be, but certainly it +was not that One of whom Christians speak reverently. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + PREVISION. + + +Along the front and one end of the house at Homewood ran a wide low +verandah, over which trailed masses of clematis, clustres of roses, long +sprays of honeysuckle, and delicate branches of jasmine. In the summer +and autumn so thick was the foliage, hanging in festoons from the tops +of the light iron pillars depending from the fretwork which formed the +arches, that the verandah was converted into a shaded bower, the +sunbeams only reaching it through a tracery of leaves. + +Up and down under the shelter of this verandah, Rupert paced impatiently +for a few minutes after Mr. Dean's departure, the sound of the rain +pouring on the roof making a suitable accompaniment to thoughts that +were about the most anxious the young man's mind had ever held. + +Now that the step had been taken and the die cast, liquidation assumed a +different aspect to that it had worn when viewed from a distance. +Something he could not have defined in the manner of the two clerks +filled him with a vague uneasiness, whilst Mr. Dean's determination that +his _fiancee_ should be exposed no longer to the contaminating +associations of Homewood annoyed him beyond expression. True, for some +time previously he had been drifting away from his uncle. Whilst Dolly +thought he was assisting her husband and still devoting himself to the +town business, he was really working for many hours a week in his new +painting-room, which he reached by taking advantage of that funny little +railway between Stratford and Victoria Park, which connects the Great +Eastern and the North London lines. + +He had never entered the offices of the General Chemical Company since +the day when he opened his lips to warn his uncle of the probable +consequences of that weakness which induced him to struggle on long +after he ought to have stopped. He very rarely honoured the Thames +Street Warehouse with his presence, and he never interfered in the +business unless Mortomley asked him to arrange a disputed account or +call upon the representative of some country house who might chance when +in town to take up his quarters at a West-end hotel. + +Nevertheless, he did not like the idea of cutting himself utterly adrift +from his relatives. Homewood had been home to him, more truly home than +his father's house ever proved. Spite of all the anxiety of the later +time, his residence under Mortomley's roof had been a happy period. He +liked his uncle and his wife, and the little Lenore, and--well there was +no use in looking back--the happy days were gone and past, and he must +look out for himself. He could not afford to quarrel with Mr. Dean, and +Dolly's bitter speech still rankled in his memory, but yet he had not +meant to give up Homewood entirely, and Mr. Dean must have blundered in +some way to leave such an impression on Mrs. Mortomley's mind. + +"I will have it out with her at once," he decided, and he threw away his +cigar, girt up his loins for the coming struggle, and re-entered the +house. + +He found Dolly in the library writing a letter. When he entered, she +raised her head to see who it was, but immediately and without remark +resumed her occupation. + +There was a bright red spot flaming on each cheek, and a dangerous +sparkle in her eyes, which assured Rupert the air was not yet clear, and +that the storm might come round again at any moment. + +But he knew the sooner they commenced their quarrel the more speedily it +would be over, and so plunged into the matter at once. + +"Dolly, what have you been doing to Mr. Dean? He has gone off looking as +black as a thunder-cloud." + +"I have been giving him a piece of my mind," she answered without +looking up, and her pen flew more rapidly over the paper. + +"Your explanation is not lady-like, but it is explicit," remarked +Rupert, "I am afraid you will soon not have any mind left if you are so +generous in disposing of it." + +"If my mind proves of no more use to me in the future than it has in the +past, the sooner I dispose of it all the better," was the reply. + +"Do you think you are wise in commencing your present campaign by +quarrelling with everybody?" he inquired. + +"Yes, if every one is like Mr. Dean and--and other people." + +"Meaning me?" + +"Meaning you, if you choose to take the cap and wear it." + +"Do you know Mr. Dean says he would not marry you if you had twenty +thousand a year?" + +"It is a matter of the utmost indifference to me what Mr. Dean says or +thinks either." + +"He told me you considered Antonia and myself little, if at all, better +than rats." + +"Did he happen to tell you what I thought of him?" + +There was no shaming or threatening Dolly into a good temper when a mood +like this was on her. So Rupert changed his tactics. + +"Do put down your pen and let us talk this matter over quietly +together." + +"You had better go away and not ask me to talk at all," she answered; +but she ceased writing nevertheless. + +"Do you want that letter posted?" he inquired. + +"No, I shall send it by a messenger." + +"It is not to Mr. Dean, is it?" + +"To Mr. Dean," she repeated. "What should I write to Mr. Dean for? It is +to no one connected with Mr. Dean or you." + +"Well, lay it aside for a few minutes and tell me in what way we have +annoyed you." + +"You have annoyed me by want of straightforwardness. Mr. Dean has +annoyed me by his insolence, unintentional though I believe it to have +been. But that only makes the sting the sharper. Who is he that his +future wife should be taken away from Homewood the moment misfortune +threatens it? What is Antonia that she should be treated as though she +were one of the blood royal?" + +"Mr. Dean is one of the most intolerable bores I ever met," replied +Rupert calmly. "And Antonia is, in my opinion, an extremely calculating +and commonplace young person. But Mr. Dean has money and his prejudices, +and I am sure you do not wish to prevent Antonia marrying the only rich +man who is ever likely to make her an offer. + +"Now Mr. Dean regards a man who fails to meet his engagements as a +little lower than a felon. I believe he would quite as soon ask a +ticket-of-leave fellow to Elm Park as a merchant whose affairs are +embarrassed, and there is no use in trying to argue him out of his +notions. We must take people as they are, Dolly." + +"Yes, if it is necessary to take them at all," she agreed. + +"It is very necessary for me," he said. "I cannot afford to quarrel with +Mr. Dean, or to have Antonia thrown on my hands, as she would be if he +refused to marry her." + +"He will not refuse," observed Dolly. "He has thought that subject over, +and decided it is too late to draw back now." + +"How do you know?" asked Rupert in amazement. + +"Because I taxed him with having done so, and he could not deny it. Pray +assure him next time you meet he need not fear Archie or myself +presuming on the relationship and asking him for help, and scheming for +invitations to Elm Park. So far as I am concerned I should be glad never +to see him or his wife (that is to be) again." + +"Good heavens!" ejaculated Rupert. Over what awful perils he had been +gliding all unconsciously. If her conversation were as she reported it, +might not Mr. Dean well call little Mrs. Mortomley a dreadful woman. +Certainly the sooner Antonia was away from Homewood, the better for all +parties concerned. + +He had been imprudent himself, but how could he imagine the nature of +the interview which preceded his own; he must see Mr. Dean again +immediately. He must carry a fictitious apology from Dolly to that +gentleman, and then arrange for their eternal separation. All these +things raced through his mind, and then he said, + +"You are a perfect Ishmael, Dolly." + +"Am I?" she retorted. "Well I am content. The idea pleases me, for I +always considered Ishmael's mother a much more attractive sort of woman +than Sarah, and I have no doubt Abraham thought so too." + +She was recovering her good temper by slow degrees, it is true; but +still Rupert understood that the wind was shifting round to a more +genial quarter. + +"Why should we--you and I--quarrel?" he suddenly asked, stretching out +his hand across the table towards her. + +She did not give him hers as he evidently expected she would, but +answered, + +"Because I do hate people who are secret and deceitful and not +straightforward." + +"You mean about that picture?" he said. + +"Yes," she agreed; "the picture was the first thing which shocked me, +and since that you leave a stranger to say you intend that I shall be +all alone through this trouble--all alone!" + +There was an unconscious pathos in the way she repeated those two last +words which wrung Rupert's heart. + +"I never intended to leave you alone," he replied. "I do not intend to +do so now. I must go to these confounded lodgings with Antonia, because +the powers that be insist on my going, but neither she nor Mr. Dean can +expect me to stay with her the whole day. She must get some one of her +innumerable female friends to bear her company; and I shall be here +almost continually. Upon my soul, Dolly, if I dare offend Mr. Dean, +nothing should induce me to leave Homewood at this juncture; indeed, I +told him in so many words, that if you wished me to stay I would +remain." + +She did not answer for a few moments, then she said, + +"You were quite safe in telling him that, Rupert. You knew I would +never ask anyone to sacrifice his own interests to my fancies." + +"You are angry with me still!" he remarked, then finding she remained +silent, he went on, + +"I confess I did wrong about that picture, but I did not sin +intentionally, with any idea of concealment, or separating my interests +from yours. I only held my peace, because I did not want Forde to know; +and no harm would have been done had that pompous old idiot held his +tongue, and not considered it necessary to explain that the brother of +his future wife was able to earn money for his own wants. + +"The moment this liquidation business was settled, I meant to tell you +concerning that and the studio, but I was so vexed about Dean's wish for +Antonia to leave here, that I felt I could not talk to you freely. Do +you believe me? Indeed what I have said is the literal truth." + +"It may be," she answered, "but it is not quite the whole truth. However +that does not signify very much. No doubt you are wise in making +provision for yourself,--but oh!" + +And covering her face with her hands, she ended her sentence with a +paroxysm of tearless grief. + +In a moment Rupert was beside her, "What is it, what is the matter, +Dolly? Dolly, speak to me; there is nothing on earth I will not do for +you if you only tell me what you want." + +She lifted her head and looked at him as a person might who had just +returned from a journey through some strange and troubled land. + +For many a day that look haunted Rupert Halling; it will haunt him at +intervals through the remainder of his life. She put back her hair which +had fallen over her face, with a painful slowness of movement foreign to +her temperament. She opened her lips to speak, but her tongue refused +its office. + +Then Rupert frightened ran into the dining-room, and brought her wine, +but she put it aside, and he fetched her water, and held the tumbler +for her to drink. + +As if there had been some virtue in the draught, her eyes filled with +tears--heavy tears that gathered on her lashes and then fell lingeringly +drop by drop; but soon the trouble found quicker vent, and she broke +into an almost hysterical fit of weeping. + +"Cry, dear, cry, it will do you good," he said as she strove vainly to +check her sobs. "Do not try to speak at present, you will only make +yourself worse." + +But Dolly would speak. + +"I am so sorry you should have seen me like this" she panted. "I did not +mean to be so stupid." + +He was standing beside her bathing her hair and forehead with _eau de +cologne_, but his hand shook as he poured out the scent, and he felt +altogether, as he defined the sensation to himself, "nervous as a +woman." + +"Dolly," he began when she grew calm again, "what was the trouble--the +special trouble I mean--which caused all this. Do try to tell me. If it +was anything I said or did, forgive me; for I never meant to say or do +anything to hurt you." + +"It was not that," she replied; then after a moment's hesitation she +went on. "A dreadful feeling came over me, Rupert, that this liquidation +will turn out badly. I have had the feeling at intervals ever since +Friday evening, and it seemed just then to overwhelm me. It may be +folly, but I cannot shake off the notion that my poor husband will be +ruined. If liquidation is what we thought, why should Mr. Dean want +Antonia to leave here? Why, if we are only asking for time in which to +pay our debts, should such disgrace attach itself to us?" + +Now this was just the question Rupert had been vainly asking himself, +and he stood silent, unable to answer. + +"Think it over until to-morrow," she added, noticing his hesitation. "I +am afraid you are worldly and selfish, Rupert, but I do not think you +are unfeeling, or quite ungrateful. Think it over for the sake of poor +Archie and me and little Lenore, and--I won't insult you by saying for +your own sake too. Put yourself quite out of the question, and consider +us alone. There was a time when we considered you, and though that time +is past, still I hope you can never quite forget." + +She rose and stretched out both hands to him, in token of reconciliation +and her own woman's weakness which dreaded facing the dark future all +alone. + +"Dolly dear," he answered, holding her hands tight, "you are so true, a +man must be a wretch to cheat you." + +For evermore till Eternity Rupert Halling can never quite forget +uttering those words, nor the way in which he failed to keep the promise +they contained. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + MR. DEAN GLORIFIES HIMSELF. + + +For the sake of the servants an early dinner on Sunday had always been a +custom at Homewood, and although other customs might be broken through +or forgotten in consequence of Mortomley's illness and the troubles +surrounding the household, this still obtained. + +Therefore Rupert Halling had to make no comment on his intended absence, +to leave no message about his return being uncertain, when, after making +his peace with Dolly, he went straight from the library to a sort of +little cloak-room, where he donned knickerbockers, a waterproof coat, a +stiff felt hat, and selected a plain light riding-whip. + +Thus armed against the weather he walked round to the stables, clapped a +saddle on the back of Mr. Mortomley's favourite black mare, Bess, +unloosed her headstall, put on her bridle, led her through the side +gate, which he closed behind him, looked once again to the girths and +drew them up a hole tighter; then after a pat and a "Gently, my beauty, +stand quiet, pet," he put one foot in the stirrup, and next instant was +square in his seat. + +Madam Bess hated rain as cordially as some human beings, and tossed her +head and made a little play with her heels, and quivered a little all +over with indignation at being taken out in such weather by any one +except her master; but Rupert was a good as well as a merciful rider, +and he humoured the pretty creature's whims till she forgot to show +them, and after plunging, shying, cantering with a sideway motion, +intended to express rebellion and disgust, she settled down into a long +easy trot, which in about three quarters of an hour brought Rupert to +the gates of Elm Park. + +There, one of the ostlers chancing to be at the lodge talking to the +old woman whose duty and pleasure it was to curtsey to Mr. Dean each +time he came in or went out, he dismounted and gave Bess to the man, +with strict orders to rub her down and give her a feed. + +"I must take her a good round after I leave here," he remarked, "and it +is nasty weather for horses as well as men." + +Now Master Rupert had always been very free of his money at Elm Park, +and no rumours of coming misfortune at Homewood had reached the people +connected with Mr. Dean's elegant mansion, so Bess was rubbed till her +coat shone like a looking-glass, and she herself kicked short impatient +kicks with one heel at a time; and she had a great feed of corn and a +long draught of water, and her heart was refreshed within her. + +Meantime her rider, instead of proceeding along the avenue, which took +many and unnecessary turns, so as to give the appearance of greater +extent to Mr. Dean's domain, selected a short cut through the shrubbery +and flower-garden, finally reaching the west front of the house by +means of a light iron gate which gave entrance to a small lawn, kept +trim and smooth as a bowling-green. + +At a glass door on this side of the house Rupert caught sight of a +familiar face, which brightened up as its owner recognised in the +half-drowned visitor a favourite of the house. + +"Well, Mr. Housden, and how are you?" said the young man, standing +outside and shaking the wet off him after the fashion of a Newfoundland +dog. + +"I keep my health wonderful considering, thank you, Mr. Rupert," +answered the butler, for it was that functionary who stood at the glass +door contemplating the weather. "And how is the family at Homewood, +sir?" + +"My uncle is very ill," was the reply; "he has not been able to be out +of his room for the last three weeks. Mrs. Mortomley and my sister and +Miss Lenore are as usual. Governor is at dinner I suppose?" + +"No, sir, Mr. Dean has finished dinner, or I should not be disengaged. +He is sitting over his dessert, sir, with a bottle of his very +particular old port." + +"The thermometer was so low it took that to raise it," muttered Rupert +to himself; then added, "Ask Rigby to step this way and take these +dripping things of mine, will you, Housden? I want to see Mr. Dean." + +"Allow me, Mr. Rupert. Let me relieve you of your coat." And Mr. +Housden, who would have been grievously insulted had the young man +seemed to suppose he could condescend so far, took the waterproof, and +the knickerbockers, and the hat, and the whip, and conveyed them himself +to Rigby, after which he announced Mr. Halling's arrival to his master, +and received orders to show him in. + +What with dinner and its accompaniments, Mr. Dean had been half dozing +in his arm-chair when his butler informed him of Mr. Halling's presence, +and he arose to meet his visitor with a stupid confusion of manner which +at once gave Rupert an advantage over him. + +If he had not dined and been quite awake, and in full possession of his +business senses, he would not have greeted Rupert with that awkward-- + +"Yes, to be sure, Mr. Halling. Did not expect to see you again so soon; +not such an evening as this I mean." + +"Oh! I don't care for rain," Rupert answered. "I ride between the +drops." + +"Will you take a glass of port or what?" asked Mr. Dean, touching the +wine decanter tenderly. + +"Thank you," the young man answered, "I will have some, or 'what,' +supposing it assume the shape of a tumbler of hot brandy-and-water, if +you have no objection, for I have still far to ride to-night, and I do +not want to be laid up; and besides," he added with a smile, "your port +is too strong for me, my head won't stand it." + +"Housden, bring the brandy and some boiling water, boiling remember, at +once," said Mr. Dean relieved that his visitor refused to partake of the +wonderful port for which he had paid such a price per bottle that +ordinary mortals would not have dared to swallow it except in +teaspoonfuls. + +"You are really very good and very generous to receive me so courteously +after the way in which we parted," remarked Rupert when they were left +alone. "The fact is I was put out to-day and I said what I ought not to +have said, and Mrs. Mortomley was put out and she said what she ought +not to have said, and we both want to apologise to you. She is sorry and +I am sorry, and I think, sir, as it was you who told Mr. Forde about +that picture your friend kindly purchased from me, which confidence in +fact caused the whole disturbance, you ought to forgive us both." + +Even Mr. Dean could not swallow this sentence at one gulp. + +"Do you mean," he asked doubtfully, "to say Mrs. Mortomley has expressed +her regret for the improper--yes,"--continued Mr. Dean after a pause +devoted to considering whether he had employed the right word,--"most +improper remark she made this afternoon." + +"I mean to say," returned Rupert, "that Mrs. Mortomley has retracted +those observations which pointed to my being a rat, that I have +explained everything in our conduct which seem to need explanation to +her satisfaction, that we are now perfectly good friends again, and that +she has commissioned me to say she hopes you will not attach any +importance to words spoken in a time of great trouble by a woman placed +in a position of such difficulty as she is at present." + +"Then upon my honour," exclaimed Mr. Dean, "the message does Mrs. +Mortomley credit. I could not have believed her capable of sending it." + +"Neither could I," thought Rupert, but he added aloud. "You do not quite +know Mrs. Mortomley yet, I see. She is very impulsive, and often says a +vast deal more than she really means; but when she calms down, she is as +ready to confess she was wrong as she proved to give offence. I do not +think any human being could live in the same house with my uncle's wife +and not love her." + +"Young man," said Mr. Dean with a solemn shake of his head while he +poured himself out yet another glass of that particular port, "were I in +your place I should not talk so glibly about love. There are people--yes +indeed there are who might think you meant something not quite right." + +If Rupert had yielded to the impulse strongest upon him at that moment, +he would have leaned back in his chair and laughed aloud at the idea +this moral old sinner evidently attached to his words, but he had a +purpose to serve, and so with surprise not altogether simulated he said, + +"Is that really your opinion, sir? then I will never use the expression +again. Esteem is a good serviceable word. Do you approve of it." + +Mr. Dean looked hard at Rupert to ascertain whether the young man were +making game of him or not, but no sign of levity rewarding his scrutiny, +he answered, + +"It is a very good word indeed, but one I do not consider applicable in +the present case. I am perfectly well aware that I do not possess that +facility of expression and power of repartee possessed by those persons +whose society Mrs. Mortomley at one time so much enjoyed, but I can see +as far through a millstone as any one with whom I am acquainted, and +esteem is not the word I should employ myself in this case." + +"Perhaps you are right," replied Rupert carelessly; "but to return to +the original subject, she is sorry for having said what she did, and so +am I, and I have come here to apologise. When, however, I stated that if +Mrs. Mortomley wished me to remain at Homewood I would do so, I spoke +even at the risk of offending you, the literal truth. We have been +treated generously at Homewood, and on thinking the matter over, it +seemed to me that I at all events ought not to desert the ship if Mrs. +Mortomley wished me to remain on board. + +"But," he continued seeing Mr. Dean's face grow dark with passion at the +prospect of his will being disputed, "she does not wish me to remain. +She sees the reasonableness of your wishing Antonia to leave Homewood +immediately, and she feels it only just that you should know she +considers under my uncle's altered circumstances, it would be better for +all communication between Elm Park and Homewood to cease." + +Mr. Dean paused before he answered. Of course if he married Antonia +Halling, this was precisely the point he wished to carry, and yet there +was something in this sudden change of policy which filled him with +doubt and surprise. + +Had Rupert said in so many words that Mrs. Mortomley declared she never +wished to see the owner of Elm Park again, the position would not have +been so unintelligible; but this tone of submission and conciliation was +so unlike anything he had ever associated with Mrs. Mortomley that he +could not avoid expressing his astonishment at it. + +"I am quite at a loss," he said at length, "to understand the reasons +which could have induced Mrs. Mortomley to alter her course of conduct +and withdraw her expressed opinions with such rapidity." + +In a moment Rupert saw his error, and hastened to repair it. + +"To be quite frank," he confessed, "I put the matter rather strongly to +her, and not to weary your patience, if Mrs. Mortomley can on occasion +be stormy she can also be unselfish. She does not want to mar my +sister's prospects. She does not desire that my uncle's past kindness to +us shall ever be considered to constitute a claim upon _you_ in the +future. There is the case in a nutshell. Of course we had a much longer +conversation than that I have condensed. In a word, till my uncle has +paid his creditors and is prosperous again, you need never fear that he +or his wife will wish to renew their acquaintance with you." + +Mr. Dean shook his head. + +"Your uncle will never be prosperous again," he remarked. + +"I hope matters are not so bad as that," answered Rupert. + +"When a man," continued Mr. Dean, "lets things go so far as he has +done, he is, to all intents and purposes, commercially dead. No, Mr. +Mortomley will never hold up his head again in the business world. It is +well he has his wife's money to fall back upon, and I hope her friends +will advise him to use it prudently--" + +"Do you really say, sir, you think my uncle will not be able to pull +through?" + +"I do not exactly understand what you mean by pulling through," answered +Mr. Dean, "but if you have any expectation of seeing his creditors paid, +and he occupying his old standing, you will be very much disappointed, +that is all." + +"But, good heavens! the business is a fine business, and there is stock +and plant and book debts, and--" + +"I don't care what there is," interrupted Mr. Dean, "once an estate goes +into liquidation or bankruptcy, stock and plant and good-will and book +debts and everything else are really as valueless as old rubbish. What +is the good of machinery if it is standing still? What is the use of a +business unless it is worked, and that by somebody who understands it? +What do you suppose Homewood, and every stick of furniture in the house, +and every ounce of stock in the works would fetch under the hammer? +Pooh! don't talk to me about creditors ever being paid when once affairs +pass out of a man's own hands. There is where your uncle made his +mistake. If he had come to me for advice a couple of years ago, I could +have told him what to do." + +"What ought he to have done?" asked Rupert. + +"Why, faced his affairs, and then called a private and friendly meeting +of his creditors. If there were one or two who opposed, he should, with +the consent of those who did not oppose, have offered a sum to be rid of +them altogether. He should then, furnished with authentic data, have +said, "Now, here is a business worth so much a year. In so many years +you can be paid in full. I must have a small income out of the concern +for my services, and you can appoint an accountant to examine the books, +check the accounts, and divide the money every three months." He would +have been as much master in his own works as a man ever can be who is in +debt. All these writs and other disgraceful embarrassments would have +been avoided; but what is the use of talking of all this now? +Mortomley's Estate has been allowed to go to the dogs, and the dogs have +got it, and it will be a very clever creditor indeed who manages to +snatch even a morsel out of their mouths." + +"But, sir," pleaded Rupert, "you advised the present course to be +adopted." + +"I said there was no other course now to be adopted," amended Mr. Dean. +"Could any man in his right senses say there was another way out of the +difficulty, with men in possession and hungry creditors waiting +impatiently to sweep the place clear? It is better that none should have +money