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diff --git a/40332-0.txt b/40332-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a131ac5 --- /dev/null +++ b/40332-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5296 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40332 *** + +Transcriber's Notes: + + 1. Page scan source: + http://www.archive.org/details/richmansrelative02clel + (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) + + 2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe]. + + + + + + + A RICH MAN'S RELATIVES + + + + + + + PRESS NOTICES + + OF + + "INCHBRACKEN," + + A NOVEL BY R. CLELAND + + * * * + + _Westminster Review, October_, 1883. + +"Inchbracken" is a clever sketch of Scottish life and manners at the +time of the "Disruption," or great secession from the Established +Church of Scotland, which resulted in the formation of the Free +Church. The scene of the story is a remote country parish in the north +of Scotland, within a few miles of the highland line. The main +interest centres in the young Free Church minister and his sister and +their relations, on the one hand, with the enthusiastic supporters of +the Disruption movement, mostly of the peasant or small tradesmen +class, with a sprinkling of the smaller landowners; and, on the other +hand, with the zealous supporters of the Established Church, +represented by the Drysdales of Inchbracken, the great family of the +neighbourhood. The story is well and simply told, with many a quiet +touch of humour, founded on no inconsiderable knowledge of human +nature. + + _Academy, 27th October_, 1883. + +There is a great deal of solid writing in "Inchbracken," and they who +read it will hardly do so in vain. It is a story of the Disruption; +and it sets forth, with much pains and not a little spirit, the +humours and scandals of one of the communities affected by the event. +The main incident of the story has nothing to do with the Disruption, +it is true; but its personages are those of the time, and the uses to +which they are put are such as the Disruption made possible. Roderick +Brown, the enthusiastic young Free Church minister, finds on the +sea-shore after wreck and storm, a poor little human waif which the +sea has spared. He takes the baby home, and does his best for it. One +of his parishioners has lost her character, however; and as Roderick, +at the instigation of his beadle, the real author of her ruin, is good +enough to give her money and help, it soon becomes evident to +Inchbracken that he is the villain, and that the baby of the wreck is +the fruit of an illicit amour. How it ends I shall not say. I shall do +no more than note that the story of the minister's trials and the +portraitures--of elders and gossips, hags and maids and village +notables--with which it is enriched are (especially if you are not +afraid of the broadest Scotch, written with the most uncompromising +regard for the national honour) amusing and natural in no mean degree. + + W. E. HENLEY. + + _Athenæum, 17th November_, 1883. + +"Inchbracken" will be found amusing by those who are familiar with +Scotch country life. The period chosen, the "Disruption time," is an +epoch in the religious and social life of Scotland, marking a revival, +in an extremely modified and not altogether genuine form, of the +polemic Puritanism of the early Presbyterians, and so furnishing a +subject which lends itself better to literary treatment than most +sides of Scottish life in this prosaic century. The author has a good +descriptive gift, and makes the most of the picturesque side of the +early Free Church meetings at which declaimers against Erastian +patronage posed in the attitude of the Covenanters of old. The story +opens on a stormy night when Roderick Brown, the young Free Church +minister of Kilrundle, is summoned on a ten-mile expedition to attend +a dying woman, an expedition which involves him in all the troubles +which form the subject of the book. The patient has nothing on her +mind of an urgent character. "No, mem! na!" says the messenger. + +"My granny's a godly auld wife, tho' maybe she's gye fraxious whiles, +an' money's the sair paikin' she's gi'en me; gin there was ocht to +confess she kens the road to the Throne better nor maist. But ye see +there's a maggit gotten intil her heid an' she says she bent to +testifee afore she gangs hence." + +The example of Jenny Geddes has been too much for the poor old +woman:-- + +"Ay, an' I'm thinkin' it's that auld