than that one should, to the exclusion of others; and this is +where your uncle will be blamed, for paying out the men who proceeded to +extremity, and not paying those who were patient and gave him time. No +doubt he will get his discharge in due course, but how will that benefit +him? He is done for commercially. He can never do any more good for +himself or those belonging to him." + +"I cannot see that exactly," answered Rupert. "If he were stripped +to-morrow of every worldly effect, he could, given ordinary health, earn +a very respectable income by means of his genius." + +"What is genius?" inquired Mr. Dean, who was by this time standing +before the fire and laying down the law in that manner which makes so +many very commonplace gentlemen considered oracles by their wives and +acquaintances. "Ah! you cannot tell me, I see; but I can tell you. +Genius is success. It is of no use declaring a man is clever or has +great talents or exceptional abilities. I say prove it. How are you to +prove it? Show me his banker's book, show me the receipts signed by his +tradesmen, show me the style in which he lives, show me these things, +and I will then believe he has possessed either the genius to make money +or the genius to keep money when made by his father before him." + +"Then you think the man who paints a picture can have no genius unless +he is able to sell it likewise?" + +"I am sure of it. That person is an idiot who, possessing a certain +amount of sense, requires as much more to make use of it. Take your +uncle's case. According to your statement he possesses genius. Well, +what has it done for him, wherein is he better at this moment than one +of his own workmen? He began life with a good business. Where is that +business now? He had a respectable connection, and what must he do but +allow himself to be drawn into a connection--pray do not suppose I mean +to speak harshly of your father, who first introduced him to it--which +seems to have been anything but respectable. Once entangled, his genius +failed to show him any way out of the net he had allowed to enclose him. +His genius cannot enable him to make good articles out of bad. He +marries a woman with money, and he tries to patch up his tottering +credit with part of her fortune. If that is what genius does for a man, +better have none say I. Now look at me," added Mr. Dean, after he had +paused to take breath, and Rupert did look at him with as strong a +feeling of repulsion as Dolly had ever felt. "No one ever accounted me +clever. My father called me plodding Billy, and said I would never do +much for myself or anybody else. What has the result been?" + +If all his future had depended upon holding his peace at that moment, +Rupert must have answered, + +"That you seem to have done remarkably well for yourself at any rate." + +"You are right," said Mr. Dean briskly, appropriating the remark as a +compliment. "And in doing well for myself, I have done well for others. +I have employed clerks and servants. I have paid good salaries. I have +never set myself up as being ashamed of my business, and my business has +not been ashamed of me. I have never tried to push out of my own rank in +life, but I have sat at banquets side by side with a lord, and many a +time I have spoken after an earl at a public meeting. I might have stood +for member of parliament, and may yet be in the House if after a year or +two I feel disposed to interest myself in politics. Contrast my position +with that of your clever uncle and say whether you do not agree with me +that the true meaning of genius is success. Will not your sister be a +vast deal better off at Elm Park with everything money can buy, than +your little Mrs. Mortomley at Homewood with the sheriff's officer in +possession? Am not I right in what I say? Have not I reason on my side?" + +"You have so much reason," answered Rupert a little sadly, "that before +long I shall come and ask your advice as to how I am to compass success. +To-night I have to take Leytonstone on my way back to Whip's Cross, a +ride all round Robin Hood's Barn, is it not?" + +"What are you going to Leytonstone for?" asked Mr. Dean. + +"I--I have to see a man about a picture he wants me to paint for him," +hesitated Rupert, for he did not wish to state the real errand on which +he was bound, and, plausible romancer though he could be on occasion, +Mr. Dean's question took him by surprise. + +"Ah!" remarked Mr. Dean, a comfortable feeling of conscious +righteousness diffusing a heightened colour over his face, already +highly coloured with the glow of virtue and thirty-four port. "You must +give up all that sort of work if you wish to be successful. I have never +opened a ledger on Sunday, and I have tried to put business out of my +mind altogether. If a man is to be successful, he must conform to all +the usages of the country in which he happens to be placed. Now we are +placed in England, and I do not know any country in which religion is +made so easy; and if you think of it, religion is a most useful +institution. It teaches the poor their proper place, and--" + +Rupert could stand no more of this. "I have lived in a house, Mr. Dean," +he answered, "where, I think, there was one genuine Christian at any +rate, and I agree with you and him, that Sunday labour for gentle or +simple is a thing to be avoided; but my work to-night is a work of +necessity, and the Bible pronounces no curse on our performing it in +such a case as that!" + +"No, no, certainly not; I suppose you are short of money. Well, good +evening; tell Mrs. Mortomley I will try to forget all she said to-day." + +"Yes, I will tell her," answered Rupert, "and thank you very much for +your kindness. Don't come out with me pray," he added,--which was an +utterly unnecessary entreaty as Mr. Dean had no intention of doing so. +"I can find my way quite well. Good-night," and he went. + +But when he had reached the middle of the hall, he paused, and drew a +long deep breath. + +"If I were in Antonia's place," he murmured, "sooner than marry that +self-sufficient cad, I would go down to the Lea and drown myself, or +else take poison." + +Rupert really felt at the minute what he said, but the worst of it was +that such minutes never, in the young man's nature, lengthened +themselves into hours. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + MR. GIBBONS' OPINION ON THE STATE OF + AFFAIRS. + + +Furnished by Rigby with his coat and hat, assisted by that personage to +put on his knickerbockers, Mr. Rupert Halling stood at the hall door +waiting for Madam Bess to be brought round. + +He had wished to mount in the stable-yard, but neither Housden nor Rigby +would hear of such a thing. + +"Well, it is coming down," ejaculated the butler; "Mr. Halling, sir, why +don't you send the mare back to her comfortable stall, and stay here for +the night." + +"I do not mind the weather," answered Rupert, which was fortunate, for +the rain was pouring in such torrents that the noise made by the mare's +hoofs was inaudible through the rushing tempest, and it was only by help +of the ostler's lanthorn that Rupert could tell where Bess stood +shivering and cringing, as the drops pelted like hail-stones upon her. + +But if the night had been ten times worse than was the case, Rupert +would still have persisted in his intention of riding round by +Leytonstone. Comfort and assurance he felt he must have, some accurate +knowledge of their actual position he was determined to obtain for +Dolly, and so he proceeded through the darkness, with the rain sweeping +in gusts up from the south-east, and expending the full force of its +fury upon horse and horseman wherever an opening in the forest glades +exposed both to its violence. + +A lonely ride, lonely and dreary, the road now winding through common +lands covered with gorse, and broom and heather, now leading through +patches of the forest, now skirting gravel and sand pits, and again +passing by skeletons of new houses run up hastily and prematurely by +speculative builders. + +And wherever any other road which could possibly lead back to Homewood +crossed that Rupert desired to pursue, a difference of opinion took +place between him and Bess, she being quite satisfied that the way they +ought to go was the way which led to her stable; Rupert, on the +contrary, being quite determined that she should carry him to +Leytonstone. + +At length the violence of the storm somewhat abated, and as he passed +the 'Eagle,' at Snaresbrook, from behind a bank of wild watery-looking +clouds the moon rose slowly and as if reluctantly, whilst the wind grew +higher and swept over the lonely country lying towards and beyond +Barkingside in blasts that almost took away the young man's breath. + +On the whole he was not sorry when he reached that great public-house +which stands where three roads meet near the pond at Leytonstone. There +he dismounted, and giving Bess in charge of a man who knew the mare and +her rider well, he walked on past the church, down the little bye-street +leading to the picturesque station, across the line, and so to a new +road intersecting an estate that had been recently cut up for building, +and where already houses were dotting the fields, where two or three +years previously there was no sign of human habitation. + +One of these houses belonged to Mr. Gibbons; he had bought it for a very +low price, and nobly indifferent to the horrible newness of its +appearance, to the nakedness of its garden, and that general misery of +aspect peculiar to a suburb while in its transition state from country +to town, he removed his household goods from Islington, where he had +previously resided, and set himself at work to make a home in the +wilderness. + +He was a man content to wait for trees to grow, and shrubs to mature, +and creepers to climb. His was the order of mind which can plant an +asparagus bed and believe the three years needful for it to come to +perfection will really pass away in regular course. He procured a +mulberry-tree and set it, and he would have done the same with a walnut +had the size of his garden justified the proceeding. + +As it was, he looked forward to eating fruit grown on his own walls and +espaliers; he directed the formation and stocking of his garden with +great contentment. He built a greenhouse; he ordered in a Virginia +creeper and a Wistaria, which he hoped eventually to see cover the front +of his house; he put up a run for his fowls; and he talked with +unconcealed pride of his "place near the forest," where his children +grew so strong and healthy, he declared that the butcher's bills +frightened him. + +To men of this sort, men who are willing to sow in the spring, and +patient enough to wait for the ripening in the autumn, England owes most +of her prosperity; but ordinary humanity may well be excused if it +shrink from the idea of settling down in a spic-and-span new house in an +unfinished neighbourhood. + +Rupert's humanity, at all events, accustomed as it was to the wealth of +foliage at Homewood, to the stately trees and bushy shrubs, and matured +gardens, and lawns covered with soft old turf, recoiled with horror +from the naked coldness of Mr. Gibbon's residence, and his teeth +chattered as the uncertain moonbeams glanced hither and thither over new +brick walls, and stuccoed pillars, and British plate-glass, and all +those other items which go to compose a British villa in the nineteenth +century. + +The wind, sweeping over the Essex marshes and across Wanstead flats, +brought with it heavy gusts of showers, and one of these pursued Rupert +as he ploughed his way over the loose stones and gravel which had been +laid upon the road. + +"It is a nice night and a nice hour for a visit," he reflected. "I +wonder what Gibbons will say to my intruding on his privacy on the +Sabbath-day." And he paused for a moment before applying his hand to the +knocker, and listened to the vocal strength of the family, which was +employed at the moment in singing psalms in that peculiar style which +the clergy assure us is especially pleasing to the Almighty. + +They, it is to be presumed, must know something about the matter. +Certainly, the performance affords pleasure to no one of God's creatures +except to the vocalists themselves. In a lull of the wind Rupert could +hear the shrill trebles of the young ladies, the cracked voice of their +mother, the gruff growling of the two sons, and the deep bass of Mr. +Gibbons himself, all engaged in singing spiritual songs in unison. + +"It will be a charity to interrupt that before they bring the ceiling +down," said the visitor, and he forthwith gave such a thundering double +knock that the music ceased as if a cannon had been fired amongst the +vocalists. + +Miss Amy's hands dropped powerless from the keyboard of the piano, and +Mr. Gibbons, forgetful of the sacred exercises in which he had been +engaged, first exclaimed, + +"Who the devil can that be?" and then proceeded to ascertain who it was +for himself. + +"I beg ten thousand pardons for intruding upon you," Rupert was +beginning, but Mr. Gibbons would listen to no apology. + +"Bless my soul!" he exclaimed, "what can have brought you out such a +night? Come in and have some supper. We were just going to have supper. +The rain came down in such buckets we could not get to church, so the +young people were having a little music. ("Music!" thought Rupert.) Come +in, there is no one here except ourselves." + +"You are very kind," Rupert answered, "but I cannot stop. I am wet, and +have had a long, miserable ride. I only want to ask you half-a-dozen +questions, and then I must get home. I left my mare at the 'Green Man,' +and she is drowned, poor old girl." + +"Well, you must take something," said Mr. Gibbons, who in trade insisted +upon his pound of flesh if he saw the slightest hope of getting it, but +who out of trade was liberal and hospitable to a commendable degree. + +"I will take nothing, thank you," Rupert replied decidedly, "except +hope, if you are able to give me that. I have been drinking +brandy-and-water at the house of my respected brother-in-law that is to +be, and I can't stand much of that sort of thing. I wonder how it is +prosperous men are able to drink what they do after dinner and never +turn a hair, whilst poor wretches who never knew what it was to have a +five-pound note between them and beggary are knocked over by a few +glasses." + +They were standing by this time in a small room covered with oil-cloth, +which Mrs. Gibbons, who was a notable manager, used for cutting out her +children's garments. She neutralised the cold of the oilcloth by +standing on a wool mat; and then, as she remarked to her friends, there +was no trouble in sweeping up the clippings, as there would have been +had she laid down a carpet. + +The apartment did not look cheerful. It was on a piece with the outside +of the house; but Rupert had a confidence in Mr. Gibbons which proved +more consolatory at the moment than any amount of luxurious furniture +could have done. + +"What is the matter? What has gone wrong now?" asked Mr. Gibbons, +ignoring the young man's irrelevant statement, which, indeed, having a +wider experience, he did not in the least believe. + +In a few sentences Rupert told him the events of the last two days. +There was no person living to whom Rupert Halling could talk so freely +as to this sharp, shrewd man of business, whom he did not like, with +whom he had not an idea in common, who he knew could, to quote an old +proverb, "lie as fast as a dog can trot," but in whose judgment he +trusted as if he had been a prophet. + +Mr. Gibbons sat beside the table, his arms crossed on it, looking at +Rupert, and Rupert sat at a little distance, and spoke right on, never +stopping till he had said his say. + +When the story was told Mr. Gibbons rose and took a few turns up and +down the room. + +"If you think of it, Forde has not made a bad move," he remarked at +last, stopping in his walk. "He can keep the matter as quiet as he +likes, he can tell his directors what he pleases, and if there is any +game left to play he can play it without much interference. I did not +think he had it in him to devise such a scheme, but perhaps it was not +he, only Kleinwort. There is nothing that little thief could not do +except be honest." + +"Will it make any difference to us?" asked Rupert, impatient of this +digression. + +"That is just what I have been wondering," answered Mr. Gibbons. "I +don't see that it can. I know nothing of Swanland personally (of course, +everybody knows his partner, Asherill, the most thoroughfaced old humbug +in the City), but in his position he dare not play into Forde's hand. It +is impossible for him to make fish of one creditor and fowl of another. +Had they chosen a creature of their own for trustee, the case would have +been different; but, upon my honour, I think the matter could not stand +better than it does. If Forde does not oppose, nobody else will, I +should imagine; and all your uncle has to do now is to get well as fast +as he can, so as to push business along and pay us all a good dividend." + +"Mr. Gibbons," said Rupert slowly, "what is liquidation?" + +"That is rather a difficult question to answer," was the reply. "I have +understood that its object is to enable a man who really means honestly +to repay his creditors to do so. You see, the new Bankruptcy Act has +been passed so recently that we have not much knowledge of its working. +In the only case of which I have had experience, it seems to go smoothly +enough. A pianoforte-maker, who had taken out some new patent got +himself into difficulties, and the creditors asked me to look into his +affairs, and see what chance there was of their ever being repaid. I did +so, and found the estate could never pay sixpence if it was compulsorily +realised, but that there was a probability of twenty shillings if the +man could be allowed to work on without the fear of writs. + +"The fellow seemed honest enough, and the creditors were inclined to be +patient--all except one fellow, who wanted to get the business into his +own hands. I soon shut his mouth; and we arranged to throw the payment +of ten shillings in the pound over three years; the rest was left to his +honour. Well, so far as I can see, every creditor will get his money in +full, and the debtor is as happy as possible, working away to pay all he +owes. He is allowed so much out of the business for his household +expenses; and, of course, I do not look him and his books up for +nothing, but still when the affair comes to be closed, it will prove +better than bankruptcy for every one concerned; and if I had been +appointed trustee to your uncle's estate, I have no doubt we might, out +of such a business as his, have arranged ten pounds a week for his +services, and paid everybody in full, with interest, in four years." + +"I wish to God you had been the trustee," said Rupert earnestly. + +"I echo the wish. I could have made it easy for your uncle and +beneficial to myself; but Forde does not like me. He can't take me in as +he takes in other people. However," added Mr. Gibbons, "it is a great +matter to have him with you, since, unless you were able to produce good +proof of what you have hinted to me, his opposition might be dangerous." + + +"Do you know," said Rupert, "Mr. Dean really frightened me to-night. He +declared my uncle was commercially dead, that he could never hold up his +head again in the City, that his estate had been allowed to go to the +dogs, and that the dogs had got it, with much more to the same effect." + +"Mr. Dean is a pompous old ass," commented Mr. Gibbons. + +"Please remember he is going to marry my sister," entreated Rupert. + +"In that at all events he shows his sense," returned Mr. Gibbons with +ready courtesy, "but what should he know about liquidation? If Mr. Dean +thought a poor wretch were shaky, he would serve him with a trading +debtors' summons at once, and if the amount were not paid, make him +bankrupt before he could know what had happened. That is how Elm Park is +maintained. Please heaven," added Mr. Gibbons piously, "a more liberal +policy shall supply the more modest requirements of Forest View." + +Which was the appropriate name of the spic-and-span new mansion, since +not a glimpse of the forest could be obtained even from its attic +windows. + +"Thank you," said Rupert, rising and holding out his hand to Mr. +Gibbons, "you have relieved my mind greatly. I do not know I ever felt +more miserable than I have done to-night. Mrs. Mortomley quite unnerved +me. She has a fancy that her husband is going to be ruined." + +"My dear fellow," was the reply, "when you have lived as long as I have +lived, and been married as many years as I have been married you will +know women are always having fancies. No better creature than my wife +ever breathed, but she has a prophetic feeling about some matter or +person every day of her life." + +"It is quite a new thing for Dolly to be among the prophets, however," +remarked Rupert almost involuntarily. + +"I beg your pardon," said Mr. Gibbons, not understanding. + +"Oh! I was speaking of Mrs. Mortomley. We always call her Dolly. Absurd, +is it not? but it is better than Dollabella." + +The connection of ideas between her name and her fortune did not seem +very plain, nevertheless, as if one suggested the other, Mr. Gibbons +said, + +"I suppose Mrs. Mortomley's money is all right." + +"What do you mean," Rupert inquired. + +"Settled on herself of course." + +"Of course," the young man answered. + +"That is well," answered Mr. Gibbons. "I wish you would stay and have +some supper. No? Then good night and keep up your spirits, all will turn +out for the best, be sure of that." + +And so they shook hands and parted. Mr. Gibbons to return to his +psalmody, and Rupert to retrace his steps to the 'Green Man,' where he +re-mounted Bess and rode back, moonlight accompanying him, drifting rain +following his horse's heels to Whip's Cross. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + STRAWS. + + +When Rupert reached Homewood he rode direct to the stables, expecting to +find a groom waiting his arrival. + +Disappointed in this expectation he hitched the mare's bridle to a hook +in the wall, flung a cloth over her, and walking round the house entered +it through the conservatory doors, which always remained hospitably +unlocked. + +As he entered the hall, Esther was crossing from the direction of the +kitchens. At sight of him she started back with a "Lor', Mr. Rupert, how +you did frighten me; who ever would have thought of seeing you!" + +"Why, who did you expect to see?" retorted Mr. Rupert, "and where, when +all that is settled, is Fisher?" + +"He left at seven, sir. He came in to do up the horses as usual, and he +said, sir, when he was going out that he should not be back again, for +that Hankins had seen you on the road to Elm Park, and you were sure not +to be back such a night as this." + +"I wish Hankins would attend to his own business and not attempt to +manage mine," muttered Rupert. "Get me a lantern, Esther. I must see to +that unfortunate mare myself." + +Esther fetched him a lantern, and one of the men in possession, who had +himself formerly been the owner of some livery stables, offered to see +to the well-being of Madam Bess, but Rupert would not hear of it. + +"You can bring the light if you will be so good," he said, for it was no +part of the policy at Homewood for the inhabitants to give themselves +airs above those sent to keep watch and ward over their chattels. + +"But I will rub her down myself; I should not care about it, only I am +so confoundedly wet," he added, with his frank pleasant laugh. + +"However, she is wetter, poor beast;" and as he spoke he passed his hand +over the mare's neck and shoulder, which attention she acknowledged by +trying to get it in her mouth. + +"Frisky still, old lady," Rupert remarked; "I should have thought your +journey to-night might have taken that out of you. Come on," and he +slipped off her bridle, and holding her mane walked beside her into the +stall, where he put on her halter. + +"It is too wet still to make your toilette out of doors," he went on; +"so you must be quiet while I rub you down here." + +And after having taken off his hat and coat and waistcoat, Rupert set +too and groomed that mare "proper," to quote the expression of Turner, +the man who held the light. + +And then he brought her a warm mash, and forked her up a comfortable +bed, which Bess at once devoted herself to pawing out behind her; having +accomplished which feat, and vaunted herself to her stable companions +about the evening's work she had performed, she lay down to sleep on the +bare pavement. + +This was her pleasant fancy, which is shared by many a dog. + +After all, there was much of a dog's nature about Bess--notably as far +as faithfulness and affection were concerned. + +Rupert walked back to the house and asked Esther to make him some +coffee. Whilst she was preparing it, he went softly to his own room, +changed his wet clothes, washed, brushed his curly hair, and otherwise +made himself presentable; then he went downstairs again and entered the +library, where he found coffee awaiting his arrival. + +"My sister is gone to bed, I suppose," he said to Esther. + +"Yes, sir, Miss Halling was very tired, and thought you would not be +back to-night." + +"And Mrs. Mortomley?" + +"She is up still, sir." + +"I must see her to-night. Will you tell her that I want to speak to her +very particularly." + +"Yes, sir." + +"What have you been crying about?" asked Rupert suddenly, but the girl +turned her head away and made no answer. + +"Has Mrs. Mortomley been scolding you?" he persisted. At this question +Esther broke down altogether. + +"It--it--is--th--first time my--mistress ever spoke cross to me, sir--," +she sobbed. + +"Well, you needn't allow that fact to vex you," Rupert answered, "for if +things go on as they have been doing, you may be very sure it will not +be the last. Now go and give her my message, and you will sleep all the +better for seeing your mistress again. Depend upon it, she is far more +sorry than you by this time." + +"What a spit-fire temper Dolly is developing," thought the young man, +looking uneasily into the blazing fire. "Though it is rather turning the +proprieties upside down, I fear I must lecture my aunt," but when Mrs. +Mortomley came into the room there was an expression on her face which +changed his intention. + +She had taken off the elaborate dress in which he last beheld her, and +exchanged it for a dressing-gown of brilliant scarlet, confined round +the waist by a belt of its own material, and showing, in every fold and +plait which hung loosely about her figure, how the plump shapeliness +which once needed no padding, no adventitious assistance from her +dressmaker, had changed to leanness and angles. + +She had unloosed her hair, she had taken away the great pads and +enormous frizettes in which her soul once found such pleasure, and the +straight locks fell over her shoulders in a manner as natural as it was +unwonted. + +"Good Heavens, Dolly," exclaimed Rupert, at sight of her, "why do you +ever wear scarlet, it makes you look like a ghost, or a corpse." + +"It is warm," she answered, "and I was very cold. You wanted to see me +and I wanted to see you; but tell me your story first." + +"I have been to Elm Park," he replied, "in order to make up friends with +that whited sepulchre, Mr. Dean; and I have succeeded. So much for that +which immediately concerns Antonia and myself. After I left Elm Park, I +rode round by Leytonstone and called upon Mr. Gibbons. He says that +Swanland must act fairly by you and all the creditors; that, in fact, so +far as that goes we need feel no uneasiness." + +"Then, where is the cause for uneasiness?" she enquired. + +"Nowhere so far as he can see," Rupert answered evasively, "but I will +tell you what I have been thinking as I came home. Of course, once this +order, whatever it may be, is taken out, we shall have no more trouble +from writs and so forth, and we need not be anxious about the business, +but we shall, I fear, want ready money. Of course there will be an +allowance to Archie, but we may not be able to get that immediately. Now +we had better look this matter in the face. How