carline, Jenny Geddes, 'at's +raised a' the fash! My granny gaed to hear Mester Dowlas whan he +preached among the whins down by the shore, an' oh, but he was bonny! +An' a graand screed o' doctrine he gae us. For twa hale hours he +preached an expundet an' never drew breath for a' the wind was +skirlin', an' the renn whiles skelpin' like wild. An' I'm thinkin' my +granny's gotten her death o' ta'. But oh! an' he was grand on Jenny +Geddes! an' hoo she up wi' the creepie am' heved it a the Erastian's +heid. An' my granny was just fairly ta'en wi't a', an' she vooed she +beut to be a mither in Israel tae, an' whan she gaed hame she out wi' +the auld hugger 'at she keeps the bawbees in, aneath the hearthstane, +for to buy a creepie o' her ain,--she thocht a new ane wad be best for +the Lord's wark,--an' she coupet the chair whaur hung her grave +claes,' at she airs fonent the fire ilika Saturday at e'en, 'an out +there cam a lowe, an' scorched a hole i' the windin' sheet, an' noo, +puir body, we'll hae to hap her in her muckle tartan plaid. An' +aiblins she'll be a' the warmer e'y moulds for that. But, however, she +says the sheet was weel waur'd, for the guid cause. An' syne she took +til her bed, wi' a sair host, an' sma' winder, for there was a weet +daub whaur she had been sittin' amang the whins. An' noo the host's +settled on her that sair, she whiles canna draw her breath. Sae she +says she maun let the creepie birlin' slide, but she beut to testifee +afore some godly minister or she gangs hence. An' I'm fear'd, sir, ye +maun hurry, for she's real far through." + +The excuse for this long extract must be its excellence as a specimen +of a long-winded statement, just such as a Scotch fisher boy would +make when once the ice was broken. Not less idiomatic is the interview +between Mrs. Boague, the shepherd's wife, and Mrs. Sangster "of +Auchlippie," the great lady of the congregation, when the latter has +had her painful experience of mountain climbing, till rescued by the +"lug and the horn" at the hands of her spiritual pastor. Other good +scenes are the meeting of the two old wives in mutches an the brae +side, and the final discomfiture of the hypocritical scamp Joseph +Smiley by his mother-in-law, Tibbie Tirpie, who rights her daughter's +wrongs and the minister's reputation by a capital _coup de main_. Of +more serious interest, though full of humour, are the trials the +excellent Roderick endures at the hands of his kirk session. Ebenezer +Prittie and Peter Malloch are types of many an elder minister and +ministers' wives have had to groan under, and the race is not extinct. +But all who are interested in such specimens of human nature should +refer to Mr. Cleland, who knows his countrymen as well as he can +describe his country. + + + + + * * * * * + + Select Novels by Popular Authors. + + _Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. each_. + + By Florence Marryat. + + MY SISTER THE ACTRESS. + A BROKEN BLOSSOM. + PHYLLIDA. + THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL. + FACING THE FOOTLIGHTS. + + By Annie Thomas. + + ALLERTON TOWERS. + FRIENDS AND LOVERS. + EYRE OF BLENDON. + + + By Mrs. Eiloart. + + THE DEAN'S WIFE. + SOME OF OUR GIRLS. + + + By Lady Constance Howard. + + SWEETHEART AND WIFE. + MOLLIE DARLING. + + + By the Author of "Recommended to Mercy." + + BARBARA'S WARNING. + + + By Mrs. Alexander Fraser. + + A PROFESSIONAL BEAUTY. + + + By Harriett Jay. + + TWO MEN AND A MAID. + + + + + + + A + + RICH MAN'S RELATIVES. + + + + BY + + R. CLELAND, + + AUTHOR OF "INCHBRACKEN." + + + + _IN THREE VOLUMES_. + + VOL. II. + + + + + LONDON: + + F. V. WHITE AND CO., + + 31, SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND, W.C. + + 1885. + + + + + + + PRINTED BY + KELLY AND CO., GATE STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS; + AND MIDDLE MILL KINGSTON-ON-THAMES. + + + + + + + CONTENTS + + * * * + + CHAP. + + I.--Finance. + + II.--Mary Selby meets her Daughter. + + III.--Considine. + + IV.--Betsey en Fete. + + V.--Randolph's Tribulations. + + VI.--A Benevolent Spider. + + VII.--In the Rue des Borgnes. + + VIII.--The Tie of Kindred. + + IX.--Tobogganing. + + X.--Annette. + + XI.--Bluff. + + XII.--A Board Meeting. + + + + + A RICH MAN'S RELATIVES. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + FINANCE. + + +The sunshine and the glow faded slowly out of the air, the world fell +into shadow, and the heavens changed their sunset glory for the blue +transparency of summer twilight. Evening spread wings of soothing calm +over the drowsy land, worn out, as a child might be, with its day-long +revel in the garish light. The air grew softened and refreshed with +falling dews which gathered unnoticed on the leaves and grass blades. +The winds were still, and only fire-flies, blinking among the herbage +or pursuing aimless flights across the deepening dimness, disturbed +the perfect rest. + +Along the dusty road came sounds of wheels, the wheels of the Misses +Stanleys' home-going guests. The sound spread far and wide across the +humid air which sublimated it into something above the common daylight +noise, rasping and jarring against stones and gravel, into a rumbling +half musical with suggestive echoes reverberating through the +stillness. + +Out of the gate they came, those vehicles, along the road, around the +corner where Bruneau's cottage stood, and down towards the village +shrouded in gathering obscurity, with the twinkle of a candle +scattered through it here and there in rivalry of the fire-flies in +the bushes nearer hand, but far less brilliant. The vehicles rumbled +and disappeared, and the echoes of their wheels died out as ripples +die on the surface of a stagnant pool; and the road was left alone to +night and silence. + +But not for long. Two passengers on foot came forward by-and-by, their +footsteps audible in the sensitive quiet, while yet themselves were +scarce visible in the gloom, and the fumes of their cigars tainting +the sweetness of the clover-scented air. It was Considine and Jordan, +who had preferred to walk while the rest drove on, and were enjoying +their tobacco in the coolness on their leisurely way. + +"Fine lad that ward of ours is growing up. Healthy, handsome, and well +conditioned, I should say by his looks. Likely to do credit to his +good fortune." It was Jordan who spoke. + +"To whom do you allude, sir?" answered the other, with the prim +formality of print, and of his native land--a formality which +continued residence among Her Majesty's more easy-spoken subjects was +little likely to relax at his time of life. "I am not aware of any lad +to whom I stand in the relation of guardian to a ward." + +"I mean Ralph Herkimer's boy, of course. No! You are right enough! He +is not our ward in the legal sense. We can have no voice in his +education. But, really, if we had, I do not think we could have +brought him up better." + +"Ha! Ralph's boy? Yes. He seems what we would class as 'good +ordin_ai_ry,' down my way, in the Cotton States--a shade better than +'fair to middlin'.' He ain't just real peart, I should say, but then +he is not a poor man's son, so that is natural. It takes hard work, +and hard feed, and not too much of the feed either, to make a lad +truly peart. But he seems high-toned, and that's the main point with a +young man of his prospects. But I would expect no less from Mrs. +Herkimer's son. Ah, sir! She's Noo Hampshire, 'tis true, and I don't +hold with Noo Hampshire and its notions; but, sir, she is a +high-souled, clear-seeing, honourable and accomplished--lady." +Strange--is it not?--how every female American resents being called a +_woman!_ and no male American dare apply that most simple and +dignified title to the sex. Let us hope that eventually the coloured +lady who condescends to do the washing for white women--_she_ calls +them so--will succeed in disgusting them with the frippery +pretentiousness of the title she usurps, and educate them into +adopting the gracious style of their illustrious mother Eve. + +"Oh, yes," answered Jordan, "Mrs. Ralph is an excellent person. My +wife thinks all the world of her, and I like her too; though, perhaps, +as you say, there is a little more New Hampshire than there need have +been. Yes! no doubt, young Gerald is most happy in having such a +mother. And then his father! Think of him! An extremely good fellow is +Ralph Herkimer. So wealthy! Such talent! _Must_ have it, you +know--though that kind of cleverness does not show much in society--to +make such a fortune. The practical talent which amasses a fortune +never _does_ shine in society, though we are ready enough to give it +every credit whenever it gives us the chance, which it never does but +when it invites us to dinner, and that, somehow, is not often. +However, Ralph is indisputably smart, as well as rich, and of course +high principled. How could he have made such a fortune otherwise? Our +young friend Gerald is most fortunate in his parents as well as in the +old uncle." + +"Ah! Gerald. Yes. I am with you there. A high-toned, whole-souled +gentleman. I knew him well. Had much to do in assisting him to manage +his affairs after he came to Canady. Very handsome affairs they were. +And I feel proud at having arranged all to his satisfaction, and +realized the whole before our unfort'nate unpleasantness, and the +depreciation of values in the South." + +"Yes, that was most fortunate. The old gentleman had time to make his +Canadian investments before his demise, and so saved you and me, +friend Considine"--this was an unwonted familiarity in Jordan's +reserved manner of speech, betraying a desire to grow intimate, which +implied something in his mind requiring a confidential mood for its +reception. "Saved you and me from a power of responsibility." + +Considine puffed his cigar in silence. If this _rapprochement_ was +meant to lead up to something behind, let it do so, he would give it +no assistance. He knew of nothing connected with the Herkimer estate +requiring confidential talk just then, and his thoughts were disposed +to linger on other themes. The soothing air and the fragrance of his +weed brought pleasanter fancies to his mind than could spring from the +contemplation of a dead man's money. He had spent a pleasant +afternoon, in what, to an old bachelor of his retiring habits, was a +scene of unwonted gaiety. The low soft hum of women's voices, the +rustle of their silks, the garden scents, and a vague impression of +gentle sweetness and pretty behaviour, so different from the tone at +his hotel and the club smoking-room, where so many of his evenings +were spent, hung like a rosy mist over his memory; and he would fain +have let it hang, so unaccustomed was it, and so pleasant. There was +something, too, like the wave of falling tresses before his eyes, and +a sound of pleasant laughter, not loud or much prolonged, as he +recalled his talk with Mrs. Ralph, and another talk which followed, in +which Miss Matilda was a third at first, and by-and-by sole auditor +and interlocutor, which had lasted long and been extremely pleasant. + +"Bless my soul!" said this sober elder to himself. "How deuced +agreeable I must have been! She really liked it--I could see +that--looked interested, no end, when I was explaining to her. And she +understood it all at once! Intelligent, very--cultured, too, and well +read--one knew that by the neat remark she made about Seringapatam. +And a _fine_ woman. What hair! Well-rounded bust, too, and what dainty +slippers. Neat ankle--that time it showed when she kicked the puppy +from under the tea-table. She looked as if she saw that I admired it +when she was drawing it back. She coloured, I think. But not a bit +offended--they never are, to see that a fellow appreciates their +'points.' How archly she smiled, too, at my little sally! What was it +again? But I made several, now I think of it, and she smiled at them +all--not sure, but she laughed. Yes, she did laugh once--laughed right +out. I believe she appreciates me! A woman of discernment. Not one to +be taken in by a sleek young puppy, fitted out by his tailor and his +barber, and nothing inside but his dinner. No, she appreciates a man +who knows something of life! Yes, I do believe she really did +appreciate me;" and he stroked his chin complacently, blowing his +smoke in a long thin tail of satisfaction into the night, and feeling +that the world with its cakes and ale was not all over for him yet, as +he pushed out his chest and stepped springily forward. + +Jordan had received no answer to his last observation. He had more to +say, but was waiting for a lead, such as his last remark should have +called forth, but no lead came. He gnawed the end of his cigar +impatiently; the thread of his discourse was being cut. Worse, it was +being allowed to trail idly on the mind and be forgot; like a +purposeless gossamer, which no one troubles to catch hold on, and +which, though its length has been nicely calculated for the gulf it +was meant to span, will never be caught on the further shore, and the +ingenious spider who spun it must wait bridgeless and in vain, or else +he must begin his labour over again, and try anew. Inwardly fuming, +pishing and pshawing under his breath, and gnawing his cigar, the +smoke grew turbulent and lost its way among the passages and recesses +of his system. It got in his eyes, first, and made them smart, it got +into his nostrils and made him snort; finally it made a solid charge +backwards for his throat, like a trapped animal struggling to escape. +Then at last he threw the vexatious thing away, and stood in the +middle of the highway, coughing, gasping and holding his sides, while +his eyes ran water, and his companion wondered if anything ought to be +done. Considine's day-dream after dark was dissipated utterly, and by +the time the other had composed himself he was ready enough to attend +to whatever his companion might choose to say. + +"Horrid cigar, that," Jordan was at last able to utter, as they +resumed their walk. "They _will_ always slip a few bad ones into each +box, however good. I wish the _con_founded tobacconist had had the +smoking of that one himself, and coughed his head off, it would have +served him right. But let me see--what was it we were talking about? +Hm--ha. Ah, yes! Old Herkimer's investments. Most judicious they were. +Oh, yes, very much so. Could not have done better--at the time, that +is. But times change. Circumstances have altered since '59. This is +'73, and no one can see fourteen years ahead." + +"The stocks all stand higher to-day than they did then," observed +Considine. "Let me see"--and he began to count off on his finger +tips--"Banque d'Orval, that's one. A very large block of stock we hold +there. That has gone up mightily since the surrender. How it stood in +'59 I can't say." + +"Oh, yes. It is higher than in '59, of course." + +"The Proletarian Loan and Mortgage Co. Don't know a better +mark on the share list at present than that. Pike and Steel Money +Co.--good--Bank of Progress--would be glad to hold some of its stock +myself--Tuscarora Roads--Consolidated Drainage. And--and three or four +more which I do not recall at present. As for the Provincial +Debentures, and Railroad and Municipal Bonds, we went over them +together last time we cut the _coupons_--could not be better, and I +reckon our friend bought them all at a discount. The estate will +realize a handsome profit." + +"Quite true, General!"--Jordan did not often lubricate his lips with +American titles of honour--"just what I observed. Our client could not +have acted with a sounder judgment when he made his investments. But +it is years since then, and the business world has had its +vicissitudes, like other institutions. Now--_entre nous_, and strictly +in confidence--are there no whispers afloat in financial circles? has +no--well, no breath--shall I call it? no tone of depreciation come to +your ears? No? You surprise me. But to be sure, it is not so very +unusual for signs and circumstances to leek out and become known in +our profession. Not to be _talked_ about, of course--that would +_never_ do. Betray the necessary confidence between lawyer and client? +Oh, no! Not for a moment! But we do get to know things _at times_, +while you men of the world are still in the dark, and going forward in +the blindest confidence. As to the Banque d'Orval, now. Has nothing +transpired to raise the--what shall I call it?--the shadow of a +misgiving?" + +"Misgiving?--Banque d'Orval?--I believe it stands as strong as the +Bank of Commerce of Noo York! Certainly, nairy one! You cannot have +looked into its last statement. Reserve of specie, circulation, +discounts, all O.K. Never made a better showing since it was +chartered." + +"I confess I never muddle myself with unnecessary figures. And as to +bank statements in general, the only reliable one of their affairs +ever issued is the one put out by the assignee when they go into +liquidation; and that comes too late to be of much use, except to sue +the old directors upon. No, I did not look into the statement. I have +always felt that that institution suffered an irreparable injury in +the death of Truepenny, the old president." + +"The shares are higher now than ever they were in his time." + +"No doubt. But what does that prove? Is there any limit to the +wrongheadedness and gullability of investors?