much money is there in +the house?" + +Dolly put her hand in her pocket and pulled forth her purse, turning its +contents out on the table. + +"I had the June interest from my money on Friday night," she remarked. +"For the first time I wrote to ask for it, and I was so thankful it +came, as otherwise the wages here could not have been paid yesterday." + +"Surely, Dolly, you never paid them out of your money?" + +"Not the whole amount. Lang told me he was five-and-twenty pounds short, +so I sent him to town to get the cheque changed, and gave him what he +required." + +"I must see Lang about this the first thing to-morrow," Rupert remarked. +"Dolly, give me your money and let me keep it." + +She gathered up the notes and gold and handed them to him. He counted +both over. "Why, Dolly," he said, "there is only thirty pounds left." + +She laughed, in reply, that frank guileless laugh which never rings out +save when a woman has concealed nothing--has nothing she wishes to +conceal. + +"Oh! I paid off such a number of worries yesterday. Of course, had there +been enough to get rid of even one of our distinguished visitors, I +should have done so, but as there was not, I killed such a host of +gnats. See," and going to her desk she produced a perfect packet of +receipts. "I am so thankful those little things are settled," she went +on, "if I had kept the money it would only have gone somehow--not this +'how,' I am quite certain." + +"Will nothing teach her common sense?" but even as he thought, Dolly's +eyes suddenly uplifted surprised his--her brown eyes looking out from a +very white face and a confused mass of dark hair. + +"What is the matter," she inquired; "of what are you thinking?" + +"Of you," he answered; "I wish you were more prudent." + +"I wish I were--perhaps I shall be some day," she said humbly. + +Thinking of the manner in which she had without question turned her +money over to him Rupert felt doubtful. + +"You had better keep two or three sovereigns," he observed. + +"I fancy so," she agreed. "There is always money wanting now, and you +might not be in the way." + +He looked at her across the table, and then bent down his head over the +notes and gold. + +Incredible as it may seem, there was something in the woman's +face--though she was utterly ignorant of its presence--which touched +Rupert's nature to its best and deepest depths, wringing his +heart-strings. + +If he had known what that something prefigured, if God had only for one +moment given him prescience that night, the man's memory might have +failed to hold something which shall never depart from him now till life +is extinguished with it. + +As it was he exclaimed, + +"I would to Heaven, Dolly, I had passed all my life with you and Archie. +I should in that case have been as unmercenary and unselfish as you." + +"Rather," said Dolly sententiously, "you should thank Heaven for having +placed you in one of this world's strictest schools. Otherwise you might +have been a simpleton like myself, or a clever idiot like dear Archie, +but you would never have been a man who shall make his way to success as +you intend to do." + +"How shall I make my way to success?" he inquired. + +"I do not quite like to say out my thought," she replied. "It is Sunday +night, and what I feel may seem profane when rendered into speech. +Nevertheless, Rupert, Providence does take care of men like you. I +cannot at all tell why, since I know you are no better, indeed a great +deal worse than myself. You will get on, never fear; just as if the +vision were realized, I can see you now in a fine place, with a rich +wife." + +"Stay," interrupted Rupert; "wherein this vision comes the skeleton?" + +"To my imagination," she answered, "the skeleton ceases not by day or +night; it is ever present,--it is Homewood with you and your sister, +prosperous in your plans, and my husband, who sheltered you--dying." + +"How you talk, Dolly? Archie is no worse." + +"Is he not?" she replied. "If things do not soon change here, the whole +question will be settled in the simplest manner possible. He will die, +and there will be a funeral, and people will say, + +"'Poor fellow! he held out as long as he could, and died just in the +nick of time.'" + +"I know one man, at any rate, who would say nothing of the kind," +remarked Rupert, "who would be quite certain to observe, 'Have you heard +about that fellow Mortomley? No. Well, he has taken it into his head to +die, and left me in the lurch. And after all my kindness to him too. I +declare, sir, if that man had been my brother, I could not have done +more for him--but there, that is just the return I meet with from, every +one.'" + +The imitation was so admirable, and the words so exactly similar to +those she had heard used, that Dolly could not choose but laugh. + +Then she stopped suddenly and said, "It is no laughing matter though." + +"What makes you think Archie is worse?" asked her companion. + +"He would try to get up for a short time this afternoon, and +unfortunately elected to have his chair wheeled up close to the side +window. He had not been seated there ten minutes before he saw one of +those men crossing from the kitchen-garden. He asked me who he was, and +I was obliged to tell him. He did not make any remark at the time, but +shortly afterwards said he would lie down again, and since that time he +has not dozed for a moment; he has refused to touch any nourishment, and +he scarcely answers when I speak to him. After the doctor saw him, he +asked me whether Archie had received any shock, and when I explained the +matter to him, he looked very grave and said, + +"Unless his mind can be kept easy, I will not answer for the +consequences." + +"Then he was an idiot to say anything of the sort," Rupert angrily +commented. "Never mind, Dolly, such a _contretemps_ shall not occur +again. I will warn these fellows that if I catch one of them prowling +about the grounds, I will horsewhip him, let the consequence be what it +may. Now, have you anything more to say, for it is growing late?" + +"Yes," Mrs. Mortomley answered. "I am going to send Lenore away +to-morrow; my aunt Celia will take charge of her until things are +settled here." + +"Surely this is a very sudden idea." + +"It never occurred to me until this afternoon. She has wearied and +worried me, poor little mite; but I did not know what to do with her, +and I probably never should have known what to do with her, had Mr. +Dean's effusion about the impossibility of his future wife remaining at +Homewood, not opened my eyes." + +"I understand," remarked Rupert. "You decided at once that if Homewood +were an unfit residence for Miss Halling, it was still more unfit for +Miss Mortomley, and I really think you are right. But who is to go with +the child; am I?" + +"No, Esther is to take her. I have arranged all that. They start by an +early train to-morrow, and I hope Esther may be able to get back +to-morrow night." + +"Why cannot I take Lenore?" he asked. + +"Because you ought to be here," Mrs. Mortomley replied. "Those two young +men have to finish the accounts remember, and I know little or nothing +about our affairs." + +"I had forgotten," he remarked. "Perhaps I ought not to be away. Now, +Dolly, have we finished business for to-night?" + +"No, I have something more to tell you," she answered. "After you went +out this afternoon, and while I was finishing my letter to aunt Celia, +Esther came in and said 'Mr. Turner hoped I would excuse the liberty, +but could he be allowed to speak to me?' + +"Naturally I asked who Mr. Turner was, when it transpired that one of +those creatures is so named. I did not know what he might want, and so +told her to send him in. + +"'I trust you will pardon me, ma'am,' he began, 'I have not always been +in as low a position as that I now occupy, and--' + +"I misunderstood his meaning, and told him that of course he must know +the whole affair was miserable for us, but that I was aware if a man +chose such a vocation, he must discharge the duties connected with it; +and that we did not want in any way to make the discharge of those +duties unpleasant to him. He waited quietly and respectfully till I had +quite finished, when he first thanked me for my kindness, and then said +I had mistaken his meaning. + +"'I understand' he finished, 'that Mr. Mortomley intends to go into +liquidation.' + +"I was a little surprised at this, but told him yes, Mr. Mortomley did. +There was nothing secret about the matter. + +"Then in so many words he told me he was bound to write and inform his +employer that such was the case; but he went on and then paused, while +I waited curiously, I must confess, for the man's manner and the +expression of his face perplexed me. + +"'The truth is, ma'am,' he gathered up courage to say at last, 'I have +been very well treated here, and I am very sorry to see things going +wrong in a house like this, and as I have seen a great deal of +bankruptcy and arrangements and all the rest of it, I thought I would +just make so bold as to say that if there are any things about the house +for which you have a particular fancy, the sooner you put them on one +side or ask some of your friends to take charge of them for you the +better.' + +"I declare, Rupert, I did not comprehend at first what he meant, and +when at last he explained himself more at length, I was so amazed I +could only say we did not think of leaving Homewood or selling the +furniture, that all Mr. Mortomley wanted was time, and of course things +would remain as they were and the business be continued just as usual. + +"He said he was sure he hoped all might turn out as I expected, but that +he trusted I would excuse his still recommending me to make +arrangements for the worst. + +"'And do you propose that we should do that by stealing from ourselves?' +I asked. + +"'Well, everything in the place is yours to-night, ma'am, certainly,' he +answered; 'that is, except for the amounts I and my companion are here +for, but that will not be the case for long when once the other man +comes in.' + +"'What other man?' I said. + +"'Why the trustee's man.' + +"Then I got annoyed and told him he was talking nonsense, that once the +petition was granted there would be no more 'men' at Homewood; that +since the passing of the new Bankruptcy Act everything was made +comparatively pleasant for people who wanted to act honestly. + +"'If you will excuse my saying so, ma'am,' he persisted, 'I think you +know even less about the working of the new Act than I do.' + +"At that point I lost my temper. + +"'Whether I do or not I shall not follow your advice, though I suppose +you mean it kindly. If my husband's creditors want every article in +Homewood, why, they must take even to the last chair, that is all. If I +had to turn out to-night without a shelter or a penny I would not do +what you suggest.' + +"He bowed and went away without speaking another word, and of course I +thought the subject was ended. + +"Quite by accident I went an hour ago to Lenore's room, and there to my +astonishment I found piled up on the drawers and tables all the +knick-knacks out of the drawing-room; the timepieces, the vases, the +statuettes, the little genuine silver we have not parted with, and a +whole tribe of other articles. + +"Then I rang for Esther and asked what it meant. Turner, it appeared, +after leaving me, told her I understood nothing whatever of our real +position, and that the greatest service she could do me was to send as +much as possible to some safe place of keeping without mentioning the +matter to me. + +"And acting on this, she had intended to get up about four o'clock and +pack up all she could, and take the spoil with her to Great Dassell. + +"I was so angry I said sharp things to the girl I ought not to have +said. I believe I frightened her to death, and I know I have made myself +quite ill and hysterical with the passion I got into." + +"Esther is happy enough now. She did it all for the best, and I have +told her how sorry I am to have spoken sharply; but, Rupert, Rupert, +what is the meaning of all this? There is something in liquidation we do +not understand." + +"I do not think there is," was the reply. "This man only spoke according +to his light, which seems to be a very poor one. He simply advised that +course to be taken which would be taken by ninety-nine people out of a +hundred." + +"Then if such is the case, I cannot wonder at Mr. Forde's idea that +debtors are thieves." + +"And at the same time there may be some reason for the debtors' belief +that creditors are robbers." + +"Oh!" cried Dolly, "that it were all ended." + +"It will be some day, please God," he answered. "And now, Dolly, do get +to bed; your white face will disturb my dreams. When had you anything to +eat?" + +"I don't think I have eaten anything since Thursday," she answered; +"anything, I mean, worth calling a meal." + +"You will kill yourself if you go on as you are doing," he said, but she +shook her head. + +"I am going to live to a hundred and forty, like the Countess of +Desmond, who died in consequence of a fall from a cherry-tree," Dolly +explained. "I shall be a great-great-great-grandmother, and I shall +inculcate upon the first, second, third, and fourth generations the +truth of that old proverb, 'Take care of the pence, and the pounds will +take care of themselves.'" + +"Never mind pence or pounds either, Dolly. I wish you would take care of +yourself." + +"Why?" she asked; then went on, "I wonder if on the face of the earth +besides Archie and Lenore, and Esther and Mrs. Werner, and perhaps my +Aunt Celia, there is a creature who would be really sorry if I died +to-night?" + +"Do you exclude me?" Rupert marvelled. + +"You have not lived long enough to be very sorry about anything except +your own affairs--about any trouble coming to those connected with you +unless their sorrow means loss of comfort to yourself." + +"Do you think I am not sorry for Archie and you now?" + +"I am quite sure you are," she replied bitterly. "Homewood has been a +pleasant house for you to live in; far pleasanter than Elm Park can ever +prove." + +"Dolly," he interrupted, "I do not mean to call you ungrateful, but +considering how I have been working on your behalf to-day--" + +"We need not discuss the question," she remarked as he stopped and +paused. "There is no necessity now for us to go into our accounts and +put down, 'I have done this, and Archie has done the other.' Before +this liquidation business is ended we shall have ample opportunity of +doing full justice each to the other--only--Rupert, I do not think you +would have been quite so ready to leave Homewood had your opinion and +that of the man Turner not to a certain extent coincided." + +"You wrong me greatly," he answered, "but as you say there is no +necessity for us to discuss these questions now. Do go to bed, dear; you +will knock yourself up if you neither rest nor sleep, and then who can +see to Archie?" + +"Good night," she said holding out her hand, "if I have misjudged you I +am sorry." + +He held the door open for her to pass out, and watched her as she +flitted up the staircase. + +Had she misjudged him Rupert wondered. No. Her instinct guided her +aright when reason might have failed to do so. + +"I suppose I am a rat," he thought, "and that by some curious intuition +I did guess the ship was sinking. Knowledge and calculation had, +however, nothing to do with the matter. That I can declare. Now it will +perhaps be well for me to calculate. I do not much relish hearing a list +of benefits conferred, recited at each interview." + +In his heart Rupert felt very angry. An individual must be remarkably +good looking to approve of a mirror which reflects him feature by +feature, wrinkle by wrinkle, exactly as he is! + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + MR. SWANLAND STIRS HIS TEA. + + +At a few minutes before six next morning, as Messrs. Lang and Hankins +were coming up the road, still sleepy after the long rest afforded by +the previous day, they saw Rupert Halling advancing to meet them. + +It was a miserable morning, raining a fine drizzling rain with a cold +wind blowing at the same time, but Rupert, careless as usual of the +state of the weather, walked along under the trees, his cap a little on +one side, his shooting-jacket flying open, whistling a low soft melody +confidentially to himself. + +"Good morning," he said to the men. "No one could call this a fine one. +Lang, give the keys to Hankins and walk with me a little way; I want to +speak to you." + +In a few words Mr. Halling explained his difficulty, and asked Lang to +help him out of it. + +"I can manage that easily enough," was the answer. "Luckily I did not +make up my books on Saturday as I generally do. Now, sir, remember you +know nothing except that you understood I was short twenty-five pounds +for the wages. Leave all the rest to me." + +"You are sure, Lang, you do not mind interfering in this." + +Mr. Lang laughed a short laugh, more like a snort than an evidence of +merriment. + +"Mind!" he echoed, "have I not been through the fire myself? but then I +knew what was coming and arranged accordingly. Otherwise me and my wife +and the children would not have had a bed to lie on. Mind! If the +governor or you had only told me things were coming to this pass, we +might have had a snug business at work some place else by this time, and +snapped our fingers at them all. By Heavens, to think of it!" added Mr. +Lang, stopping to look at Homewood. "I wish it had been bankruptcy +though, if it must be anything, and then we should have had some chance +of speaking out our minds about that rubbish from the General Chemical +Company." + +"I did not know you had ever been bankrupt," said Rupert. + +"Yes, sir; I had to fail; after the old gentleman's death," with a jerk +of his head he indicated that he meant Mr. Mortomley, senior. "I must +needs go as working partner into a firm who promised to do wonders for +me. When they had picked my skull clean, they wanted to pitch me over, +and they did pitch me over, thinking to have all the road to themselves, +but that was not good enough for me, not at all," added Mr. Lang +sarcastically. "I had a little money and I got a place and I set to +work, and I could have done well only there was not an article I dealt +in they did not offer at a lower price. + +"Seeing their game I lowered my prices, then they cut theirs still +lower, and so we went on till at last what we charged did not pay men's +wages, let alone material and rent and all the rest of it. + +"I being a practical man, and able to work myself, had a little the +advantage of them; and besides I knew what must come, sooner or later, +and so managed matters that when the brokers came in at last--and I was +sick to death of expecting them before they did come--there was not +enough in my house to pay the expenses of levying. + +"At the works of course everything remained as usual, for there was not +an article in them ever likely to be of use to me again. + +"My old partners and me smashed up about the same time, and they have +never done any good since. I met one of them only the other day and he +says, + +"'Lang,' he says, 'I wish we could have agreed and stayed together,' he +says, 'we might all have been independent by this time.' + +"'I wish,' I says, 'you could have acted honourable by me. It might have +been better for you in the long run. For myself, I'm pretty +comfortable, thank you. I have a good berth at Mortomley's, and needn't +lie awake half my nights thinking about the wages for Saturday.' + +"And then I asked him if he would take a glass of sherry; and though he +was once a high and mighty sort of gentleman, he thanked me and did take +it. That's the fruits of competition, sir, which some people think is so +good for trade." + +Turning the corner of the road sharply at this juncture, they came upon +a man who stood leaning over the close fence which on that side enclosed +the kitchen gardens at Homewood. + +It was early to meet a stranger in such a neighbourhood, more especially +a stranger who not being a working man had evidently no better +employment than to stand out in damp weather surveying local landmarks. + +He did not take any notice of either Rupert or his companion, continuing +to lounge against the fence and contemplate vegetable-marrows, cabbages, +and parsley. + +Rupert, however, turned twice or thrice and took a long steady survey +on each occasion. + +"Who is that man, Lang?" he inquired. + +"Never saw him before. He looks up to no good," answered Mr. Lang. + +Rupert and the manager walked a few steps further, and then began to +retrace their steps. + +As they did so, they beheld the stranger lounging slowly before them, +stopping at intervals to inspect the appearance of Homewood from +different points of view, and giving the two an opportunity to pass him +again. + +"Beg pardon," he said, when they were close upon him, "but can you +oblige me with a light?" + +He addressed Lang, but Rupert answered him by producing a box of +matches. + +"I wonder who that man can be," remarked Rupert once they were out of +earshot. + +"He _is_ up to no good," said Mr. Lang emphatically. + +"I don't think he is," agreed Rupert uneasily, but neither he nor Lang +could have defined the precise form of evil they believed the stranger +had set himself to compass. + +Had any one at Homewood kept a diary, however, which no one did with the +exception of Lang, who prided himself not a little on the neatness and +accuracy of his day-book, there would have been little in the events of +the next eight-and-forty hours worth chronicling. + +The clerks arrived as arranged, and before they had finished their work +Mr. Benning appeared to see how they were getting on and have a look +round the place, and ask a few questions of Rupert and Mrs. Mortomley, +and a great many when he got the chance of wandering about the works +unaccompanied, of Lang, Hankins, and even the rank and file of the +working men. + +He came, though Rupert was unaware of the fact, to try and find out +something, but whatever that something might be he failed to make any +discovery, excepting that the extent of Mr. Mortomley's trade had not +been exaggerated, and that about the serious and possibly dangerous +nature of his illness no rational doubt could be entertained. + +Having satisfied his mind on these points, he and the clerks returned +to town, taking as accurate a list of the liabilities as could be +prepared in the time with them. + +The same night Esther returned from Great Dassell, eloquent in praise of +Miss Gerace, who had sadly wanted her to remain at all events till the +following morning, and from whom she brought a very kind little note, +saying she would gladly take charge of Lenore until Mr. Mortomley was +better, and their difficulties of whatever nature they might be, +overcome. + +Next day Mr. Benning reappeared, accompanied by a Commissioner, to take +Mr. Mortomley's affidavit that to the best of his belief the accounts +furnished were accurate. + +This ceremony occupied about half a minute, but under the circumstances +it did prove an exhilarating performance, and to any one superstitious +about such matters, the steady downfall of rain which had commenced on +the previous Saturday, and never really left off since it began, was +suggestive of a considerable amount of bad weather in the business +journey Mortomley had been compelled to undertake. + +Late in the afternoon Miss Halling and her brother took their departure. +The young lady's luggage had all been despatched earlier in the day, and +Rupert's seemed to consist merely of a black leather bag. Nevertheless, +when Dolly went into his room she found it stripped of every article +belonging to him, even to the sketch of Lenore at five years of age +which always hung over the mantel-piece. + +The young man had made sure of the safety of his own possessions, and +Mrs. Mortomley had sense enough to commend his wisdom. + +Nevertheless there is a wisdom which hurts, and Rupert's hurt her. + +"I was right," she thought, "they are rats and the ship is sinking." And +from that hour she braced up her courage to meet whatever fate might be +coming, bravely--as she certainly would have done had she in fact stood +on the deck of a vessel foundering in the midst of a wild and cruel sea. + +Towards evening there arrived at Homewood a respectable looking sort of +individual, who announcing that he was the bearer of a note from Mr. +Swanland to Mrs. Mortomley, was asked without delay into the library. + +Mrs. Mortomley looked at him and felt relieved. Here was a middle-aged +confidential clerk, not at all like a man in possession, and she greeted +him with civility, not to say cordiality. + +"Pray sit down," she said, and Mr. Meadows seated himself with an +apparent show of deference, all the time he understood quite as well as +Mr. Bailey, there was not a chair in Homewood which did not already +belong of right, not exactly perhaps to him, but his employer. + +Then Mrs. Mortomley opened the note and read-- + + "Dear Madam, + + "The bearer, Mr. Meadows, will inform you that everything is going + on satisfactorily. He may be able, I trust, to relieve you from all + anxiety and responsibility, and I have directed him to make his + presence as little irksome as possible. To-morrow, if possible, I + hope to call at Homewood, in order to make arrangements for the + future. In the meantime, dear madam, + + "I have the honour to remain, + "Yours faithfully, + "V. S. SWANLAND. + + "To Mrs. Mortomley, + "Homewood, + "Whip's Cross." + +Mrs. Mortomley read this epistle over three times. If she had not been +enlightened on the point, it would never have occurred to her that Mr. +Meadows was to be located at Homewood. + +Having been enlightened, however, she asked, + +"Do I understand you are to remain here?" + +"It will be necessary for me to do so, madam," he answered, "until the +preliminaries are settled. In fact, it is quite possible I may have to +stay here until after the meeting of creditors." + +Mrs. Mortomley paused and reflected. She did not know he was letting her +down easily, and there was a feasibility about his statements which to +her mind stamped them with a certain authenticity. + +"Should you like tea or supper?" she asked after that mental +conference--unconscious still, poor Dolly! that there sat the +representative of the legal owner of Homewood and all it contained. +"Either can be sent to you here immediately." + +"If you have no objection ma'am," he answered, "I will go into the +kitchen out of the way--and I can take share of what is going--" + +"You are very thoughtful," said Mrs. Mortomley, "but I could not really +think of allowing such a thing. You can have your own rooms here and--" + +"I would rather go into the kitchen, ma'am," he persisted. "In these +cases I like to be out of the way and give no trouble." + +"That's extremely kind of you," said Mrs. Mortomley, and he failed, for +a reason, to hear the ring of sarcasm in her tone. "You shall be made +comfortable wherever you are, for I suppose now you are come--the men in +possession will go out." + +"Not to-night," he answered; "I have no instructions in the matter. +To-morrow, Mr. Swanland purposes to be here, and then no doubt, +everything will be gone into and arranged." + +So on Tuesday evening a third man joined the kitchen family circle at +Homewood, and added the smoke of his pipe to the smoke of those already +in possession. Wednesday came, the morning and the noon and the +afternoon passed without incident. + +Dolly had been much with her husband. Mr. Meadows took occasion to +wander into the works, and was treated at first with much respect. +Really anywhere Mr. Meadows might have passed--to those who did not know +he elected to live in the kitchen--for a small manufacturer--for a +master reduced to take a clerk's place. + +And Mr. Meadows had once occupied a very different position to that of +an accountant's bailiff, and how he ever chanced to occupy himself in +Mr. Swanland's service astonished all the people employed about +Homewood. + +He had a good, not to say superior, address. He spoke very fair English, +he wrote a capital hand, and possessed a considerable amount of +education. The routine of business was evidently familiar to him, though +he was of course utterly ignorant of every detail of the colour trade. +Still he asked a sufficient number of pertinent questions, to convince +Lang he felt determined to acquire such a smattering of knowledge as +might enable him to talk glibly on the subject hereafter to people who +did understand about the matter. + +At the end of two days Mr. Lang had taken the "new man's" measure, but +still he was puzzled to imagine what he could have been originally, and +how he ever came to adopt so low a calling. + +With Hankins the first question of interest was, whether the chemicals +were still to be had from St. Vedast Wharf. + +"You had better ask Mr. Swanland about that," was the answer. "He will +be here this evening." + +"What does he know about chemicals or colours either?" inquired Hankins. + +"Well, he is obliged to know something about everything," replied Mr. +Meadows. "He is an uncommonly clever gentleman." + +"One of those who can learn without being taught, I suppose," suggested +Hankins. + +"You have hit it pretty nearly," answered the other, in a tone which +checked any further inquiries at that moment on the part of Mr. Hankins. + +In the evening Mr. Swanland accompanied by Mr. Benning arrived, to make, +in his double capacity of trustee and manager, arrangements for carrying +on a business of which he knew almost as much as Mrs. Mortomley did of +algebra. + +Lang and Hankins and a subordinate foreman had been instructed to wait +his coming, and perhaps to this trial of patience the remark of the +latter, that "Swanland was the greatest swell for a man in possession he +had ever seen," might be ascribed. + +And indeed in one way his observation was strictly true, for whereas the +individuals sent from time to time by descendants of all the twelve sons +of Jacob, to keep watch and ward over the Mortomley goods and chattels, +only came in for a slice of the estate, Mr. Swanland came for all. + +At one swoop he had everything in his hand; without inventory or +formality of any kind, save announcing himself as manager and trustee, +he took a comprehensive grasp of Homewood and all it contained. The +horses in the stables, the chemicals and colours in the works, the bed +the sick man lay upon, the flowers in the garden, the exotics in the +greenhouse, the cat curled up before the hall fire, the dogs raving at +the length of their chains at the intruder, the pigeons in the dovecote, +and the monarch of the dunghill, all belonged to Mr. Swanland. On the +Saturday morning previously he had scarcely been aware that such a man +as Mortomley was in existence. If he had accidentally heard his name, no +memory of it remained; whilst as for Homewood, the place might have been +a station in Australia for aught he knew about it. + +And now he was master. Nominally the servant of the creditors, and +ostensibly acting for the bankrupt, he was as truly the lord of +Mortomley, the controller of his temporal destiny, as any southern +planter ever proved of that of his slaves. + +Whether the gentlemen, commercial and legal no doubt, who concocted the +Bankruptcy Act of 1869, and the other gentlemen of the Upper and Lower +Houses who made it law, ever contemplated that an utterly irresponsible +person should be placed in a responsible position it is not for me to +say, but I cannot think that any body of men out of Hanwell could have +proposed to themselves that the whole future of a bankrupt's life should +be made dependent on the choice of a trustee, since it is simple +nonsense to suppose a committee selected virtually by him and the +petitioning creditor have the slightest voice in the matter. + +And if any man in business whose affairs are going at all wrong should +happen to read these lines, which unhappily is not at all probable, +since literature at such a time chiefly assumes the form of manuscript, +let him remember liquidation means no appeal, no chance of ever having +justice done him, nor even, remote contingency,--supposing the trustee a +cool hand like Mr. Swanland,--of setting himself right with the business +world. + +He who goes into liquidation without first being sure of his trustee, +his lawyer, and his committee passes into an earthly hell, over the +portals of which are engraved the same words as those surmounting +Dante's 'Inferno.' + +He has left hope behind. God help him, for nothing save a miracle can +ever enable him to retrace the path to the spot where she sits immortal. + +At Homewood Mr. Swanland was in possession, and yet Dolly never +suspected the fact. Her first uneasiness arose from a few words uttered +by Mr. Benning. + +"I suppose the business will be carried on," he remarked, sitting in the +pleasant drawing-room with his feet stretched out towards the fire and +his hands plunged in his pockets. Dolly could not avoid noticing that +all these dreadful men did keep their hands in their pockets, as if they +had no use for them anywhere else. "We must get a manager, I suppose." + +Now was Dolly's opportunity. + +"The business cannot be carried on except by some one who understands it +thoroughly," she said. + +"I do not suppose there will be any difficulty about that," he answered. +"Competent people are always to be had if one knows how to look for +them." + +"Do you mean," she inquired, "that my husband will not have the +management of his own business. Under Mr. Swanland I mean of course," +she added. + +"Mr. Mortomley's health seems quite broken up," said Mr. Benning. "It +would be simple cruelty to ask him to attend to business. After the +meeting of creditors the best thing he can do will be to go to some +pretty seaside place in Devonshire or Cornwall, and live there +comfortable upon your money." + +For a minute the wretched woman sat silent facing her misery. Leave +Homewood! leave the business of which her husband thought so much! +Perhaps it was not true, perhaps she had not understood him. + +"Do you really think we had better go away, away altogether," she +gasped. + +"Certainly," he answered. + +At that moment, that critical moment, when she was about to ask if such +a proposal were possible what the meaning of liquidation could be, Mr. +Swanland, pale, bland, pleasant, courteous, Mr. Asherill's perfect +gentleman the accountant cat, with his claws sheathed in velvet, folded +in his muff, purring complacently, re-entered the room. + +"Well, Mrs. Mortomley," he said, "everything seems most satisfactory. +The trade appears good and the men employed respectable. Yes, thank you; +I will take a cup of tea." + +This was between the lines, and when Mrs. Mortomley handed him the tea +she noticed how he stirred it, not at all as Mr. Asherill's perfect +gentleman should have done, but holding the spoon upright. + +"It is a shame for me to be so hypercritical," she thought. "I dare say +he is a far honester man than this dreadful lawyer." + +And so she inclined her ear to his pleasant words. + +"Do not think, Mrs. Mortomley," he said, as he was leaving, with a +sudden uplifting of his Albino eyes, "that because I am placed here in a +disagreeable position I wish to make matters disagreeable to you. Pray +let me hear from you when you want anything, and be quite sure it is my +desire to act towards you as a friend in every way." + +And he put out his hand. + +Dolly took it, and thought she must by some accident have got hold of a +frog. + +Kleinwort was right. Mr. Asherill's partner had no digestion and no +heart. + +The more Mrs. Mortomley thought about Mr. Swanland the less she +believed in him, spite of his plausible manner and his pleasant +utterances, and when she crept into bed that night she caught herself +wondering whether there could be any good in a person whose hand was +like wet clay and who stirred his tea as the accountant stirred his. + +Mr. Swanland left Homewood with an instinctive knowledge that the +_quondam_ mistress of that place disliked him, which knowledge touched +the trustee in no vulnerable point. + +It made, however, some slight difference to Mrs. Mortomley in the +future, that future which, lying awake in the darkness, she vainly tried +to forecast. + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + IN THE 'TIMES.' + + +If there was trouble at Homewood on that especial Wednesday, it had not +been a day of unmixed pleasure to two people in the city. + +His worst enemy might have pitied Mr. Forde when on opening the 'Times,' +lying over the back of the official chair at St. Vedast Wharf, the first +sentence which met his eye was, + +"Before Mr. Commissioner Blank." "_Re_ Archibald Mortomley," and all the +rest of it. + +The paragraph was not altogether an inch long, but it proved enough to +make Mr. Forde turn as faint and sick as many a man brave enough and +honest enough had turned before in that very office. + +In imagination he saw looming in the distance ruin and beggary. He heard +the gates of St. Vedast Wharf close behind him for the last time. Things +were worse with him, much worse than they had been when Mortomley's +nephew came to say his uncle meant to go into liquidation, and Mr. Forde +felt impelled once again to take his hat. + +"I wish I had left then," he muttered. + +If a house be tottering, the removal of even a single stone may hasten +the impending catastrophe. As Mr. Forde believed, Mortomley was a most +important stone in the edifice of his own safety, and yet even at that +juncture it never occurred to him it was his own mad sledge-hammer blows +had driven it so completely out of place that no one could ever hope to +make it available at St. Vedast Wharf again. + +Really the manager was to be pitied. If there chanced to be one thing +more than another on which he piqued himself, it was his genius for +diplomacy, and, as Mr. Gibbons said, he had done a neat thing when he +employed his own solicitor to do Mortomley's work. + +If everything could have been prevailed upon to work as he intended it +should, Mr. Forde would have been comparatively at ease; but edged tools +have sometimes a knack of cutting those who play with them, and already +one of Mr. Forde's tools had inflicted upon him a nasty wound. + +"I will go round to Basinghall Street," he said almost aloud, as though +some balm of Gilead might be extracted even from Salisbury House, and he +went round to find Mr. Swanland out, Mr. Asherill urbane and unctuous as +ever. + +Deriving little consolation from his unsatisfactory interview with the +latter gentleman, he walked on to Kleinwort's office, only to find him +absent also, and the time of his return uncertain. + +Then, because he was able to think of no other person to whom he could +speak on the subject, he turned into Werner's counting-house. + +As usual, Mr. Werner was within and visible. + +"Have you seen the 'Times'?" asked Mr. Forde, after the first greetings +were exchanged. + +"Yes," was the short reply. + +"Were you not surprised?" + +"I do not know. I suppose I was. I thought you would have expressed your +wishes more clearly." + +"Clearly!" No italics and no number of interjections could convey an +idea of the tone in which Mr. Forde uttered this word. "Why, sir, I told +Benning as plainly as I could speak I wanted the matter kept out of the +papers, and if that was not sufficiently explicit, I repeated the same +thing to Swanland, and now just see the mess they have got me into." + +"What do your directors say?" + +"I have not seen any of them yet. What I shall say to them I cannot +imagine." + +And Mr. Forde beat a dismal tattoo on the corner of the desk as he +spoke. + +Then ensued a pause, during which Werner looked out at the weather, +which was wet and cheerless, and Mr. Forde looked at him. + +"What do you think?" asked the manager at length. + +"I do not think. What is the good of thinking? If you had not been so +decided on having your own way and insisting on Benning taking out the +order, this need never have happened; but you always imagine yourself +cleverer than anybody else, and so overshot the mark. Have you been to +Swanland?" + +"Yes, he was out. I saw Asherill, however, who repudiated all knowledge +of Mortomley and his affairs and Swanland and his doings. He blessed me +and gave me a tract, and said he was going to speak at a meeting this +evening on behalf of a mission to some hopeful heathens in Africa. He +presented me with tickets and asked me to give them to any friend if I +could not make use of them myself. Here they are." + +Henry Werner took the tickets and tore them into small atoms, flinging +these contemptuously into his waste basket. + +"If he would speak on behalf of a mission to the heathens of the City of +London, I could furnish him with some anecdotes calculated to adorn his +address," he remarked. "But to return to Mortomley. In your place I +should meet the difficulty boldly. There is nothing disgraceful about +Mortomley's debt to you; nothing disgraceful about the man, spite of all +the mud with which you have been pleased to bespatter him. His worst +crime is illness, and that illness leaves you at liberty to make good +any story you like to tell. If it were Kleinwort now--" + +"Kleinwort would never serve me as Mortomley has done," interrupted Mr. +Forde. + +"It is very hard to tell what any man would do till he is tried," said +Mr. Werner sententiously. + +"_You_ would not fail me. _You_ would always consider me. _You_ would +remember I have a wife and family depending upon me," observed Mr. Forde +entreatingly. + +"If I were in a corner myself, I am quite certain I should do nothing of +the kind," was the frank reply. "My dear fellow bring the case home. Do +_you_ never fail other people? Do _you_ always consider me for instance? +Have _you_ given throughout the whole of this affair of Mortomley's one +thought to his wife or child? No you have not, and no man in business +does. You would pitch Kleinwort and me and a score more over to-morrow +if you could do so safely, and we would pitch you over if any +extraordinary temptation came in our way. You do not believe in us, and +we do not believe in you; but we do believe we have amongst us got into +such a cursed muddle we cannot afford to throw anybody overboard who +might swim to land and tell the story of our voyage. That is the state +of the case, my friend. It is not a cheerful view of the position, but +it is the true one." + +"I have no doubt you would throw anybody overboard and jeer him while he +was drowning," said Mr. Forde bitterly. "Now let Kleinwort be what he +may, he has a heart. He is not like you, Werner." + +"Well that is a comfort at any rate," remarked Mr. Werner. "I do not +think I should care to be like Kleinwort." + +Mr. Forde did not reply. He always got the worst of the game when he +engaged in a verbal duel with Mr. Werner, so he remained leaning against +the corner of the desk for a minute or so in silence thinking how +extremely disagreeable Werner was and how hardly every one dealt with +him. + +At length he roused himself and said, "I suppose there is no good in my +staying here any longer." + +"You are quite welcome to stay" was the reply; "but I agree with you +that there is no good purpose to be served by your doing so." + +"What a Job's comforter you are," sighed poor Mr. Forde. + +"Job came all right in the end, if you remember," Mr. Werner replied. +"If you only fare ultimately half so well as he did you will not have +much cause to complain." + +"Yes, to-morrow must come, no matter how much sorrow to-day holds," +answered Mr. Forde unconsciously paraphrasing one of Kleinwort's +utterances. "If you see any of my people, Werner, do try to make things +a little pleasant for me." + +"You had better explain what you propose telling them, so that I may +know the statement I am expected to back up," said Mr. Werner. "These +things ought to be arranged beforehand." + +But Mr. Forde had already banged the door and departed, so that the last +utterance failed to reach his ears. + +When Mr. Werner went out during the afternoon he met Mr. Kleinwort. + +"Have not you some shares in that Spanish mine Green promoted," he +inquired. + +The German nodded. + +"Well, I heard this morning from good authority that the mine will never +pay, that the whole thing is a swindle, and was a swindle from the +beginning." + +"Ah! what a world is this," said Kleinwort with a pious and resigned +expression of countenance. + +"I do not think it is too late for you to sell," suggested Mr. Werner. + +The German shrugged his shoulders. + +"It matters not to me," he replied. + +"I thought you said you had shares," remarked his companion. + +"So I have; but they are in pledge don't you call it. That dear Forde +wanted them and he has got them. How nice it is when a man has got what +he wants." + +"Kleinwort, I am afraid you are a great rogue," observed Mr. Werner +severely. + +"Ditto to you half countryman of mine own," answered the other raising +his hat with a gesture of mock deference. "Have you been to St. Vedast +to-day? No. Neither have I. Seemed best, I thought, to leave poor Forde +to digest that neat little paragraph in the 'Times' without +disturbance!" + +"It will be a bad thing for him, I am afraid," remarked Werner. + +"It will be a bad thing for me, which is matter of much more interest to +Bertram Kleinwort," was the answer. "That accursed Benning and +thrice-accursed partner of the Christian wolf,--how I wish they were +both hanging on a gibbet higher than Haman's, and that I was big man +enough to pull their legs!" + +Having giving utterance to which Christian desire Mr. Kleinwort +departed, leaving even Werner astonished at the tone of deadly hatred he +concentrated in one sentence. + +"I believe you would do it too, you little devil," he decided. "Well, I +will go and tell Forde about the mine, and give him a chance of +selling." + +But Mr. Forde was not at the wharf. + +"He had received a letter by the second post," explained one of the +clerks, "which obliged him to start at once for Newcastle." + +Mr. Werner smiled. He understood the cause of that sudden journey, but +he only said, "I will look round again on Friday." + +But when Friday came, it was useless for him to do so. The shares in +that especial mine were a drug in the market. Every one was hastening to +sell, and no man could be found to buy. + +Meantime, however, fortune, which never proves more utterly capricious +than when we believe ourselves down for life in her black books, had +relented and done Mr. Forde a gracious turn. + +On the occasion of that meeting in behalf of the heathen, to which Mr. +Forde referred so contemptuously, Samuel Witney, Esq., took the chair, +and after various missionaries and others interested in the good work +had addressed the assemblage, and votes of thanks had been returned to +everybody for something, proposed to his dear brother in religion that, +as they must return to their respective homes from the Waterloo Station, +they should walk thither together. + +Perfectly well Mr. Asherill understood the reason of this suggestion, +and for one moment he hesitated whether he should not charter a cab to +the City and tell Mr. Witney the literal truth, namely, that he +generally travelled to and from his snug villa residence _via_ the North +London Railway. + +But immediately he decided to face the difficulty. Sooner or later his +fellow Christian was certain to question him about Mortomley, and the +sooner he did so, the less difficulty there might be in answering his +inquiries. + +"I was very much surprised to see in the 'Times' this morning that Mr. +Mortomley had gone into liquidation," began Mr. Witney. + +"Sad affair, is it not?" said Mr. Asherill, feeling his way. + +"It is sad for us. We are creditors, as of course you are aware." + +"I have been given to understand as much, but I am glad to know that you +are not creditors for any large amount, that is, I mean for anything +serious. A few thousands is of course a bagatelle, to a great concern +like the General Chemical Company." + +"Humph!" ejaculated Mr. Witney. He did not care to say the loss if total +would mean half dividend or none at all, and yet still he was too much +exercised in spirit to be able to remain silent under the grievance. +"One does not like to lose even a comparatively small sum," he observed +at length. + +"That is quite true," agreed Mr. Asherill, casting about in his own +mind to find the real reason why Forde, Werner, and Kleinwort had all +been so desirous to keep Mortomley on his feet. + +According to Mr. Witney, the state of whose feelings Mr. Asherill read +like a book, the colour-maker did not owe the Company such an amount as +to warrant the fuss made over and the anxiety exhibited about his +affairs. + +"What is your opinion on the subject of dividend?" asked Mr. Witney +after a pause. + +"Well, I can scarcely be said to have an opinion," was the reply. "I +have nothing to do with the matter. My young partner has it all in his +own hands. I did not wish our firm to undertake the management of the +affair." + +"Why?" inquired Mr. Witney. + +"I really could scarcely tell you why," answered Mr. Asherill, "except +that I have my whims and fancies, as some people would call them. +Mortomley's father was a friend of mine, and although a member of the +Church of England, a thorough Christian. He was, I assure you," +continued Mr. Asherill, as his companion shook his head in a manner +which might either have expressed disbelief or a desire to imply that +wonders would never cease. "He gave me a helping hand once, when help +meant more than it usually does" ('more than you would have given your +brother,' added Mr. Asherill mentally) "and I did not like the notion of +winding up the son. One never knows how sadly these things may end, and +of course a trustee ought to have no personal feeling towards a +bankrupt. He ought to be as impartial as justice herself. Mr. Swanland, +however, has got the management of the estate, which from what I hear is +a good estate, a very good estate indeed," finished Mr. Asherill +unctuously, as though he were saying grace before partaking of a +plenteous and well-served dinner. + +"You think there will be a good dividend then?" suggested Mr. Witney. + +"Well, I did hear," was the cautious answer, "some talk of twenty +shillings in the pound, but that I do not credit. The expenses, go to +work as we may, must be considerable, and then things may not fetch the +prices expected; and, further, poor Mortomley is ill, and that is always +a drawback; but if you get fifteen shillings, come now, you would not +grumble then?" + +"No, certainly; but we should like to see twenty," said Mr. Witney. "I +will call round and have a talk with Mr. Swanland on the subject." + +"Do," said Mr. Asherill cordially. "He will be able to tell you all +about it, much better than I," and the two men having by this time +arrived at Waterloo, they shook hands and blessed one another and +proceeded to their respective trains, Mr. Asherill thinking as he went, +"You do not know any more than I why your manager wanted this affair +kept quiet, but you will know to your cost some day, or I am greatly +mistaken." + +After all, it is never the straws which know so well the way the wind is +blowing as those who see them swept along with the gale. + +"I give the Chemical Company another year," went on Mr. Asherill, +mentally continuing the subject. "That I fancy will be about long +enough for them." + +And then he fell to considering whether he should like to have the +winding up of the St. Vedast Wharf estate, and decided he should not, +for the simple reason that he did not think there would be much estate +left to wind up. + +There is often a touching directness about the secret motives of +professing Christians. Perhaps this may be the reason why carnal and +unconverted creatures love so little those who love themselves and +worldly prosperity so much. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + MR. SWANLAND WISHES TO BE INFORMED. + + +Meantime at Homewood a nice little storm was coming up against the wind. + +Concerning misfortune, Kleinwort's theory may be accepted as correct. It +is rarely the expected rain-fall, rarely the anticipated storm, which +beats down the hopes of a man's life, destroys all the fair prospect of +his future. In nine cases out of ten the tempest creeps out of some +totally unlooked-for quarter; and behold ere one can quite understand +that the morning sunshine is overcast, or the mid-day glory clouded, the +heavens are opened, and out of them proceed lightnings and thunder and +blinding tempests which blast every bud and flower and fruit a man has +looked on with hope and pride, before he can realise the nature of the +misfortune that has fallen upon him. + +Now something of this kind occurred at Homewood, and it assumed the +shape first of a most polite note from Mr. Swanland, asking Mrs. +Mortomley if she could oblige him by calling at his office at eleven +o'clock on the next morning, Saturday, as he was unable to go to +Homewood, and there were two or three matters about which it was +necessary for him to see her, and next of the following: + + "St. Swithin's Lane, E.C. + "September 29th, 187--. + + "Mrs. Mortomley, + "Homewood. + + "Madam, + + "A Mr. Benning has been with us to make some inquiries concerning + the moneys bequeathed to you by Miss Dollabella Chippendale, of + which our Mr. Daniells is trustee. In Mr. Daniells' absence we have + deferred answering these inquiries, but we think it might be + advisable for you to request your solicitor to call upon us with + reference to this matter, Mr. Benning, as we understand, being only + engaged about some liquidation affair in which Mr. Mortomley is + concerned. + + "Your obedient Servants, + "HERSON, DANIELLS, AND CO." + +Dolly sat and pondered over these letters as she had sat and pondered +over the letter signed John Jones, mentioned in a very early chapter. + +That epistle she had regarded in the light of a gratuitous piece of +impertinence emanating either from Mr. Kleinwort or Mr. Forde, and under +this impression she worded the advertisement which so annoyed Mr. +Asherill; but when the last post of the next day brought those two +missives, she began to wonder whether John Jones might not really have +been some humble friend gifted with greater prescience than she +possessed, who, unknowing of the remnant of her quarter's income she +still possessed, might imagine her so short of money that even two +pounds four shillings might prove acceptable. + +Moved by some incomprehensible impulse, she, the most careless of +created beings, searched for that letter and locked it away in her +dressing-case. + +There was no Rupert to talk to now. Twice since his departure he had +appeared at Homewood, the first time to say Antonia was busy purchasing +her trousseau, and that old Dean had acted most generously in the matter +of money, on the next occasion to ask Dolly not to expect to see him +before Monday, as he was obliged to go down to Bath; the real truth +being Rupert had thought the Homewood matter over, and decided that +until Antonia had become Mrs. Dean, the less he saw of that place the +better. + +On the occasion of his first visit, Turner, the man already mentioned as +having incited Esther to remove those vases and statuettes which seemed +to them both desirable possessions, stopped him on his way to the gate. + +"You and Mr. Lang, sir, saw a man the other morning looking over the +fence, I believe?" + +Rupert nodded assent. + +"And you asked Lang who he was, and Lang could not tell you?" + +"Yes," agreed Mr. Halling. + +"Well, I know, sir; he's a detective, and there are more of them about." + +Rupert stepped back as if he had received a blow, he stepped back so far +he was brought up by a tree of _arbor vitae_, out of which he emerged +dripping with wet. + +"Detectives?" he repeated, taking off his hat and smoothing it +mechanically. "What can they want here?" + +"If I am not greatly out in my calculation, sir, there are those in this +business who would cheerfully give a hundred pounds to catch Mr. +Mortomley tripping, or to be able to prove he ever did trip." + +"Mr. Mortomley may safely defy them then," said Rupert, but he did not +turn back and warn Dolly there were spies round and about watching the +old familiar place. + +Mr. Turner stood contemplating his retreating figure. + +"A fine young man," he thought, "but cut out and made up after the +world's pattern. And so he won't tell her. Well, then, I will; for a +lady like Mrs. Mortomley ought not to be kept in the dark. And her +husband too ill to look after aught for himself," added Mr. Turner, who +in truth was with the Mortomleys heart and soul, so far as the +exigencies of his delightful profession allowed him to have sympathy for +any one beyond the "one" who had put him in possession. + +So he told Esther, who told her mistress, who was naturally incredulous +of, and indignant at, Turner's statement. + +"Detectives!" she repeated scornfully. "Does the man suppose we are +thieves or murderers?" + +"No, ma'am, but I--I do really think he is sorry for you--and--the +master." + +Esther was brushing Mrs. Mortomley's hair, as she uttered this sentence +slowly, and with considerable hesitation. + +In the glass she could see reflected her mistress's downcast face--the +sudden compression of her lips--the quiver about her mouth. + +They had sunk very low Dolly felt, when even the bailiffs pitied them! + +That was her first thought. Her next was, that in his way Turner was +trying to do his best for her and her husband, but she could not trust +herself to speak upon the subject, so she refrained from answering, and +the brushing proceeded in silence. + +Next morning Esther detected some white hairs amongst the brown. Of late +this had been a matter of no rare occurrence. + +"What does it signify?" Mrs. Mortomley exclaimed. "If these men stay +here much longer my hair will be white as snow. Oh! I wish!