--I know of none." + +"But Pennywise is manager still. Think of his long experience in the +bank, and how many years he acted under Truepenny. Pennywise is the +most cautious and circumspect bank manager going." + +"He is slow enough, if that is what you mean; and that slowness is the +foundation of his high repute. It has been worth a fortune to him. You +submit your proposal and he lets you talk, and when you have talked +yourself into a belief that he will never let so good a thing go past +him, he says 'hum,' and coughs--he has always a cough when he ought to +speak, and gains time by eating a lozenge. When that is over he clears +his voice with a long breath, and promises to submit the matter to his +board. Truepenny, now, was gruff, but he was quick, and he did not +waste time. He might cut you short in the middle of your story--he +always cut Pennywise short when he began to wheeze and ask more +questions--but it was because he knew what you were going to say, and +he gave you your answer. It was always the best answer for the bank's +interest, and generally it was the kindest for the customer. His +successor, Sacavent, is rarely to be seen in the bank parlour now, and +Pennywise does as he pleases, that is, makes people wait, till his +mind is satisfied, and their opportunity is past." + +"But the bank's business has not fallen off. The profits are larger +than ever this year." + +"On paper, at least. But we must wait to test the reality. It takes +time to weaken a made reputation. Sacavent, now! Do you think that was +a judicious choice?" + +"One of our most distinguished merchants--Why, of course!--Rich, +popular, doing an immense business of his own. Who can understand the +wants of the business community better?" + +"That is just it. I fear he understands the _wants_ of the business +community too well--knows them from personal experience. What would +you say, now, if I were to tell you that his fine house on the +mountain was mortgaged up to the gold weather cocks? and that the bank +has had to be content with a second mortgage, as collateral, which is +just worth the paper it is written on, for the first will cover +everything." + +"Hm. That sounds serious. Is it really so?" + +"I hear so, and more. They tell me his wife, who has her own +property--'_separée des biens_,' we call it in our law--has had to +give security for a large sum." + +"Indeed? But after all it is a big institootion. If Sacavent were to +bleed it for all he is worth it would be only a pin-prick to the +Banque d'Orval." + +"Perhaps; but who can be sure that he is the only blood-sucker on the +board? One cannot suppose the others would pass over his overdrafts if +they did not get something for themselves. Why, even Pennywise will +have to get something to keep him quiet. If it should turn out that +there is a whole nest of needy ones, who can tell how far the queer +transactions may extend? If anything should leak out--you see +something _is_ known, though not to the public--it would raise a +panic." + +"The Banque d'Orval can stand a run. Look at the specie reserve! It +_must_ stand. The government must come to its rescue in case of need." + +"No doubt. But think of the shares! If they fall back to par--and it +is not so many years since they were only a few per cents above--the +present value of an investment would be reduced one-half. And +everything else on the share list would be affected by the distrust it +would create. Many smaller institutions would go, and all would +suffer. It is a serious consideration. There is the Proletarian Loan, +now." + +"That is sound at any rate. Mortgaged properties cannot be wiped out +like the '_rest_' in a bank ledger." + +"But you must recollect the Proletarian receives deposits. They had +quite a flourish in their last statement over the increased amount, +and the smaller interest they have to pay on such moneys than on the +bonds they issue; which is all very well, but in case of a run by +their depositors, how are they to realize the long-time mortgages in +which their funds are tied up? They cannot look for much help from the +banks, who naturally would not be sorry to see a competitor for the +public savings in a tight place. Again, are you perfectly confident +that the affairs of the Proletarian would stand a close audit? I +confess I have a feeling myself which is not one of security, +notwithstanding the high quotations of the shares. It has always been +a mystery to me how old Weevil, the managing director, made his +fortune. When he went in there he appeared to have nothing but his +salary from the company of three thousand dollars. Now the man is +undeniably wealthy. Owns blocks of valuable city property, is director +in several companies where he must have a large interest, and lives in +a style which his salary could not keep up for a couple of months, far +less a year--houses for his sons, who, by-the-way, do nothing for +themselves, and English schools for his daughters, which a thousand +dollars a-piece do not begin to pay for. I would be the very last man +to say everything was not as it should be there, but at the same time +it is hard to understand." + +"Hm! These are new lights to me, friend Jordan. I must take time to +comprehend them. Meanwhile what is your own opinion? And have you any +suggestion to make as to what we should do?" + +"Candidly, then, General--and with all deference in discussing a +matter of finance with you, a member of the Stock Exchange, who make +the subject your profession--I believe that you financiers have +squally times before you. Confidence will be disturbed and quotations +will fall. The investments of our late highly valued friend stand now +at higher prices than ever before. The full value of the property is +vastly greater than when he purchased, and I hate to think of its +shrinking back to the sum, insignificant by comparison, which it +amounted to when it came under our care." + +"But I do not see that we can help that, even if it should occur. It +has not occurred as yet. The investments were made by Gerald himself, +and if, in the fluctuations of the market, the property becomes less +valuable, we are not responsible." + +"Not legally, even if morally. Still, we would like to do our best for +our worthy friend. For myself, I confess I am proud to be guardian of +so handsome a property; and, seeing we are not asked to work +gratuitously, it appears to me we should do our best for it." + +"All very true; but suppose it should turn out that our investments do +not prove profitable--that, after we have sold, the old investments +improve--what then? The estate will have suffered a loss, and the heir +may hold us to account." + +"My dear sir, present prices cannot rise any higher. Take my word for +it. How could they? Unless the rate of interest falls materially, how +could investors afford to pay higher prices? Consider that, and then +discount those circumstances, not generally known, which I have +mentioned to you--in confidence--and you cannot but agree with me. +Besides, our friend Ralph--he is your friend more than he is mine--is +a business man, prompt and off-hand. He knows. He is in big operations +every day; and he will not haggle over the odd cents like a _habitant_ +farmer." + +"But Ralph is not the heir. Gerald hated him, and would have thrown +his money into the St. Lawrence sooner than Ralph should get it." + +"Quite so. It is Ralph's boy, a fine lad, too. But he will do just as +his father thinks best. Any young fellow would be like wax in the +hands of so keen a practitioner as friend Ralph." + +"I think not. Mrs. Selby's child is the heir. She was to have had the +property herself if she had not married against her brother's wish." + +"My dear sir, that child is dead. It must be. It is ten years since it +disappeared. In spite of every effort and inquiry, nothing has been +heard of it since the day it was lost. Ralph's boy is the heir in +default of Mrs. Selby's children. Failing the boy, Ralph would inherit +from his son." + +"I have known so many instances in the South of the long-lost heir +turning up when he was least expected, that I never look on any one as +dead till I have seen the burial certificate. After a person has been +put underground, in the presence of witnesses, I feel that his claims +have been quieted, but not before. Twenty years from the date of Mrs. +Selby's marriage we will hand over the property to her child; failing +a child of hers we will pay it to Ralph's son; and, meanwhile, we need +not trouble our heads with questions of heirship." + +"True; but we would not fulfil the duty our deceased friend expected +of us if we stood idly by while panics and fluctuations of the Stock +Market were eating away the value of the property. Man alive! our +allowances and commissions in selling out and re-investing would go a +long way to make up any loss which could be proved in a court to have +arisen from our error in judgment, even if our good intentions did not +weigh with the jury to absolve us. That is, supposing the heir should +be shabby enough to make such a claim. But the supposition is +preposterous. If you sell out that block of stock in the Banque +d'Orval and the Proletarian now, your brokerage will be quite a pretty +thing--makes a man wish himself a broker to think of it." + +"And after the shares were sold, what would you do with the money?" + +"Invest in first mortgages on good real property--never to more than +half or a third of the value. I can lay my hands on any quantity of +such security. It is safe beyond