--I wish--I +wish!" she added passionately, "we had a house to ourselves once again. +If it were the humblest cottage in England in which I could shut the +door and feel we were alone, I should thank God for his mercy--" + +"It cannot be for long, ma'am, Turner says--" Esther was beginning, +when Mrs. Mortomley faced round upon her. + +"If you mention that man's name again, I will give you notice." + +Which certainly most servants so situated would have taken without +further ceremony on the spot. + +If Mrs. Mortomley had possessed the wisdom of the serpent, she would not +have arrayed herself in the gorgeous attire she selected as especially +suitable for a visit to Mr. Swanland's offices; but Dolly could not yet +realize the fact that her husband was bankrupt, that a trustee ruled at +Homewood, that the last man in possession was his lord-lieutenant, that +the men were no longer Mortomley's men, but belonged to Mr. Swanland, as +did the works and everything else, themselves scarcely excepted, about +the place. + +So, arrayed like the Queen of Sheba, Dolly started away on foot to catch +the train from Leytonstone which should enable her to reach Mr. +Swanland's office by eleven. + +There were horses in the stable, but Mrs. Mortomley forbade them being +harnessed for her benefit. + +"It was a fine morning and she preferred walking," she said; though Mr. +Meadows with some effusion of manner assured her, if she wished, he +would have the carriage brought round directly, and he continued to +press his offer till she cut him short by saying, + +"As it seems I can no longer order my carriage for myself, I shall walk. +You have taken very good care, Mr. Meadows, during the course of the +last two days to let me know I am not mistress here or my husband +master. Kindly stand aside and let me pass. I have to see your employer +at eleven o'clock." + +And she opened the gate for herself, and walked out into the road as if +not Homewood alone but all the stately homes of England had belonged to +her of right; walked out to hear the worst which could befall. + +It was a splendid morning. After raining for a whole week with scarcely +a moment's intermission, the weather that day seemed to have made up +its mind to turn over a new leaf and to be bright for evermore. + +Athwart all the forest glades sunbeams fell in golden bars on the vivid +turf; the trees were still in full leaf, the songs of birds sounded in +Dolly's ears; all nature seemed careless and happy and prodigal; and as +the woman upon whom such trouble had fallen so suddenly looked first on +this side and on that, she thanked God involuntarily for the beauty of +this beautiful world, and then exclaimed almost aloud, + +"And there _must_ be some way into the sunshine for us, if I could only +see which turning to take." + +There was, my dear, and you had taken the turning. All unconsciously +your feet were already treading a path leading into the +sunshine--through dreary wastes it is true--along places stony and +thorny; across wilds hard to traverse, but still a path conducting to +the sunshine, out of the blind, maddening, perplexing darkness, into +light. + +It has always been a puzzle to me why the newest offices in London are +those which seem most frequently under the hand of the house decorator. + +If you happen to have an account at an old banking establishment, to +have entrusted your affairs to the management of an old-fashioned +solicitor, or to be acquainted with a broker who is one of a firm known +in the City for years, you may call upon each and all of them, season +after season, without fearing to encounter that villainous smell of +paint which meet those who do business with new people at every turn, on +every landing. + +As for Salisbury House, painters, white-washers, paper-hangers, and +varnishers pervaded it with a perpetual presence. + +A man given to punning once suggested the reason for this was--the +dreadful cases taken in there--but Mr. Asherill, to whom the remark was +made, would not see the intended joke, and observed it might be well for +some people, who did not possess a saving faith, if men were able to +perform a similar cleansing operation on their souls. + +On the occasion of Mrs. Mortomley's first visit to Salisbury House, Mr. +Swanland's own office was undergoing a course of purification, and he +was therefore compelled to receive her in the room where a week +previously Messrs. Kleinwort and Werner had been admitted to an audience +with the senior partner. + +In acknowledgment of his own comparatively subordinate standing in the +firm, Mr. Swanland's papers were ranged upon a table covered with green +baize, drawn close beside the window, while Mr. Asherill maintained his +position at the ponderous mass of mahogany and morocco leather which +occupied the centre of the room. + +When Mrs. Mortomley entered, Mr. Asherill rose, and, with a profound bow +and studied courtesy of manner, handed her a chair. + +Mr. Swanland availed himself of this opportunity of feebly indicating +his senior as "my partner;" then, while Mr. Benning who was present +advanced to shake hands, Mr. Asherill resumed his seat and his +occupation with an air which said plainly to all who cared to +understand, + +"Now don't interrupt me or trouble me about your trumpery business. Here +am I with the whole future of mercantile London on my shoulders, and it +is absurd to expect me to give the smallest attention to this +ridiculously poor affair." + +At intervals he touched his office bell, and sent the clerk who appeared +in answer, to Mr. So-and-So, to know about such and such an affair; or +had a book big enough to have contained lengthy biographies of all the +Lord Mayors of London from the time of Fitz Alwyn downwards brought in, +from which he made a feint of extracting some useful information; but +really all the time he was watching Mrs. Mortomley. + +Without appearing to do so, he took her in from the enormous rolls and +plaits on the very summit of which her bonnet was perched to the +high-heeled boots, the tops of which reached high above her ankles. +There was not a flower or ruche or frill or furbelow or bow about her +dress of which he did not make a mental inventory. He noted the lace on +her mantle, and the fit and colour of her gloves; and while he thus +noticed her face, dress, manner, and tried to piece a consistent whole +out of the woman's appearance, her position, and Kleinwort's account of +her, the talk went on smoothly and easily enough at first. + +"It will be necessary for us, Mrs. Mortomley, to know something about +your own money in the event of any questions being asked at the meeting +of creditors," began Mr. Swanland, after he had asked after Mr. +Mortomley and apologised for bringing her to town. "It was left to you +by a relation, I believe?" + +"No," Dolly explained, "not a relation exactly. By my godmother, Miss +Chippendale." + +"Before or after your marriage?" + +"You need not trouble Mrs. Mortomley with all those questions," Mr. +Benning here interrupted. "I have been to Doctors' Commons and +ascertained all the particulars." + +Dolly turned and looked at him as he said this; turned sharply and +suddenly, and then for the first time Mr. Asherill decided she was not +a person whom it might be quite safe to offend. + +Already he saw that there was secret war between her and Mr. Benning; +already he understood she scented danger afar off, and was standing at +bay waiting for its coming. + +"I am sure," said Mr. Swanland in his smoothest tone, with his blandest +and falsest smile, "I do not want to trouble Mrs. Mortomley +unnecessarily about anything; but it is for the interest of all +concerned that we should know at first precisely how we are placed. How +we are placed," repeated Mr. Swanland with some self-satisfaction at the +neatness of his sentence. + +"That is just what I want to know," agreed Dolly, "though it seems to me +we could scarcely be in a more miserable position than is the case at +present." + +At this juncture Mr. Asherill cleared his throat vehemently. Mr. Benning +seated with his legs stretched out crossed one foot over the other and +contemplated the polish on his boots while Mr. Swanland remarked, +"Ladies are always so hasty. They jump at conclusions so rapidly, and I +must say, if you will forgive me, Mrs. Mortomley, frequently so +erroneously." + +"You mean, I suppose, that we may find ourselves in a more miserable +position still?" said Dolly flushing a little. "If that be your meaning, +let me know at once whether this fresh trouble refers to my money." + +"I assure you--" began Mr. Swanland. + +But she interrupted him by a quick impatient gesture. + +"Why did you ask me to come here this morning? What is it you wish to be +told that Mr. Benning cannot tell you better than I?" + +Mr. Asherill laid down his pen and began to turn over the leaves of his +diary softly and with a great show of interest. Mr. Benning lifted his +eyes from his boots to stare at Mrs. Mortomley, while Mr. Swanland +looking across at him asked, + +"Was there anything to that effect in the will?" + +"No. If you had given me five minutes' interview, as I asked, I could +have told you there was not." + +"And Herson?" + +"Knows nothing, or will know nothing, except the fact that money has +been withdrawn for business purposes, and that Daniells refused to allow +any more to be used, which all tallies with Forde's statements." + +"Mrs. Mortomley," asked Mr. Swanland, "you can save us a vast amount of +trouble if you will kindly inform us whether there has been any +settlement made upon you of this money." + +"I do not know," she answered. "I suppose so; however, the money is +mine, it was left to me." + +"Of course, of course, we understand all that," said Mr. Swanland. "What +I want you to tell me is whether Mr. Mortomley ever made any settlement +of this money on you." + +"No. It did not come from any of his relations or friends; it was +bequeathed to me as I have already stated by--" + +"She does not know," suggested Mr. Swanland, speaking across Dolly to +Mr. Benning. + +"No; but I think we may draw our own conclusions. Was the subject of +settlements ever discussed between you and your husband?" he inquired, +turning to Mrs. Mortomley. + +"No; certainly not. We never had separate purses, we never could have. +What was his was mine, and what is mine shall of course always be his." + +"We do not mean to suggest that you and Mr. Mortomley ever were or ever +will be on other than the most affectionate terms," retorted Mr. Benning +with a slight sneer. + +"Fortunately the domestic happiness or unhappiness of our clients is not +a matter we are called upon to investigate," said Mr. Swanland with a +light laugh. "Eh, Asherill?" + +Mr. Asherill looked up with an expression of face which implied he had +come up from the profoundest depths of thought to hearken to his +partner's babble. + +"No, no, no," he agreed hastily. "Matrimony is an account out of which +it would take wiser heads than ours to make a fair balance-sheet," and +he was resuming his occupation, when Mrs. Mortomley addressed him. + +"Sir," she said, his white hair and large head inspiring her with a +momentary confidence in his integrity and straightforwardness, "you look +like a gentleman who might have daughters of your own, daughters as old +as I am, and who may yet be--though I earnestly hope not--in as great +difficulty and perplexity as I am this day. Will you tell me what is the +meaning of all this--why do they ask so many questions about my money?" + +"I do not know anything about the matter, my dear," he answered, in his +most patriarchal manner. "I have not the faintest idea what it is my +young partner has in his mind, but you may be quite certain it is +nothing except what will turn out for your good eventually. You may +trust him implicitly." + +Dolly surveyed the trio while Mr. Asherill was speaking, and when he +finished she felt she had never seen at one time three men together +before less calculated to inspire confidence. + +"The days of highwaymen are over," she said when describing the +interview subsequently to Mrs. Werner, "but I felt instinctively I had +got amongst banditti." + +"Supposing," she said, turning to Mr. Swanland, "that there were no +settlements, how will it affect me?" + +"How will it affect Mrs. Mortomley, Benning?" inquired Mr. Swanland +innocently. + +"What is the use of asking such a question of me?" exclaimed Mr. Benning +irritably. "You know as well as I that in such a case what is hers is +her husband's, and--" + +"Go on please," said Dolly, as he paused. + +"And what is your husband's, I was going to say," he proceeded, spite of +Mr. Swanland's look of entreaty, "is his creditors'." + +"Then you mean to have my money?" she said, "you mean to take the only +thing left to us?" + +"There may be a settlement you know," observed Mr. Swanland in a +soothing voice. + +"There is not, I feel there is not," she interrupted. + +"And in any case," continued Mr. Swanland, "it is not we who take, but +the law; it is not we who have, but the creditors. We must hope for the +best, however, Mrs. Mortomley. No one will be more truly rejoiced than I +to know this money is secured to you." + +She seemed as if she had not heard his sentence, but sat for a minute +like one stunned. Then she said bitterly, + +"A 'Well Wisher' sent me two pounds four the other day, and I forwarded +the amount to the London Hospital. It seems to me I may yet have reason +to repent of my haste at my leisure." + +In an airy manner Mr. Swanland, apparently treating her words as a mere +jest, remarked, "I am not quite sure, Mrs. Mortomley, that in my +capacity as trustee the two pounds four you mention ought not to have +been handed over to me." + +If his words conveyed any meaning to her she made no sign of +understanding it. After sitting for a few moments lost in thought she +rose, and saying "I shall go at once to a solicitor," inclined her head +to the accountants and Mr. Benning, and left the office, before Mr. +Asherill could open the door for her to pass out. + +That same evening Mr. Meadows received a note from his employer +containing various directions and instructions. After the signature came +a postscript, "How does it happen _Mrs._ Mortomley's letters have not +been forwarded to me? See to this _at once_, and never let me have to +complain of such negligence again." + +For with all the flocks and herds of the Mortomley +Estate held in his hand, Mr. Swanland's +soul sickened, because of that two pounds four +shillings he could never now hope to liquidate. + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + MRS. MORTOMLEY'S FORTUNE. + + +Mr. Leigh, Mortomley's solicitor, was all that in an early chapter of +this story Mr. Asherill stated him to be, and perhaps a little more. + +He was honest and honourable, a kind father, a devoted husband, an +affectionate son, and a staunch friend, but he was human, and being +human his reception of Mrs. Mortomley proved cool and formal. + +No one knew more of Mortomley's estate than he--not even Mortomley +himself. His father had managed the legal affairs of Mortomley's father, +and he personally had been _au fait_ with every in and out of the son's +hopes and disappointments, successes and failures, gains and losses, +liabilities and expectations, until the death of Richard Halling. + +At that time, some outspoken advice was given on the one side, which +caused a certain amount of vexation on the other; and although Mr. Leigh +had never ceased to act as the colour-maker's solicitor, still from the +day that grievous connection--so madly continued with the General +Chemical Company began--he knew so little of the actual position of his +former friend, that when Mortomley walked into his office, out of which +he was subsequently dragged by a clerk from St. Vedast Wharf, and stated +it was absolutely necessary for him to lay the state of his affairs +before his creditors, the lawyer stared at him aghast. + +Then after that patched up truce with fate, the terms of which were +evolved out of the workings of Mr. Forde's ingenuity, things went on as +before, and he had no more idea his client was on the verge of +bankruptcy, until he saw that paragraph previously mentioned in the +'Times,' than he had of going into the 'Gazette' himself. + +Well might Mr. Leigh consider he had been hardly done by. At least he +was an honest man, and yet Mr. Mortomley evidently preferred that a +black sheep should manage his affairs. + +Faithfully, through every chance and change of life, he had dealt by his +client; and now when he really might have made some amount of money +worth having out of his estate, that client pitched him over. + +And finally, as if all these injuries were not enough, here was Mrs. +Mortomley herself, a woman he had never taken to or understood, sitting +in his office, dressed out as if liquidation by arrangement meant +succession to an earldom and a hundred thousand a year. + +He sat and looked at her, not speculatively, as Mr. Asherill had done, +but disapprovingly. + +Mr. Leigh entertained some old-fashioned ideas, and one of these +happened to be that a woman who, at such a juncture, could think of her +dress, was not likely to be of much assistance when the evil days +arrived in which pence should take the place of pounds,--and stuffs, of +silks and satins. + +Nor did he, of course, incline more favourably to Mortomley's wife, when +she explained how small a share her husband had in the selection of Mr. +Benning. + +If Mortomley had not been ungrateful, she had proved herself so little +better than a simpleton, that he could not find an excuse for her folly, +in her ignorance. + +All this made it hard for Dolly to tell her tale; indeed for ever Mr. +Leigh had only a hazy idea that, in the event of his having happened to +be in town instead of absent from it, things might have turned out +differently. + +A week only had elapsed since Mrs. Mortomley took her early walk to seek +that vague advice and assistance, which last is never given, which first +is always utterly useless; but so many events had crowded themselves +into the space of eight days, that the incident slipped out of the +sequence of her story, and was only mentioned accidently by her. + +Indeed, she was so full of the horrible idea suggested by the interview +at Salisbury House that she began at the end of her narrative, instead +of the beginning. She asked questions, and failed to answer questions +which were put to her. + +"What was a settlement--had any been made--was it true, as Mr. Benning +said, that if there were no settlement, everything went to the +creditors. If so, what was to become of her husband, Lenore, and +herself?" + +Mr. Leigh replied to her last inquiry first. + +"There will be an allowance made out of the estate, of course," he said. + +"Are you certain," she persisted; "for if they can avoid doing so, I am +sure we shall not have a penny." + +Whereupon, Mr. Leigh read her a mild lecture warning her of the danger +of being prejudiced, and making enemies instead of friends. He gave her +to understand that Mr. Swanland was a member of a most respectable +profession, and that she had not the smallest reason to suppose he was +inimical to her husband, or disposed to act in other than the kindest +and most honourable manner. + +With an impatient gesture Mrs. Mortomley averted her head. + +"I shall never be able to make any one comprehend my meaning," she said +wearily, "until events have verified my forebodings. It seems of no use +your talking to me, Mr. Leigh, or my talking to you, for you think me +foolish and prejudiced, and I think you know just about as much of what +liquidation by arrangement really is as I did a week ago." + +"In that case--" he began coldly. + +"You think I ought to say good morning, and refrain from wasting your +valuable time," she interrupted. + +"My dear Mrs. Mortomley," he said gently, for he saw that her eyes were +full of tears, and that her trouble was very genuine, "pray compose +yourself, and try to look calmly at your situation. You are frightening +yourself with a bugbear of your own creation, I assure you. The new +Bankruptcy Act was framed for the express purpose of relieving honest +debtors from many hardships to which they were formerly exposed, and to +assist creditors to obtain their money by a cheaper and more simple mode +than was practicable previously. You cannot suppose a trustee has the +power to act contrary to law, and the law never contemplated beggaring a +man merely because he chanced to be unfortunate. You may make your mind +quite easy about money matters. I do not say you will be able to have +the luxuries you have hitherto enjoyed;" here he made a slight stop, as +if to emphasise the fact on her comprehension, "but you will have +everything needful for your position. And with respect to your own +fortune, which I am afraid cannot be saved, there are two sides to +everything, and there are two sides to this. As a lawyer of course I +think every husband ought to secure the pecuniary future of his wife and +family, but really my unprofessional opinion is that settlements which +place a woman in a position of affluence, and consequently provide a +handsome income for a man, no matter how reckless or improvident he has +been, can scarcely be defended on any ground of right or reason. Do you +follow my meaning?" + +She looked up at him as he made this inquiry, and answered, + +"Do not think me rude. I cannot give my mind to what you are saying. +Possibly you are right. I heard your words, and I shall remember them +sufficiently, I have no doubt, to be able to argue the matter out by +myself at some future time--if--if we ever get into smooth water again; +but I cannot think of anything but ourselves now, I cannot. While you +are speaking my thoughts run back to Homewood, and I wonder what has +happened there, and whether, if I told this great trouble to Archie, it +would kill him outright. Through everything, I know, he has calculated +on that money for me and Lenore. If he had not been satisfied, if he had +ever doubted my right to it for a moment, do you suppose he would have +run such a risk? Do you think he would have failed to make any necessary +arrangement to keep us beyond the possibility of want?" + +"I am certain he would if he could have foreseen a time like this," the +lawyer answered. "But you must remember men do not anticipate bankruptcy +as a rule. When they do, it is far too late to talk of settlements. If +every one were prudent and foreseeing, misfortunes such as these could +not occur; but bankruptcy is not a pleasant eventuality for a person to +contemplate, though it is undoubtedly true that every business man ought +to order his course just as if he expected to go into the 'Gazette' +within a week." + +"We hear something like that every Sunday about living as if we were +dying, don't we, Mr. Leigh?" she asked, with a little gasping sob, "but +we none of us practise what we are told. I wonder now," Dolly added, +addressing no one in particular, but speaking her thoughts out loud, +"whether the clergy are right after all, whether, if we all go on as we +are going, we shall, men and women alike, prove utter bankrupts at the +Judgment-day. An immortality of insolvency is not a pleasant future to +contemplate; but it may be true. I dare say it will be perfectly true +for some of us." + +Mr. Leigh was eminently a safe man--safe in morals, religion, politics, +and money matters, and nothing offended his ideas more than wild +utterances and random talk, for which reason Mrs. Mortomley's last +sentence proved more distasteful than even her candidly expressed doubt +as to his thorough acquaintance with the new Bankruptcy Act. + +But he was kind, and if his visitor had occasionally a curious and +unpleasant way of communicating her ideas, he could see underlying all +external eccentricities that she was in fearful trouble, not because she +dreaded being unable to renew her laces and replace her silks--truth +being, Dolly had never descended even mentally to such details--but +because she had taken a phantom to nurse and reared it into a giant. + +Some one, it was necessary, should adopt measures to destroy the giant, +he decided, ere it destroyed her. + +"Mrs. Mortomley," he began, "you ought to get out of town for a short +time--" + +"And leave my husband?" + +"No, take him with you." + +She shook her head. "You do not know how ill he is. No one knows how ill +he is but me, not even the doctors." + +"He would get stronger if he were away, and he must be strong before the +meeting of creditors. Ask the doctors, and be guided by their advice. +Now let me entreat of you to be influenced by what they may say." + +"If it were possible to move him it might be better," she said +thoughtfully, "but he could not go without me, and I suppose I ought to +be at Homewood." + +"Why, are Miss Halling and her brother and all those men you told me +about not sufficient to take care of the place?" asked Mr. Leigh. + +She opened her lips to tell him that Rupert and Antonia had left, but +closed them again, feeling ashamed to say how utterly desolate she and +her husband were in their extremity. + +"I think I ought to stay," she remarked at last. + +"Really I cannot see the necessity. The presence of Mr. Swanland's clerk +of course relieves you from all real responsibility." + +"I suppose so--but still--" + +"But still what?" + +"When we leave Homewood we shall leave it for good. I feel that. I mean +we shall leave it altogether, whether for good or for ill, whichever may +befall." + +"If you were to go from home for a few weeks, you would look at your +position much more cheerfully," answered Mr. Leigh, who was not himself +utterly unacquainted with some of the moods and tenses of a woman's +mind. + +"Mr. Benning said we should be quite free to go when once the meeting of +creditors was over," Mrs. Mortomley remarked. + +"That was an absurd observation," returned Mr. Leigh, "for you are +perfectly free to go now." + +"Yes; but he meant _for ever_," Dolly explained. "I am not mistaken," +she went on. "He said they could get a manager, that my husband's +health was broken, and that the best thing we could do was to go to some +pretty seaside place and live there comfortably upon my money." + +Mr. Leigh's face darkened. "I must see to this," he said, speaking +apparently to himself; then added, "Trust me, Mrs. Mortomley, I will do +all in my power for you. I am afraid you have made one false step, but +we must try to remedy it as far as possible. In the meantime most +certainly I should get Mr. Mortomley away for a time. The state of his +health complicates matters very much. Have you--excuse the question, but +I know how suddenly these things sometimes come upon men of +business--have you money?" + +"Yes, thank you," she answered. "I have enough for the present; at +least, Rupert has money of mine, and I can get it from him." + +"And you will try to remove Mr. Mortomley," he went on, "and pray let me +hear from you, and send me your address. Do not be so despondent, Mrs. +Mortomley. Only get your husband well and everything will yet be right." + + +She smiled, but shook her head incredulously. + +"You are very kind, Mr. Leigh," she said, "and I only hope your pleasant +words may prove true prophecies. If they do not, when once we know the +worst, whatever that may prove, we must try to bear it. I think we shall +be able," added Dolly a little defiantly, drawing herself up about a +quarter of an inch. She was so little she had generally to go about the +world stretched out as much as possible. + +"She is not a bad specimen of a woman, if she only knew how to dress +herself suitably," thought Mr. Leigh after her departure, "but I am +afraid she is not the wife poor Mortomley ought to have had at a crisis +like this." + +Which was really very hard upon Dolly, who had not the slightest +intention of ever reproaching Mortomley--as a model wife might have +done--because of the ruin that had come upon them. + +Rather she was considering as she walked to Fenchurch Street how she +should keep knowledge of this latest misfortune from him. + +And then as regarded her dress, so objectionable in the eyes of a man +who knew exactly the sort of sad-coloured garments appropriate for such +an errand as Mrs. Mortomley's, does any intelligent reader suppose it +was one atom too rich or too rare in the opinion of those four young +ladies from Chigwell with whom Mrs. Mortomley travelled on her return +journey? + +Nay, rather they reported when they reached their own home, that Mrs. +Mortomley looked nicer than usual, was pleasanter and more talkative +even than her wont, and _beautifully dressed_, they added as the +crowning point in her perfections. + +If they had known what Dolly thought about them, they might not have +been so enthusiastic in her praise. + +Having no one near at hand in whom she could confide, she marvelled to +herself, + +"I wonder whether on the face of the earth there is any creature so +utterly wearisome as a human being." + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + LEAVING HOMEWOOD. + + +Days passed--days longer than had ever previously been known at +Homewood--the weather, which brightened up for Mrs. Mortomley's visit to +Salisbury House, became on the Sunday as bad as ever again, and +continued rainy and miserable during the early part of the week. The men +in possession did not leave. It was understood they were to be paid. Mr. +Swanland had hoped to get rid of them without going through this +ceremony, but finding the law against him, and having an objection to +part with money, arranged for them to stay on till he had "sufficient in +hand," to quote his own phrase, to settle their claims. + +Meantime on the Saturday there had been almost a turn out of the +workmen, who were kept waiting for their wages until it suited Mr. +Bailey's convenience to go down from London to pay them. + +They grumbled pretty freely concerning this irregularity; so freely, +indeed, that Mr. Bailey told them if they did not like Mr. Swanland's +management they had better leave. Whereupon they said they did not like +Mr. Swanland's management if it kept them kicking their heels for five +hours when they might have been at home, and that they would leave. + +On hearing this, Mr. Bailey drew in his horns, and said they had better +not be hasty, and that he would speak to Mr. Swanland. To both of which +suggestions they agreed somewhat sullenly, and so ended that week. + +The next opened with the valuation of the Homewood furniture and other +effects--as a "mere matter of form," so Mr. Swanland declared--but, like +the trustee's, the auctioneer's men took possession of the place as if +it belonged to them, and without either with your leave or by your +leave, walked from room to room making their inventory. + +Up to the time of their arrival Dolly had entertained hopes of inducing +her husband to make an effort to get downstairs. For days previously she +had been artfully striving to make him believe his presence in the works +was earnestly needed. She had suggested his spending an evening in the +drawing-room. She had on Sunday drawn a picture of the conservatory +sufficient to have tempted any ordinary invalid to hazard the +undertaking, but Mortomley's malady was as much mental as physical, and +not any medicine she could administer was able to cure that mind +diseased, which, no less than bodily illness, had stricken him with a +blow so sudden and so sharp. + +"We will see to-morrow, dear," was all the answer she could ever elicit. + +All in vain she guaranteed him immunity from indignant creditors, who +would persist in visiting Homewood in order to recite their wrongs, and +to hope Mr. Mortomley would see _them_ safe at all events; in vain she +promised that not a man in possession should cross his sight; in vain +she spoke of the brighter days dawning before them; in vain she employed +eloquence, and it may be a little deceit. + +It was always, "We will see to-morrow;" but once the morrow came, the +evil hour was again deferred when Mortomley should look on the face of +his fair house dishonoured, when he should nerve himself up to pass +where sacrilegious feet had trodden down the beauty and the grace, +destroyed all the sweet memories which once clustered round and about +the place where his father had lived, where he himself was born. + +And sometimes Dolly felt angry and sometimes sad, but she never felt +hopeless until those men intruding into the very room where Mortomley +sat listlessly looking out at the gloomy sky, taught him the precise +position he occupied. + +With a white face Dolly watched their movements, and when in a short +time they shut the door behind them, she went up to her husband and +kissed his forehead. + +"Should you not like to be away from all this?" she asked. + +"Yes, if there were any place to which we could go away," was the +answer. + +"We must leave," said Dolly, and then--for she was growing wise--she sat +down to calculate the cost. + +She wanted to take him to the seaside, but she failed to see how that +was to be managed. + +She could have done it by running into debt, for her credit was good at +those seaside places where she had been the idol of landlords and where +tradespeople had delighted at her reappearance. But she had no intention +of going into debt unless she saw some means of being able to repay +those who put trust in her honesty. + +She could not take her husband to the seaside, and yet she felt he must +be got away from Homewood. The changed atmosphere of that once charming +home was killing him. With the rare sympathy which women like Dolly, +capable of putting themselves and their interests entirely on one side, +possess, she understood that air breathed by those dreadful men was +death to a person in his state of health; and she racked her brains to +think of some plan by which she might get him away, even for a +fortnight, from the sound of strange voices, from the haunting presence +of Messrs. Turner and Meadows, and the other more insignificant +sheriff's officer. + +Not in the worst time they ever previously passed through, had Mrs. +Mortomley experienced such utter misery as that which fell to her lot +after Mr. Swanland took the reins of government. + +She knew utter anarchy prevailed in the works. She knew the men were at +daggers drawn with each other, unanimous only in one desire viz., that +of circumventing Mr. Meadows and outwitting his vigilance. She knew the +horses were not properly attended to; and when Lang justly indignant at +the proceeding, told her Bess had been put in one of the carts and sent +out with a load for the docks, Mrs. Mortomley was fain to make an excuse +to get rid of the man, that he might not see the passion of grief his +news excited in her. + +Helpless they were, both Mortomley and his wife. Ciphers where they had +once had authority; mere paupers, living on sufferance in a house no +longer theirs; by rapid degrees Dolly was learning what liquidation by +arrangement really meant, and why Mr. Kleinwort had said her husband +would find bankruptcy not all pleasure. + +While she was pondering how to get away from it all, how to escape from +the sight of ills she was powerless to cure, and the sound of complaints +to which she was weary of listening, Thursday came, and with a, to her, +startling discovery. Mr. Meadows, who after the first morning or so, +decided it was more comfortable to lie in bed late than to get up early, +had on the Wednesday evening left on Mr. Lang's desk a memorandum +concerning some account-books which he wished sent up to Salisbury +House, said memorandum being pencilled on the back of part of the very +note at the end of which Mr. Swanland had made that inquiry concerning +Mr. Mortomley's letters previously recorded. + +This precious morsel Lang carried to Esther, who carried it to her +mistress, who in her turn demanded from Mr. Meadows an explanation as to +how it happened his employer dared to intercept her letters. + +Mr. Meadows was civil but firm. He told her Mr. Swanland had a right to +everything about the place or that came into the place. He had a right +to Mr. Mortomley's letters, and inclusively Mrs. Mortomley's. Mr. +Meadows did not think it was usual for a lady's letters to be opened; +but Mr. Swanland had law on his side. He had also law on his side when +he refused to pay the corn-chandler for oats sent in for the horses the +day before the petition was presented. Mr. Meadows had no doubt the man +thought himself hardly done by in the matter, but he must be regarded as +a creditor like every one else. + +Further, Mr. Meadows admitted--for Mrs. Mortomley having at length +commenced to speak concerning her grievances, thought it too good an +opportunity to be lost about airing them all--that there might be an +appearance of injustice in setting down small country traders who had +paid for their colours in advance as creditors, but Mr. Swanland could +only deal with the estate as he found it, and if he sent on the goods +ordered, he might have to make up the different amounts out of his own +pocket. Moreover, after various indignant questions had been asked and +answered in a similar manner, Mr. Meadows professed himself unable to +imagine why Mrs. Mortomley had paid, and was paying for the maintenance +of himself and the other two gentlemen in waiting. He was quite certain +Mr. Swanland would not be able to satisfy the creditors if he repaid her +the amount so disbursed. + +"I assure you, ma'am," finished Mr. Meadows, "I have often felt that I +should like to mention this matter to you, and would have done so, but +that I feared to give offence. I know you imagine I have taken too much +upon me since I came here; but indeed I have endeavoured to keep +unpleasantnesses from you. In cases like these, if a lady and gentleman +will remain in the house, as you and Mr. Mortomley have done, it is +impossible they should find things agreeable. As I have often said to +your servants, you ought to have left the morning after Mr. Swanland +came down, and then you would have been out of the way of all this." + +Having delivered himself of which speech, spoken quietly and +respectfully, Mr. Meadows waited for any observation which it might +please Mrs. Mortomley to make. + +She made none. She stood perfectly silent for about a minute. + +Then she said--"You can go," and quite satisfied with his morning's +work, Mr. Meadows bowed and--went. + +When he had closed the door after him, Mrs. Mortomley rang the bell. + +"Esther," she began as the girl appeared, "directly you are at leisure +begin to pack." + +"You are going to leave then, ma'am?" said Esther interrogatively. + +"Yes, at once. I do not know where we shall go," she added, +understanding the unspoken question. "I must think, but upon one thing +I am determined, and that is not to stop another night in this house +until Mr. Mortomley is master of it again. And if he never is again--" + +"Oh! ma'am," exclaimed the girl in protest, and then she burst into +tears. + +"Don't cry," commanded her mistress imperiously. "We shall all of us +have plenty of time for crying hereafter; but there are other things to +be done now. Pack your own clothes as well as mine. I will see to your +master's, and tell Susan to put up hers also." + +"Do you mean, ma'am, that you mean to leave the house with no one in it +but those men. What will become of all the things?" + +"I do not care what becomes of them," was the answer. "Now go and do as +I have told you." + +On her way upstairs Esther encountered Mr. Meadows, who about that house +seemed indeed ubiquitous. + +"She is a good deal cut up, ain't she?" he said confidentially. + +"It is no business of yours whether she is or not," Esther retorted +indignantly. + +"Whether she is or not," mimicked Mr. Meadows, "you need not fly out at +a fellow like that. It is none so pleasant for me being planted in such +a beastly dull hole as this. The governor might as well have sent me to +take charge of a church and churchyard. That job would have been about +as lively as this precious Homewood place." + +"Pity you and your governor are not in a churchyard together," said +Esther, with her nose very much turned up, and the corners of her mouth +very much drawn down, and her cheeks very red and her chin held very +high. "If there wasn't another trade in the world, I would rather starve +than take to yours." + +Having fired which shot--one she knew would hit the bull's eye--Esther +went swiftly on her way, while Mr. Meadows proceeded, the weather being +still wet, to solace himself by smoking a pipe in the conservatory; the +consequence being that when Mrs. Werner, a couple of hours later came to +call upon Mrs. Mortomley, she found the drawing-room reeking of +tobacco. + +"They will bring their beer in here next," observed Dolly when she +entered the apartment, and then she flung open the windows and commenced +telling her story, for which Mrs. Werner was utterly unprepared. + +She told it with dry eyes, with two red spots burning on her cheeks, +with parched lips and a hard unnatural voice. + +She did not break down when Mrs. Werner took her to her heart and cried +over her as a mother might have done. + +"Oh! Dolly," she sobbed. "Dolly, my poor darling--oh! the happy days we +have spent together," and then she checked herself, and holding Dolly a +little way off looked at her through a mist of tears. + +"Why did I know nothing of this?" she went on. "Dolly, why did you not +write and tell me? I thought everything was going to be straight and +comfortable. I had not an idea you were in such trouble. Yes, you are +right, you must leave Homewood. You have remained here too long +already--where do you think of going?" + +"I have not been able to think," Mrs. Mortomley answered. "Advise me, +Lenny. I will do whatever you say is best." + +"Will you really, darling, follow my advice for once?" + +"Yes--really and truly--unless you wish us to go to Dassell. I should +not like, I could not bear to take Archie there now." + +"No, dear, I do not wish you to go to Dassell. We have taken a house at +Brighton for a couple of months, and I am going down with the children +to-morrow. Come home with me this afternoon, and we can all travel +together. That is if Mr. Mortomley is fit to travel. If not you and he +must stay for a few days in town till he is able to follow. That is +settled, is not it Dolly? I have to pay a visit at Walthamstow and will +return for you in less than an hour. You will come, dear." + +Dolly did not answer verbally. She only put her arms round Mrs. Werner's +neck and drawing down her face, kissed it in utter silence. + +There was no need for much speech between those two women. Dolly had +known Leonora Trebasson ever since she herself was born. They had grown +up together. They had been friends always, and Mortomley's wife felt no +more hesitation about accepting a kindness from Mrs. Werner in her need +than Mrs. Werner would have experienced had it been needful for her in +the halcyon days of old to ask for shelter and welcome at Homewood. + +And as the visit was to be paid at Brighton, Dolly did not find the +contemplation of Mr. Werner a drawback to the brightness of the picture. + +Perfectly well she understood that when his wife and family were out of +town, he never favoured them with much of his society. + +Mr. Werner's god was business, and he did not care to absent himself +for any lengthened period from the shrine at which he worshipped. + +"I must just mention this to Archie," Mrs. Mortomley said at last. + +"I will mention it to him," proposed Mrs. Werner. "We shall never get +him to come for his own sake, but he will do so for yours." + +"Thank you, Lenny," answered Mrs. Mortomley. "It does not signify for +whose sake the move is made, so that it is made." + +"Upon second thoughts," observed Mrs. Werner, "I shall not go on to +Walthamstow to-day. I will stay and carry you off with me. You can give +me some luncheon and let the horses have a feed, and that will be a far +pleasanter arrangement in every way." + +Dolly laughed and summoned Esther. "Mrs. Werner will lunch here," she +said; "and find Mr. Meadows and send him to me." + +"What do you want with that creature," asked her friend, and Dolly +answered, "You shall hear." + +Mr. Meadows entered the room and bowed solemnly to its occupants. + +"You wanted me, ma'am," he said, standing just inside the doorway and +addressing Mrs. Mortomley. + +"Yes. I wished to know if you think Mr. Swanland can answer any +questions that my husband's creditors may put to him, if Mrs. Werner's +horses have a feed of corn--because if not, I must ask her coachman to +put up at the public-house." + +Mr. Meadows turned white with rage at this cool question and the sneer +which accompanied it. + +"That woman is a fiend," he thought, "and will trouble some of our +people yet, and serve them right too;" but he answered quietly enough, + +"I am certain, madam, that Mr. Swanland would wish every consideration +to be paid to you and your friends, and I can take it upon myself to +tell this lady's coachman to put up his horses here." + +"You are very good," remarked Dolly. She could not have said, "Thank +you," had the salvation of Homewood depended on her uttering the words. + + + +"Has it come to that?" asked Mrs. Werner as Mr. Meadows retired, and +Mrs. Mortomley answered-- + +"It has come to that." + +Mrs. Werner found it a more difficult task to induce Mortomley to accept +her invitation than she had expected it would prove; but eventually her +arguments and his love for Dolly carried the day, and he agreed to go to +Brighton, and stay with his wife's friend for a week, or perhaps ten +days. + +"I must get well," he said, "before the meeting of creditors, and I feel +I can never get well here. You are very, very kind, Mrs. Werner. Dolly +and I will be but dull guests I fear; but you must put up with +our--stupidity." + +And he stretched out his thin wasted hand which she took in hers, and +there came before them both a vision of the old house at Dassell, +embowered in trees, with its green lawns and stately park, its low, +spacious rooms, its quiet and its peace, where he first met Dolly in the +summer days gone by. + +Looking back over one's experience of life, it seems marvellous to +recollect how few words one ever has heard spoken in times of danger or +of trial; how the once fluent tongue is paralysed by the overflowing +heart; how trouble stands sentinel beside the lips, and bars the +utterance of sentences which in happier times ran glibly and smoothly +on. + +In the time of their agony, Mortomley had nothing to say, and his wife +but little. + +He made no lamentation nor did she. Ruin had come upon them, and how +they should make their way through it no man could tell; but they were +silent about their griefs. It was upon the most ordinary topics Mrs. +Werner and Mortomley discoursed, whilst Dolly's utterances to Esther +were of the most commonplace description. How a portion of their luggage +was to be sent to Brighton, and the remainder, except the small amount +Dolly proposed taking with her, left at Homewood until further orders. + +How Esther was to be certain to look after her own comforts, and +purchase trifling luxuries for herself, how Mrs. Mortomley depended on +her writing every day, and trusting the posting of the letters only to +Lang or Hankins--with fifty other such little charges--this was all she +found to say while packing up to leave the dear home of all her happy +married life in the possession of strangers. _And such strangers._ + +As she thought of it, Dolly flung open the window and looked out. + +Oh! fair--fair home--smiling with your wealth of flowers under the dark +autumnal sky, can it be that when those whose hearts have been entwined +about you are gone, who have loved you with perhaps too earthly a love, +are departed, you shall turn as sweet a face and give as tender a +greeting to the future men and women destined to look upon your beauty +as you did to those who are leaving you for ever? + +No, thank God, there comes a desolation of place as there comes a wreck +of person; nature seems to sympathize with humanity, and when the old +owners have been torn from the soil, the soil as if in sympathy grows +weeds instead of flowers--grows a tangle of discontent where sweet buds +were wont to climb. + +If in prophetic vision Dolly had been able at that moment to see +Homewood as it appeared six months after, she would have felt comforted. +As it was, she looked forth over the sweet modest home which had been +hers and his with a terrible despair, but she bore the pain in silence. + +"First or last," as Esther said afterwards, "she never heard a murmur +from husband or wife." + +Which was perhaps why she loved them both so well. With every vein in +her heart that simple country girl, who was not very clever, but whose +heart stood her amply instead of brains, loved the master and mistress +upon whom misfortune had fallen so suddenly, and to her thinking so +inexplicably. + +Physically she was not brave, but she would have faced death to keep +trouble from them. She was not possessed of much courage; no, not the +courage which will go downstairs alone if it hears a noise in the +night, but she would have encountered any danger had Dolly asked her to +do so. + +It was well Mrs. Mortomley possessed a larger amount of common sense +than any one gave her credit for, otherwise she might have incited her +maid to deeds the execution of which would have filled Mr. Forde's soul +with rejoicing. Dolly sternly prohibited all looting from the premises. +Not a trunk she packed or saw packed, but might have borne the scrutiny +of Mr. Swanland himself, and yet the modest bonnet-box and portmanteau +carried down into the hall failed to meet with the approbation of Mr. +Swanland's man. + +"I am very sorry, ma'am," he said, "but I cannot allow these things to +leave the house without Mr. Swanland's permission." + +Dolly turned and looked at him. I think if a look could have struck him +dead where he stood, he had never spoken more. + +With all the authority of Salisbury House behind him, Meadows quailed at +sight of her face, wondering what should follow. + +But nothing followed except this: + +"Take those things upstairs at once," she said, turning to Esther and +Lang, "put them in my dressing-room with the other boxes, and bring me +the key of the door." + +"I do not know, madam," remarked Mr. Meadows, emboldened by what he +considered her previous submission, "whether you are aware that if you +lock the door we can break it open." + +Then Dolly found tongue. + +"Do it," she said; "only break open _any_ door I choose to lock, and I +will make things unpleasant for you and your master too. I have endured +at your hands and his what I believe no woman ever endured before, but +if you presume another inch I will have justice if I carry our case into +every court in England." + +She did not know, poor soul, her cause had been settled in a court +whence there is no appeal, and for that very reason speaking fearlessly +her words carried weight. + +Mr. Meadows shrank out of the hall as if she had struck him a blow, and +Dolly leaning against the lintel of the porch and looking at Mrs. +Werner's carriage and horses, which were framed to her by a wreath of +clematis and roses, felt for the moment as if she had won a victory. + +And by her retreat she had; but it is only after the battle any one +engaged can tell when the tide of war began to turn. + +It turned for the Mortomleys then. It turned when Mrs. Mortomley lifted +up her voice and defied Mr. Swanland's bailiff. In that moment she +ensured ultimate success for her husband--at a price. + +The years are before him still--the years of his life full of promise, +full of hope--that past of bankruptcy, recent though it may be, is, +nevertheless, an old story, and the name of Mortomley is a power once +more. + +There is nothing the man is capable of he need despair of achieving, +nothing this world can give him he need fail to grasp, and yet--and +yet--I think, I know, that rather than go forth and gather the pleasant +fruits ripening for him in distant vineyards, rather than pay the price +success exacted ultimately for her wares, the man would have laid him +down upon the bed a man in possession held in trust for his employer, +and died a pauper, entitled only to a pauper's grave. + +But no man can foresee. Happily, or else how many would live miserable. + +Dolly could not foresee; she could not foretell the events of even +four-and-twenty hours. + +But she was nice to others in that her time of trial, and the fact +served her in good stead in the evil hours to come. + +"I think," she had said to Esther, "that Lang and Hankins would like to +see Mr. Mortomley before we go. Lang had better give my husband his arm +downstairs, and Hankins can help him into the carriage." + +It was nice of Dolly, it was never forgotten about her for ever. It +never will be till the children's children are greyheaded. By the +carriage door stood the pair, hats in hand, tears running down their +cheeks, speaking across Mrs. Werner to their master; their master whom +they had loved and robbed, cheated and served honestly, believed in and +grumbled concerning through years too long to count. And away in the +background were a group of men, the faces of whom appalled Mr. Meadows, +men who would have pumped on him had Mrs. Mortomley given the signal, +who loved their master, though it might be they had not acted always +honestly or straightforwardly by him, and who would at that moment have +done any wickedness in his service, had he only pleased to show them the +way. + +With a mighty effort Dolly choked back her tears. + +She heard the men say, + +"And we wish you back, sir, better." + +To which Mortomley replied, + +"I hope I shall be better, but you will see me here no more." + +"No more." Lang opened the door of the carriage for Dolly, who shook +hands with him and his colleague ere the vehicle drove off. + +"No more." Mortomley had said in those two words farewell to Homewood. + +No more for ever did a Mortomley pace the familiar walks, or cross the +remembered rooms. No more--no more--with the wail of that dirge in their +ears the men went back to their labour exceedingly sad in spirit. + +Mr. Meadows, however, was not sad. He sought out Esther crying in a +convenient corner. + +"Well, I am glad they are gone," he exclaimed, "and shall I tell you +why?" + +"You can if you like," Esther agreed, wiping her eyes with her muslin +apron, which she had donned in honour of Mrs. Werner, "though for my +part I do not care whether you are glad or sorry." + +"Well, when I came here I was told to _watch your mistress_, and it has +not been a pleasant occupation. I told Swanland it was all gammon +thinking she was not on the square. Of course we know all about that, +but he said his information from some one--Forde, I suppose, was clear, +and that money was put away, and I must find out where. As if," added +Mr. Meadows, with a gesture of ineffable contempt, "people like your +people did not fight to the last shot, did not eat the last biscuit +before surrendering. Of course I understand the whole thing, and I have +but to repeat, so far as I am concerned, I am----glad they are gone." + +"Let me pass, please," said Esther with a shudder. "I do not want to +hear anything more about you or your master, or Mr. Forde--or--anybody," +and her tone was so decided, he stepped aside and allowed her to pass +without uttering another word. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +DOLLY WRITES A LETTER. + + +It may be questioned whether that particular member of the Mortomley +family, who made ducks and drakes of the Dassell ancestral acres, felt +anything like the grief at losing his patrimony which Archibald +Mortomley endured when he stepped across the threshold of Homewood with +the conviction strong upon him that he should return there no more. + +Everything in this world is comparative. To lords temporal and +spiritual, and to honourable gentlemen of the House of Commons, and to +millionaires east of Temple Bar, that clinging of the Irish peasant to +his mud cabin and couple of acres of bog, would seem a most ridiculous +piece of foolery were it not for the bullets with which Patrick +contrives to make such a tragedy out of his comical surroundings. +Nevertheless, eviction means as much misery to the shiftless Hibernian +as his cup is well capable of holding. + +This is a fact, I think, we are all rather too apt to lose sight of when +considering the extent of our neighbour's misfortunes. + +Because the house is not grand, or the furniture nice, or the wife +beautiful, or the children winning to our imaginations, we are apt to +think the man's loss has been light to him. + +Whereas his modest home set about with gods of his own making and +creating, may have been more desirable in his eyes than Chatsworth +itself, and he may mourn over his dead with a grief less palpable, it is +true, because the work-a-day world is intolerant of grief among the poor +and lowly, but as real as that our Sovereign Lady feels for her husband, +or as that wherein the sweet singer of Israel indulged when the +messenger came swiftly and told him though not in words, "Absalom is +slain." + +To a business man especially the world is in this respect hard and +unsympathetic. + +Because we do not understand his trade, and should not care for it if we +did, we fancy he has regarded his mills, his works, his factory as we +look upon such erections. And yet the place where he has made his money, +or lost it, has been most part of his world to him; as much his world as +camps to the soldier, courts to the diplomatist, ball-rooms to the +beauty, Africa to Livingstone. + +A man cannot continue year after year to exercise any calling, if it be +even the culture of watercresses, and not centre a large portion of his +interest in it, and to a man like Mortomley it was a simple +impossibility for his laboratory, his home, his works, his men, his +colours to become matters of indifference to him. + +There had been a time when it would have well-nigh broken his heart to +leave Homewood and all its associations behind, but there were bitter +memories now superadded to the sweet recollections of the olden time, +memories which, throughout all the future, he should never be able to +recall save with a galling sense of pain. + +The old Homewood was dead to him, and in its place there was a new +Homewood, the thought of which could never cross his mind save with a +sense of shame and degradation. + +It had been bad enough for the sheriffs' officers to hold the place in +temporary possession, but when Mr. Swanland sent in his man Mortomley +felt all hope had departed out of his life. If he was ever to do any +good for himself and those belonging to him again, he must first go to +some quiet place where he should have a chance of getting strong once +more, and then having given up Homewood and everything belonging to him, +compulsorily it might be, but still most thoroughly, commence life anew, +commence at the very foot of the business ladder, and strive to work his +way upward to success. + +To both husband and wife the sensation of driving for their own mere +ease and comfort through the suburbs of London was strange as though +they had been labouring upon the pecuniary treadmill all the years of +their life. Money anxieties had so long been present with them at bed +and at board, that they found it difficult to realise the fact that they +were free from these fetters. + +By comparison beggary seemed heaven to the misery of their late +existence; and Mortomley, weak as he was, seemed benefited by the +change, whilst Dolly, all the time she had a strange feeling upon her of +having started on a pilgrimage without the faintest idea of what her +ultimate destination might prove, still experienced a sense of relief as +mile after mile lengthened itself out between her and Homewood. + +Had Mrs. Mortomley and her husband been royal guests, Mrs. Werner could +not have paid them more devoted attention than was the case. + +In a great airy bedchamber a fire blazed cheerfully, and on a sofa drawn +close up to the hearth she insisted on Mortomley taking his ease, where +no one could intrude to disturb him. + +In the same room she and Dolly had their afternoon cup of tea, and then +Dolly and her hostess repaired to Mrs. Werner's dressing-room, and sat +chatting there until it was time for one of them to dress for dinner, to +which a select party had been invited. + +Mrs. Mortomley declined to join that party, but sat idly in a great +arm-chair, watching the progress of her friend's toilette, and thinking +that Leonora grew handsomer as she grew older. + +When she was fully arrayed in all the grand apparel in which it rejoiced +Mr. Werner's heart to see her decked, Dolly put her arms round her neck +and kissed and bade her good-night. + +"For I shall not see you again till the morning, dear," she said. "If I +want anything I will ask your maid to get it for me. No; I shall not be +hungry, or thirsty, or anything, except thankful to remember we have +made a wise move at last and left Homewood." + +"Very well, Dolly," answered Mrs. Werner, humouring her fancy. "You +shall be called in good time to-morrow, so as not to be hurried; and if +you want to write any letters you will find everything you want in my +little room," saying which she pushed aside a curtain and passed into an +apartment scarcely larger than a closet, but fitted up with dainty +furniture, pretty inlaid cabinets, and a few water-colour drawings. + +"No one ever comes in here except myself," said Mrs. Werner, "and you +will be quite uninterrupted. See here is note-paper and there are +envelopes. And--" + +"Thank you," interrupted Dolly, "but I shall not want to write any +letters again for ever," and with one more good-night and one more +lingering look at the stately figure, which in the pier-glass she had +mentally balanced against her own, Dolly opened the door which gave +egress on to the landing, and stepped swiftly and lightly along the +passage leading to the apartment where she had left her husband. + +On the thick carpet the sound of her tread fell noiseless, and failed to +disturb the sound sleep into which Mortomley had sunk. When before had +she seen him slumber so quietly? Dolly sat down before the fire, and +still full of thankfulness for the deliverance from Homewood and its +thousand and one petty annoyances, tried to look out over the future and +shape her plans. + +After she had been thus occupied for about half an hour, she suddenly +recollected she had not left with Esther an address which should find +her at Brighton, and vexed at an omission which might cause even a +night's anxiety to a girl who had been so faithful to her, she stole +quietly out of the room, intending not merely to send a note to Esther, +but also a few lines to Rupert and a letter to Miss Gerace, whose +epistles probably had been intercepted by Mr. Swanland. + +In the apartment of which Mrs. Werner had made her free, the gas was +lighted. Dolly turned it up a little, and after searching for a pen to +suit her, began her correspondence. + +For some time she wrote on without interruption. She finished her short +note to Esther; she scribbled a few hasty words to "My dear little +girl," and was half way through her rambling epistle to Miss Gerace, +when her attention was distracted by the sound of a door shut violently, +and by hearing Mr. Werner pronounce her husband's name in a tone of the +keenest annoyance. + +"Mortomley!" he exclaimed. "Damn Mortomley!" which, though perhaps not +an unusual form of expression, fell cruelly on Dolly's ear. + +With the pen still in her fingers, she rose from her chair while he went +on. + +"I would rather have lost five hundred pounds than that you should have +brought either of them here. A man in business cannot afford to be +Quixotic, and I cannot afford to be mixed up with Mortomley or his +affairs. They must not stay here, that is flat, and they must not go to +Brighton. Make what excuse you like, only get them out of the house." + +"I presume you do not mean to-night," said Mrs. Werner, in a voice Dolly +could have scarcely recognized as belonging to her friend. + +"Hang it, Leonora," he retorted, "you need not look at me like that. I +suppose I am master in my own house, and have a right to say who shall +and who shall not visit here." + +"A perfect right," she replied. "I merely asked a question, and I wait +for your answer. Am I to turn _my friend_ and her husband out of _your_ +house to-night?" + +"I suppose not. I suppose they must stay," he said; "but, good Heavens, +Leonora, what could you have been thinking of to bring a bankrupt and +his penniless wife here! And I involved as I am with that infernal +Chemical Company, and Forde full of the notion that as Mrs. Mortomley's +money is condemned, at any rate, he can get her to sign some antedated +paper, securing the bulk of her husband's so called debt to him. Upon my +soul it is enough to drive a fellow mad. I tell you I will not be mixed +up with the affairs of people too foolish or stupid to take care of +themselves. + +"Forde will get them into some mess they will not readily extricate +themselves from; Mortomley either wants sufficient moral pluck or +physical energy to face the difficulty, and yet you bring them here!" + +"They shall not trouble you after to-night," she answered. + +"They had better not," exclaimed Mr. Werner, infuriated by her tone. + +"And still you used to speak of Mr. Mortomley as your friend," remarked +his wife. + +"How often am I to tell you a business man can have no friends except +those capable of advancing his interests, and bankruptcy cuts all ties +of that sort. If Mortomley had been possessed of sufficient common sense +to secure his flighty wife's fortune, there might have been some faint +hope for him; but as matters stand there is none. If her friends do not +come forward, they will have to apply to the parish within six months, +and serve them right too." + +Dolly gathered up her letters and laid down her pen, and stole from the +room. + +She had heard enough--she had heard how they stood--where lay their +danger--what they had to guard against; and she stood for a moment in +the passage leading to the apartments Mrs. Werner had selected for them, +with her hand pressed tightly over her heart, trying to realize that she +had listened to Mr. Werner's words in her waking moments instead of in a +dream. + +And then next moment came the question, "When were they to go." + +They could not remain another hour in Mr. Werner's house, that was +certain. She could not take her husband back to Homewood, that seemed +more impossible still. She doubted, though her experience was small, +whether any hotel-keeper would beam with smiles at sight of a sick man +accompanied by his wife and destitute of luggage. + +Dolly sat down on the mat outside the bedroom door to think it all over. + +They must go somewhere, and at once, where should it be? + +She sat there plucking the wool out of the mat in her restless +imaginings, while her head grew hot and her eyes heavy with weary +self-communing; she heard Mr. and Mrs. Werner go down stairs; she heard +the stir and bustle of arriving guests; she listened to the buzz of +talking and the light rippling of laughter, as one drifting out to sea +in a rudderless boat might listen to the voices and the merriment of +those safe on a shore fading away in the distance; she heard the rustle +of the ladies' dresses as they passed in to dinner, and then it came to +her like an inspiration--where she should go. + +"I will do it. I will," she said almost audibly, and she turned the +handle of the door gently, and crossing the room caught up her hat and +shawl, and then closing the door behind her, went carefully down stairs, +surveying the country she had to pass through over the bannisters. + +Strange waiters were about and she passed through them unobserved, and +sped off to the nearest cab-stand. + +There she hired a vehicle, which she left waiting her return some +half-dozen yards from Mr. Werner's house. + +The door was fortunately open to admit of some guests invited to "come +in the evening," and she entered with them and, unnoticed save by Mr. +Werner's butler, crossed the hall and ran up stairs. + +Arrived at her husband's side she touched him gently. + +"Are you rested dear, at all? It is time for us to be going." + +"Going!" he repeated, between sleeping and waking, "are we not at home?" + +"No love, at Mr. Werner's." + +He raised himself a little and looked at her. + +"I think I have been asleep," he said. "Oh! now I remember, but I +thought we were to stay here all night. It was arranged that we were, +was it not?" + +"Yes, dear, but I find it is not convenient for us to do so. Visitors +have come, and we ought not to intrude under the circumstances. There is +a cab at the door. Can you walk with my arm or shall I ring for +assistance?" + +He rose, still looking dazed and bewildered, and she put her arm round +his body and he placed his arm round her neck; it was thus he had with +weak and uncertain steps often paced his room at Homewood. + +Trembling over the descent of each stair, she got him at length to the +bottom of the last flight, and then beckoning one of the waiters, she +asked him to help her husband to the door, while she herself searched +for his top-coat and hat. + +Whilst she was so engaged the butler appeared, + +"Why, ma'am," he said, "you are surely never going back to Homewood +to-night?" + +"I find we must go," she answered; "I had forgotten something. I have +left a note for Mrs. Werner upstairs, but do not tell her we have left +until all the company have left. She--she--might be uneasy. I have +borrowed a rug, tell her I will return it in a few days; and help Mr. +Mortomley to the cab. Thank you, good night, Williams," and she put +half-a-crown in his hand. + +Poor Dolly! and half-crowns were not plentiful, and likely to be less +so. + +The driver touched his horse, and the hansom was out of sight in a +minute. + +"I wonder what _that_ means," thought Mr. Williams. "For certain the +governor was in a rare taking when he heard they were here." + +But all the "takings" in which Mr. Werner had ever been were as nothing +compared with that which overwhelmed Mrs. Werner when she heard of +Dolly's departure. + +She heard of that sooner than Dolly intended; for Messrs. Forde and +Kleinwort, having driven down in the evening to see what pressure could +be put upon Mrs. Mortomley to induce her to do what ought in Mr. Forde's +formula "to have been done long before, make the St. Vedast Wharf people +secure," came straight onto Mr. Werner's house in quest of the missing +lady. + +"Mr. and Mrs. Mortomley have gone, sir," explained the butler, who knew +the manager as an occasional guest at his master's table. + +"Gone, nonsense!" repeated Mr. Forde, pushing his way into the hall, and +looking askance at the signs of feasting pervading the Werner +establishment with an expression which said plainly, + +'Just like all the rest of them. He can give parties while I am standing +on the edge of a precipice. He has no thought for _me_.' + +"I assure you, sir," answered the man, "Mr. and Mrs. Mortomley left here +more than an hour ago. I assisted Mr. Mortomley into the cab myself." + +"Then I must see Mr. Werner," said Mr. Forde determinedly. + +"I am afraid--that he is engaged. We have company to-night, sir." + +Mr. Forde turned as if he would have annihilated the speaker. + +"He will see me," he shouted; "tell him I am here." And he strode into +the so-called library, the door of which stood open, followed by +Kleinwort, who, perhaps because he felt ashamed, perhaps because he was +cold, looked curiously small and down-hearted. + +After all, as he confided subsequently to Mr. Werner, it was none so +pleasant being dragged across country and through town like a dog on the +chain by even a companion charming as Forde. + +"Shall I take your hat," inquired Williams, whose ideas of propriety +were outraged by the sight of Mr. Forde seated in Mr. Werner's own chair +in that sacred and solemn chamber, his hat on, his fingers beating the +devil's own tattoo on the table. + +"No," he growled, and the man retreated, catching sight as he went of a +significant shrug of Mr. Kleinwort's shoulders. + +Almost instantly Mr. Werner appeared. The butler opened the door for him +to enter and forgot to shut it again. + +"I want to see Mortomley," began Mr. Forde, without preface of any kind; +"if he is well enough to travel, he is well enough to face his +creditors." + +"I will send and tell him you are here," answered Mr. Werner. + +"No, I will go to him without any first message being delivered," said +the other with an angry sneer. + +"Pardon me," interposed Mr. Werner, "but you will do no such thing. It +is not with any good-will of mine that Mr. Mortomley is my guest, but +since he is my guest he shall not be treated by you or anybody else like +a criminal. If he choose to see you he can do so, if he do not choose +you shall not see him." + +"Do you dare say that to me?" asked Mr. Forde. + +"Yes," was the reply, "and if you speak in that tone to me, I shall say +a good deal more which you may not like to hear." + +"Now--now--now--Werner," interposed Kleinwort, "you are always so much +in too great haste. He meant it not. He would not order about in your +house for ten thousand worlds." + +"He had better not," Mr. Werner said, cutting short the thread of Mr. +Kleinwort's eloquence, for he was indignant at being taken from his +guests, and furious at the fact of Mortomley having taken shelter under +his roof, and being instantly hunted there by Mr. Forde. "Williams," he +continued going to the door, and addressing his butler, who was bustling +about the hall, + +"Let Mr. Mortomley know Mr. Forde is here, and desires a few minutes' +conversation with him. Now, gentlemen, _I_ must bid you good-night. +Williams will bring you wine or brandy if you only tell him which you +prefer." + +"Beg pardon, sir," interposed Williams at this juncture, "but--" + +"Did you not hear me tell you to let Mr. Mortomley know Mr. Forde wishes +to see him?" said Mr. Werner, emphasising each word with painful +distinctness. + +"Yes, sir, but Mr. Mortomley is gone." + +"Gone!" repeated Mr. Werner, while Mr. Forde remarked audibly, "I do not +believe a word of it." + +And Kleinwort, pulling his companion's sleeve, entreated him piteously, +"To be impulsive not so much." + +"Yes, sir, went away with Mrs. Mortomley in a cab an hour and a half +ago." + +"Where did he go to?" asked Mr. Werner. + +"Don't know, sir. No orders were given to the cabman in my presence or +hearing." + +Mr. Werner stood silent for an instant, then he said, turning to +Williams, + +"Ask your mistress to come down here. Say I will not detain her a +moment." And while the man went to do his bidding, he walked up and down +the room evidently as ill at ease as his visitors. + +Into the room Mrs. Werner walked stately and beautiful, her rich dress +rustling over the carpet, jewels sparkling on her snowy neck, amid her +dark hair, and on her white arms. + +She started at sight of the two visitors, but quickly recovering +herself, gave her hand frigidly to each in succession. + +"Ah! but, madam, we have no need to ask if your health be admirable," +Kleinwort was beginning, when Mr. Werner interrupted his ecstacy with +ruthless abruptness. + +"Leonora," he said, "these gentlemen want to know where Mr. and Mrs. +Mortomley have gone. If it is no secret, pray inform them." + +"They are here," she instantly replied. + +"No, they are not; they left in a cab an hour ago or more. Can you +imagine where they have gone?" + +"I cannot imagine that they have left," she answered. "You must be +mistaken." + +"If you please, ma'am," here interrupted Williams, who had remained +standing at the door after Mrs. Werner's entrance, with an apologetic +grasp upon the handle, "Mrs. Mortomley left a note for you. She told me +not to mention this till all the company had left, but I suppose, under +present circumstances, it is correct for me to do so." + +"I will go for it," Mrs. Werner said, with a little gasp, but Mr. Werner +prevented her intention. "Let your maid do so." + +There ensued an awkward pause, during which Mr. Kleinwort, with much +_empressement_, handed Mrs. Werner a chair. + +"No, thank you," she remarked, and the pause continued, and the depth +and gloom of the silence increased minute by minute. + +At length the maid, having found the note, brought it into the room. + +"Give it to me," exclaimed Mr. Forde, trying to snatch it off the +salver, but Mrs. Werner's face warned him of the impropriety he had +committed. + +"The note is intended for me, Mr. Forde, I think," she said quietly, and +opened the envelope after a courteous "Pray excuse me." + +As she read her face darkened. + +"Where are they, where have they gone?" demanded Mr. Forde eagerly. + +Mrs. Werner lifted her eyes and looked at him slowly and absently, as if +she had forgotten his existence. + +"I do not know," she answered. "Mrs. Mortomley does not say, and I have +not an idea unless they have returned to Homewood. Mrs. Mortomley +unfortunately understood Mr. Werner objected to my having invited her +and her husband here, and she hastened to leave a house where their +presence was unwelcome." + +Having unburdened herself of which statement, Mrs. Werner gathered up +her ample skirt, and with a distant bow to both gentlemen left the room. + +Mr. Werner went after her. + +"Leonora," he said as she ascended the staircase, but she never answered +him. "Leonora," he repeated, but still she made no more sign than if +she had been deaf. + +Then following rapidly, he stood beside her on the landing. + +"Leonora," he entreated, laying his hand on her arm with a pleading +gentleness difficult to associate with Henry Werner. + +She stood quite still and looked at him with an expression he had never +seen on her face before through all their married life, which God pity +any man who ever sees it in the face of his wife, in the face of the +mother of his children. + +"Do not speak to me about them to-night," she said. "Hereafter perhaps, +but not now," and her voice was changed and hard as Dolly had heard it. + +"Will you give me her note?" he asked. + +"Yes, it is your right," and she gave him the paper she held crushed in +her hand, a paper on which Dolly had traced mad words in wonderful +hieroglyphics. + +After his guests had all departed, when the house was silent and quiet +and lonely, and he was quite by himself, Henry Werner smoothed out that +crumpled manuscript and read the sentences Dolly had written in her +haste. + +There was much she had better have left unwritten, as there is in all +such effusions, much that was feminine and foolish, and passionate and +exaggerated. But it ended with two sentences which burned themselves on +Mr. Werner's brain. + + "If it were not for your sake, darling, I would wish that the man + you have had the misfortune to marry might be beggared and ruined + to-morrow--beggared, more completely ruined, more utterly even than + we have been. + + "As it is, I shall never forgive him--never for ever--never. + + "DOLLY." + +With a shiver Mr. Werner folded up Dolly's epistle and placed it in his +pocket-book. Then he did a most unwonted thing for him; indeed, I might +say unprecedented,--he poured out nearly a glass of brandy and drank it +off. + +"After all," he thought, "there is more in having a wife who is fond of +her husband than most fellows think. That little woman is as brave over +her sick husband as a hen about a brood of young chickens. I wonder if +she has taken him back to Homewood; or rather I do not wonder, for I +know she would sooner do anything than that." + +And in this idea he was perfectly correct; Dolly had found a shelter +for her sick husband, but not at Homewood. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE BEGINNING OF A NEW LIFE. + + +Off one of the cross roads leading from Stoke Newington and Stamford +Hill to Upper Clapton, there stood a few years back, and still stand, +for aught the writer knows to the contrary, a few pairs of semi-detached +houses, undoubtedly respectable as to position and appearance, but +painfully small in their internal arrangement--houses suitable both as +regarded rent and position for a couple of maiden ladies, for a widow +and her son, for a newly married couple, or for any one in fact whose +family chanced to be as circumscribed in number as his income in amount. + +All told, these desirable residences contained only seven rooms; but +the windows of those rooms overlooked, both back and front, pleasant +gardens, and the road in which they stood ended in a brick wall covered +with ivy, so that the inmates were crazed with no noise of passing +vehicles. Altogether a quiet out-of-the-world little Grove, for by that +name it was called, which a person might have wandered about Stamford +Hill and Clapton for ever without discovering, had he not chanced upon +it by accident, or happened to know some one resident in it. + +But Dolly Mortomley was familiar with that out-of-the-way nook. + +A widow with whom she had been well acquainted in the old Dassell days, +coming to London for the sake of being near her only son, had asked Mrs. +Mortomley to look her out a house, _small_, _genteel_, _cheap_, in a +_respectable neighbourhood_, _readily accessible to the City_--all these +requirements being italicised; and after weary searching, Dolly wrote +down triumphantly that she had found and taken the very residence +described, and that if her friend would send up her furniture, and come +and stay for a week at Homewood while the place was put in order, +everything should be made comfortable for her, so that she might walk, +without any fuss or trouble, into her new home. + +Mrs. Baker was the name of the new tenant who took possession of number +eight, in which she lived for nearly two years,--to the great +contentment of tradespeople, tax-collectors, and landlord, for she lived +regularly and paid regularly, as only persons possessed of a fixed +income punctually received, can do. + +At the end of that time, however, her son fell ill, and the doctors +advised that she should take him abroad for the winter. + +Then ensued a difficulty. She had taken the house on a three years' +agreement, and she did not wish to sell her furniture. + +Clearly then, as all her friends said, the best thing for her to do was +to let the house furnished until the end of her term, by which time she +would be able to arrange her future plans. + +This was in July. October had now come, and the house was still on +view. Keys to be had at Mr. Stilton's, Blank Street, Clapton, while once +a week the rooms were swept, the furniture rubbed and dusted, and fires +lighted, by a former servant, who having married only a few months +previously, resided in the neighbourhood. + +The house would not let furnished. The class of people who require +furnished houses are not those desirous of renting one at about a pound +or five-and-twenty shillings a week, and Dolly had already written to +inquire whether the chairs and tables and other effects had not better +be stored, and the residence let unfurnished. + +As she sat plucking the wool out of Mr. Werner's mat, the memory of this +house had recurred to her. They would be quiet there. She could pay Mrs. +Baker's rent without saying who were her tenants. Mr. Stilton knew her +well, and would let her have the keys at once if she said the house was +taken. She would have Susan over, and she would tell no one, except +Esther and Mr. Leigh, and perhaps Rupert Halling, where she and her +husband had taken refuge, and she would nurse him back to health in that +quiet house where not a sound would disturb his rest, for she remembered +Mrs. Baker telling her the people next door had neither chick nor +child--nor piano. + +It all came back to her like a vision of safety and peace. There Messrs. +Forde and Kleinwort could not intrude; there they might shut their door +and bar out the world, and not even Mr. Swanland could compel them to +shelter a man in possession; there she could go into her kitchen +undeterred by the thought of strangers loafing around the fire; there +they might have their dry morsel in quietness; there she would be free +from the scrutiny of Mr. Meadows, and the eternal bickering of workmen; +there Mr. Bayley would have no right to come at early morn and dewy eve, +and neither would Mr. Swanland's head and confidential clerk, who +appeared perpetually at Homewood to hear Mr. Meadows' report, and to +make sure the Mortomleys were not interfering with the business, or +making away with goods, or inciting the men to rebellion, or, in a +word, misconducting themselves in any way which should authorise Mr. +Swanland in taking active steps to teach them their true position. + +As for Mr. Werner and all their former acquaintances, she tried to +forget she had ever called a human being friend. + +"What I have to do now I must do for myself," she decided, as she drove +through the night, her husband's head pillowed on her shoulder. "If we +must pass through the valley of humiliation, it shall henceforth be +alone. We have trod it long enough in sight of the public." + +Perhaps she underrated the extent of the responsibility she thus +assumed; perhaps in her anger against Mr. Werner, and her remembrance of +all the misery she had endured at Homewood, she omitted to look on the +other side of the canvas, and see the picture of solitude, anxiety, +poverty, and lingering illness ultimately painted there; but spite of +this, though she took her bold step in haste, she never repented it had +been forced upon her--never, not even when she was weary and +downhearted, not even when the burden seemed greater than she could +bear, did Dolly regret she decided not to take her husband back to +Homewood. + +And yet, as she stood at the gate struggling with an unknown lock, her +heart did sink within her for a moment. + +It was only for a moment, however, for when after another fight with the +key of the hall-door, she entered the house and lighted the gas with +some matches she had been wise enough to purchase on her way, together +with some other articles, a great sense of security and contentment came +over her, and she felt, so far as she was concerned, if there had not +been a bed or table in the house, if she had been compelled to sleep on +the bare boards, she would cheerfully have done so rather than pass +another night under the same roof with Mr. Meadows or any person of his +profession. + +Full of this feeling she returned to the cab, and asked the driver to +assist her husband to alight. Fortunately, he was a strong, capable +fellow, or they must have sent for further assistance. + +To her utter dismay, Dolly found it impossible to rouse the sick man to +a sense of what was required from him, the moderate exertion of +struggling to a standing position, and almost in despair she strove with +all her strength to lift him from his seat. + +"Let me try, ma'am," said Cabby, and he took Mortomley in his arms, and +the moment after was supporting him on the side-path; then the strange +man and she managed between them to lead him up the short walk and the +little flight of steps leading to the hall door. + +"Can we get him upstairs?" Dolly asked in despair, for one look at his +face under the gaslight showed her his illness had returned, that he was +as bad as he could well be. + +"We can try, ma'am," was the answer. + +"You must stay with him while I run up and light the gas," she remarked. + +The man looked at the unpromising staircase, and at Mrs. Mortomley, +panting and out of breath, and shook his head. + +"I wouldn't try it if I was you," he said. + +They placed him in an arm-chair, and then with mattresses brought from +upstairs, made a comfortable enough couch in the back drawing-room. + +When these preparations were completed, Dolly motioned the cabman to +follow her into the hall. + +"Haven't you got anybody here with you, ma'am?" he asked, with a rough +sympathy in his voice and manner. + +"I am all alone for the present," she answered. "Will you do something +for me?" + +"Aye, that I will, if so be I can," was the ready answer. + +"First, how much do I owe you?" and when that pecuniary matter was +settled to his entire satisfaction, Mrs. Mortomley said, + +"I want you to fetch a doctor. Find one and bring him here as soon as +you can. We won't quarrel about your fare." + +"I am not afraid of that," he replied, muttering to himself as he +climbed up to his box, "but I am afraid it is an undertaker rather than +a doctor you will be wanting soon." + +He was not absent more than half an hour, but in that time Dolly had +arranged matters somewhat to her mind. + +She discovered coals in the cellar, and a few pieces of wood in the +kitchen-grate, and so managed to light a fire in the sick-room. She +carried the chairs, upholstered in damask, and other items of +drawing-room furniture into the front room, and substituted in their +place articles from the upper rooms, which proved that Dolly had no +intention of moving her husband to the first floor for some time to +come. + +From the contents of a travelling-bag, which having been taken straight +out to Mrs. Werner's carriage, had escaped Mr. Meadows' scrutiny, she +set out the dressing-table with a few toilet necessaries, and thus it +came to pass that when the doctor arrived he found the house inhabited +not merely by human beings, but by that subtle essence of womanhood +which may be felt but never described. + +Already the house was a home, and this man who entered so many houses +which were not homes did involuntarily homage to her achievement. + +With a quiet tread he walked to the side of his patient, and stooping +down over him felt his pulse, pulled up his eyelids, drew down the +coverings, and laid his hand on his heart, then placed his own cool palm +on the sick man's forehead. Then leaning his elbow on the mantelpiece, +he proceeded to question Dolly. + +"How long has he been ill?" + +"Several weeks. I cannot now remember how many," she answered, making a +movement as if to leave the room. + +"He won't hear us," said the doctor. "You need not trouble yourself +about that. Some one has been attending him, I suppose?" + +"Yes," she answered, "but not in this neighbourhood; we have only just +come here." + +"So the cabman told me," he replied. "Has he," indicating Mortomley +with a turn of his head, "been living low?" + +"He has had everything the doctor told me to give him." + +"Beef-tea, wine, and so forth?" + +"Yes, all sorts of wine, and everything we could think of or imagine." + +"Just as I supposed," remarked the doctor. "And medicine, of course, +draughts and drops, and those sort of things?" + +"Yes; all that was ordered." + +"And how does it happen a man in his state of health was out at such a +time of night--out, in fact, at all?" asked the doctor suddenly. + +"Because where we lived was killing him," Dolly answered; "because a +dear friend wanted to take us to Brighton with her. And--and--well if I +must tell you, other members of her family did not make us welcome when +we got to her house in London, and I was obliged to bring him here." + +"That is right," he said, nodding approvingly. "Always tell the truth to +your doctor. In return I will be frank with you. What your husband +wants is not so much wine, or meat, or change, or anything of that sort +usually recommended, but sleep. If he can rest, and I think he can, that +may save him; but I tell you candidly his recovery will be tedious, and +nothing except rest _can_ save him. Good night. I will not send you any +medicine at present, but I will look round early in the morning, and see +what sort of a night he has passed." + +And he held out his hand and departed, and Dolly was left alone. + +When she paid the cabman for his second journey she gave him a letter, +and put him upon honour to post it at some pillar-box where the +collections were made at three in the morning. + +That letter, written hurriedly and directed in pencil, ran as follows:-- + + "Thursday night. + + "Dear Esther,--I have decided _not_ to go with Mrs. Werner to + Brighton. Directly you receive this, please send Susan to Mrs. + Baker's. You know the address. I will try to get over to Homewood + to-morrow, but cannot do so till Susan comes here. Mr. Mortomley is + very ill. Do not mention where we are to any one till I have seen + you. + + "Yours, + "D. MORTOMLEY." + +The cabman was faithful. Though he might never see Mrs. Mortomley again, +he honestly did her bidding, and accordingly about half-past ten o'clock +the next morning Susan arrived, bringing the following note with her +from Esther:-- + + "Friday morning. + + "Dear Madam,--I have not kept Susan to take any of her clothes, as + I wanted to get her away before Meadows was up. I think you will be + quieter at Mrs. Baker's than any place else. + + "Susan will tell you about Mr. Forde and Mr. Kleinwort; but perhaps + you have seen them. + + "They were greatly put out at finding you gone. I would not have + told them where, but Meadows he did. No more at present from + + "Your humble servant, + "E. HUMMERSON. + + "Dear Madam,--I am sorry to hear Mr. Mortomley is so ill again. + Please do not send Susan here, as Meadows might get talking to + her." + +After reading and re-reading this epistle, Mrs. Mortomley decided not to +visit Homewood for some time to come. + + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + MR. FORDE MAKES A MISTAKE. + + +Matters were not progressing pleasantly at Homewood. Relieved from his +task of watching Mrs. Mortomley's movements, Mr. Meadows had spent the +evening of her departure in the company of Messrs. Lang and Hankins at +the public-house which they patronised, and the consequence was that he +came downstairs next morning very late, and feeling, after a debauch +following a period of enforced sobriety, not at all himself. + +And there was nothing prepared for breakfast which he liked. Turner and +the other man having been first in the field, had finished such +delicacies as Esther had seen fit to set before them, and when at +length Mr. Meadows appeared he found to his disgust nothing to tempt his +appetite. A pot of tea, with sugar and milk accompaniments, a boiled +egg, a loaf, and a small quantity of butter, alone graced the board. + +"I can't eat this, you know," said Mr. Meadows, pushing away the egg +with an expression of loathing. + +"Well, you can leave it then?" retorted Esther. + +"Bring me some ham," he commanded. + +"There is not any," she answered. + +"Then send for some." + +"Send for some yourself, and send the money with it," replied Esther, +who was not destitute of that spice of the virago which gives flavour +and variety to a woman's character. + +Mr. Meadows looked at her darkly, then put his hand in his +waistcoat-pocket, and produced some silver. + +"Where is Susan?" he inquired. + +"She is out," was the curt reply. + +"When will she be in?" + +"I do not know," Esther answered. "Never perhaps. She has gone after a +fresh place, and that is what I intend to do before long." + +"And that is just what you won't do, my fine young woman," he declared, +"for you cannot leave without a month's notice." + +"Well, we will see," she replied. "I have not to give notice to you +anyhow. I am not your servant." + +"You are Mr. Swanland's, which is about the same thing," was the answer. +"You chose to stay on after he took possession here for your own +pleasure, and you will stay on now for mine, or else we will go before +the nearest magistrate and know what he says on the subject." + +But he spoke to space, for Esther, too indignant to listen further, had +already left the kitchen, and he was compelled himself to go out into +the works and send a lad for the viands his soul desired. + +He had not finished his repast before a cab drove up, containing Messrs. +Forde and Kleinwort. + +Turner, sauntering idly about the lawn, was accosted by them. + +"I want to see Mrs. Mortomley," Mr. Forde exclaimed. + +"She has not returned. She left yesterday, as Mr. Meadows told you, sir, +with Mrs. Werner." + +"Yes; but she has come back here." + +"That she certainly has not," was the quiet reply. + +The two men looked at each other; then Mr. Kleinwort said, + +"We should like to speak just one word with that bright little maid, +Esther I think you call her. Will you tell her so?" + +"I will find her myself," said Mr. Forde, and he strode into the house, +followed by Kleinwort. As they entered the kitchen, Meadows, looking +little better for his breakfast, rose to meet them. + +"Where is Mrs. Mortomley?" repeated Mr. Forde, evidently believing that +iteration would bring him knowledge. + +"At Mr. Werner's sir," Mr. Forde muttered an impatient oath. + +"Where is that girl?--Esther, I mean." + +Mr. Meadows went in search of her, and when she appeared, Mr. Forde +remarked once again, that he wanted to see Mrs. Mortomley. + +"She is not here, sir, she went away with Mrs. Werner yesterday." + +"Yes, but she left Mrs. Werner's last night, and you know where she is +now." + +The arrow was shot at a venture, but it told. Esther coloured and looked +confused. + +"Come now, tell us where she is," said Mr. Forde in his mildest accents. + +It was not of the slightest use trying to fence with the difficulty, so +Esther grappled it. + +"I do not know, sir," she answered; thinking she might as well tell a +sufficient falsehood when she was about it. + +"That is not the truth," remarked Mr. Forde. + +"And if I did know where she was, sir," continued Esther, "I should not +give her address to you or any one else without her permission." + +"You are all a pack of thieves and swindlers together," observed Mr. +Forde; including, with a comprehensive glance, Meadows and the two men +and Esther, in the statement levelled against the Mortomley +establishment; "and I don't know that I ought not to give you all in +charge for conspiracy. I will send for a policeman, and see if he cannot +induce some of you to find your tongues." + +"I wish you would hold yours for a while," interposed Kleinwort. "Fact +is, my good peoples, we want to see that dear, distressed Mrs. +Mortomley, and do much good to her and that poor invalid husband, and +after a day or two it will be too late by far. You come with me," he +added, addressing Turner; "you, I see, have brains and can understand; +let me talk with you." + +And so he and Turner walked into the conservatory. + +"I will give you one--two--dree--foar--five gold pounds, if you get me +the place where to find our little lady," he remarked. + +But Turner shook his head. + +"I can't get it for you," he said. + +"But that maid so nice knows where she is. You worm it out of her. You +extract that knowledge." + +"No, sir," answered Turner. "I will not. I am not aware she has the +slightest idea where her mistress is; but if she has, I am not going to +pump her to please you. Put up your money, sir. God knows I have always +thought badly enough of our calling, but I think it respectable in +comparison to the callings I have seen followed by rich people since I +came here; and badly as I want five pounds, if I could take it to play +the spy on a lady like Mrs. Mortomley, I ought to be shot--that is what +ought to be done with me; and I have no more to say." + +"What can these beastly English brutes see in that Mrs. Mortomley to +make them loyal so senselessly," considered Mr. Kleinwort. "She has not +golden hair like mine dear wife, nor eyes so blue; nor presence so +imposing; nor that red and white so lovely; neither is she +house-mistress so clever; nor big brains as have some women. All she +seems to be owned of is a sharp tongue and a big temper. But these Bulls +are so stupid, they like to be goaded; they need not repose at home, as +do we whose heads know no rest abroad." + +For above an hour the pair remained at Homewood, thinking what could be +done, but every one about the place they found either senselessly honest +or stupid beyond belief; and at last, wearied and angry, Mr. Forde +returned to the kitchen, and addressing Esther, remarked, "I suppose if +I leave a note here, Mrs. Mortomley will have it?" + +Then answered Esther demurely, "I'm sure I don't know, sir; you had +better ask Mr. Meadows." + +"What the ---- has Mr. Meadows to do with the matter," inquired Mr. Forde. + +"Only, sir, that he sends all my mistress' letters to Mr. Swanland," +explained Esther, delighted at a chance of at last airing that +grievance. + +"What does she mean?" inquired Mr. Forde, turning to Meadows. + +"Nothing, sir, only that Mr. Swanland, as trustee, of course opens _all_ +letters." + +Whereupon Mr. Forde made some remarks about Mr. Swanland, which, though +a true chronicler, I must refrain from setting forth in print. + +"I should think, sir," suggested Esther, when the storm had blown over a +little, "that, if you sent a note either to Mr. Leigh or to Mrs. Werner, +my mistress would have it. She is quite certain to send her address to +them." + +"Look here, my girl," said Mr. Forde, "I will give the note to you, and +trust to chance. If Mrs. Mortomley has not given her address to you, +which I believe she has, she will within twenty-four hours. Give me pen, +ink, and paper." + +And though letter-writing was against all Mr. Forde's principles, he +thereupon sat down and wrote a note to Mrs. Mortomley, stating with what +regret he had heard of her consulting a solicitor, and asking for an +interview which he had no doubt would prove of ultimate advantage to +all concerned, "including Mr. Mortomley himself." + +When he had finished, he laid the envelope and a florin on the table and +summoned Esther. + +"That is the letter," he remarked. + +She took the letter and pushed aside the florin. + +"My mistress left me enough money, thank you, sir," she said; "and I +would rather not take any more from any one." + +Mr. Kleinwort shrugged his shoulders as she retreated, and his friend +pocketed the florin. + +"Asherill had reason," remarked the German. + +"What reason, and for what?" asked Mr. Forde. + +"He would do nothing with those people," was the reply; "and, my faith, +before you have finished, I think it may come to pass you shall wish you +had let them choose their own lawyer, their own trustee, and liquidated +their own estate for their own selves." + +"But you yourself advised--" began Mr. Forde. + +"Advised on your story which you swore was true. You said Mortomley was +shamming sick; that the nephew was a rogue and fool combined; that the +little woman had her own fortune secure; that besides, they had made one +great _coup_, and put away money beyond count. Ah! bah! you great, +stupid head--these two, man and wife, have been as senselessly honest as +foolish, as even I, looking around, using my eyes, using my ears, can +see, and you had better have treated them as such. Now I have said my +say, now do as you like for the future." + +"You are a clever fellow, Kleinwort, but you do not understand England +or English people." + +"That may be well," agreed Mr. Kleinwort, with a face like a judge, all +the time he was laughing to himself at the innocence of his companion. +As for Mr. Forde, what he liked to do in the future was this. + +When Mrs. Mortomley received his letter she sent it to Mr. Leigh, +requesting him to attend to it; and although the lawyer considered it a +somewhat curious and involved epistle, he repaired forthwith to St. +Vedast Wharf. + +Mr. Forde was within and visible. + +"I have called," said Mr. Leigh, after the first ordinary courtesies had +been exchanged, "to speak about a letter you sent to Mrs. Mortomley a +few days ago." + +Mr. Forde rose and put his hands in his pockets. "You will not speak to +me about it, my good sir; depend upon that," he observed. + +"I think you must have misunderstood me," ventured Mr. Leigh in +amazement. + +"No, sir, I have not," was the reply. "I wrote a friendly letter to Mrs. +Mortomley, and instead of coming to me herself she sends a lawyer. I +will have nothing to do with you, sir. There is the door; be kind +enough, as you came through it, to go out through it." + +"Certainly," agreed Mr. Leigh, "but--" + +"Leave the room, sir," roared Mr. Forde. "Will you go out of the +premises peaceably, or must I put you out?" + +"Mr. Forde," remarked the lawyer, "you must be mad or drunk. In either +case I can have no wish to remain in your company. Good morning." + +"Leave the room, sir," repeated Mr. Forde. He was one of those men who +think some charm lies in shouting out a certain form of words so long as +any one can be found to listen to it. + +"Good morning," said Mr. Leigh again in reply, and he left St. Vedast +Wharf boiling over with rage. + +As he proceeded up the lane he met a man with whom he had some +acquaintance--a man recently elected one of the directors of the General +Chemical Company, Limited. + +"Why, Leigh," said this gentleman, "where are you coming from?" + +"I am coming from being ordered off your premises by your manager," +replied Mr. Leigh, still white with passion. + +"My dear fellow, impossible--" + +"Not merely possible, but true," was the answer. "I have a client of the +name of Mortomley, who, some years ago, became acquainted with your +firm, and who has never done a day's good since. He is now in +liquidation, and Mr. Forde wrote a note to Mrs. Mortomley, which I can +show you if you are at all interested in so small an affair, wanting to +see her. She did not want to see him, and so sent his communication on +to me; but when I went to speak to him he flamed out on me as if I had +been a pickpocket, ordered me off the premises, and behaved, as I told +him, as if he were either mad or drunk." + +"Humph!" said the new director. Mr. Forde had within the previous +half-hour dealt himself a worse card than had ever before lain in his +hand. "If you want an apology, Leigh, the idiot shall send you +one--but--" + +"Apology!" repeated the lawyer, "do you suppose I would accept one if +the maniac sent it; but look to yourself, Agnew. There is something +awfully rotten about your company, or I am much mistaken." + +"I quite agree with you," was the reply; and the pair parted company; +but instead of entering St. Vedast Wharf, Mr. Agnew turned along a +cross lane, and thought Mr. Forde over quietly and at his leisure. + +When he had thought him over he retraced his steps, and entered the +offices, where Mr. Forde greeted him as though he had never spoken an +insolent or unkind word to any one. + +"Fine morning, sir," he declared. It was a curious fact that the moment +the Mortomleys left Homewood the rain ceased. + +"Yes, very fine," Mr. Agnew agreed, walking to the window. He was the +most silent person Mr. Forde had ever encountered. He wore his hair +parted down the middle, he used scent, his hands were very small and +white, his clothes came from a West-end tailor, and he had married the +daughter of some country magnate. Altogether, every one liked him at the +board, because he did not interfere, because he was a gentleman, and +because, as one of his fellow-directors said, + +"He is a HASS. If you want my opinion of him, that's what he is--a +HASS." + +And so nobody feared and no one cultivated him, and he moaned about the +premises at various hours, asking unconnected questions, looking at the +books in a desultory sort of way, tolerated at the wharf as a simpleton +might have been, and seeing much more than any one gave him credit for. + +One of the questions he asked Mr. Forde quietly and in a corner on that +especial day related to the estate Mr. Swanland was liquidating. + +"About Mortomley now," he said confidentially. + +"I am sorry to tell you, sir, I have been entirely deceived in that +blackguard," answered Mr. Forde. "I trusted him as I would my own +brother, and he has run away with I should be sorry to say what amount +of money; but we shall catch him yet I hope," added Mr. Forde; "and +Swanland says there will be a capital dividend. But one does not know +who is honest, one does not, indeed. I shall never advise giving another +man time." + +"I really do not think I should were I you," said Mr. Agnew. "It makes +matters unpleasant if things go wrong." + +"Aye, that it does," said Mr. Forde, "though that would not matter much +if all my directors were such Zanies as you," he added mentally. + +For it was a curious fact that Mr. Forde conscientiously believed if he +could only be rid of the interference of his directors for a month, or +obtain an entirely new set whom he could direct as he pleased, fashioned +perhaps upon the model of Mr. Agnew, he should be able to make such play +with the resources of the Chemical Company, that he might raise it to +the pinnacle of commercial success. + +Beyond keeping his situation he had really very little good for himself, +notwithstanding his man[oe]uvring, notwithstanding the risks he had run, +the almost maddening anxieties in which he had managed to entangle +himself. + +Heaven knows the game had not been worth the candle, but then, when a +man begins a game, he cannot tell the end; and when the game is ended, +it is too late to fret about the cost. + +If ever an essentially round person had the misfortune to be placed in a +square hole, that person was Mr. Forde; and not all his loud talk and +vehement self-exertion could fill the vacant corners or give him any +real sense of security in his position. + +Nevertheless, to that position he held on as a man might cling to the +last to a sinking vessel. + +So long as he could keep his head above water at St. Vedast Wharf, there +was hope that some friendly ship might rescue and bear him off to +safety. + +"You wait," said Kleinwort to him, when they were discussing the +pig-headedness of the directors and the general and disgusting +ingratitude of small customers, who would keep failing, and thus drew +attention to those accounts which were of regal magnitude. "You wait; do +not inquiet yourself more than you can avoid. I have one idea that we +should be able to do much good together. Once I make a great _coup_ that +is in mine head, then we shall see much. Amongst more if Bertrand +Kleinwort cannot put a fortune in the way of his friend." + +"Thank you, Kleinwort," replied Mr. Forde gratefully. "I know I can +trust _you_." + +Which showed an amount of faith difficult to conceive of any one +possessing in the sceptical nineteenth century. + +But Mr. Forde had an enormous capacity for believing in things he +desired should come to pass. + +And this was really a great pity. + + + + END OF VOL. II. + + + + PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO., + LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. + + + + +Transcriber's Note: Minor changes have been made to spelling and +punctuation. For example, the word hold was changed to holding and +neighbourood to neighbourhood. The oe ligature is shown as [oe]. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mortomley's Estate, Vol. II (of 3), by +Charlotte Elizabeth Lawson Cowan Riddell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORTOMLEY'S ESTATE, VOL. II (OF 3) *** + +***** This file should be named 39552.txt or 39552.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/5/5/39552/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Sue Fleming and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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