question; for, as you observed a +little while ago, the acres cannot run away and I will see to there +being the fullest powers of foreclosure and sale; so there can be no +possibility of loss." + +"I do not understand your Canady laws about real property, and I would +be sure to get tripped up in some nicety about titles." + +"But _I_ know, General. It is my business." + +"Of course you do, and you would feel all safe. But what of me? One +man don't exactly like to shoulder a responsibility on the strength of +another man's knowledge--see? I would consult you myself, friend +Jordan, on my own affairs, and go by what you told me, but somehow +that seems different from going it blind in another man's business, +and making myself responsible for everything some one else may do." + +"But, my dear sir, I am as ignorant of Stock Exchange matters as you +can possibly be of the law of real property. Suppose we were to divide +the proceeds of stocks sold into two parts; you to invest the one-half +in stocks and bonds, and I the other in mortgages, and each to furnish +the other with particulars of what he had done. You would make a very +pretty sum out of your share of the business, and I don't mean to say +that I would not do the same out of the other, only as it is the +borrower who pays the law costs, my profits would come mostly out of +the public, while yours would come out of the estate, so you cannot +but say I am well disposed towards you." + +"But if we are to sell out the very strongest stocks on the list in +fear of a panic, it would be a foolish thing to buy into the weaker +ones at the same time." + +"Buy American bonds then. You know all about them. So much of United +States bonds, as being strong, and so much in bonds of the better +individual States, which can be got at a discount now, and will be +about par by the time the heir is to receive them. Quite a pretty +transaction for you, I should think, general." + +The "general" coughed and hummed, and cleared his voice as if about to +speak; but so many different words rushed to his lips at once--words +of doubt, words of inquiry, refusal and consent--that he could not +frame them into speech. + +"Think over it, general," Jordan said as they shook hands at parting, +"and let me know as soon as you have made up your mind. Something +should be done at once." + +Considine thought it would be mortifying if the estate left in his +charge should suffer diminution or loss simply on account of his own +want of enterprise. Of course there were chances both ways, but was it +not his business to make gain out of these chances? And had he not +secured for himself a snug little fortune by manipulating them for his +own advantage? And should he not risk something to save a friend, an +old and deceased friend, who would besides, pay brokerage on all he +did for him? Considine valued himself, and I doubt not, justly so, on +his "high tone;" but he was human, as we who contemplate his conduct +also are--and those brokerages _did_ range themselves in his mind +among the considerations for and against disturbing old Gerald's +investments, and eventually it was on the side with brokerages that +his decision fell; but we are not therefore justified in describing +Considine with his "tone" as a specious humbug. He meant well, as so +many of us do, only he was happy to combine his own advantage with +what he--therefore, perhaps--considered the advantage of his trust. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + MARY SELBY MEETS HER DAUGHTER. + + +Four years later, in a street in Montreal. It had snowed +uninterruptedly the day before, in fine dry particles, sifting +noiselessly through the air, and filling it with prickly points--not +the broad clammy flakes of an insular climate which loiter as they +fall, and feel damp and clay-like beneath the passer's feet; but +rather an attenuated sand or dust, dimming and pervading the day, and +heaping itself in drifts which overspread and bury while you watch, +yet cannot reckon how it is they grow. And then it is so dry in its +exceeding coldness that it will not wet, and springs and crackles +merrily under foot. + +It was morning--not yet nine o'clock--and the snow shovellers were +only beginning here and there to relieve the encumbered footways, and +contribute another layer to the solidly-packed thicknesses of snow and +ice which winter had been building in the streets, a foot or two above +the neighbouring side walks. The snow had ceased to fall, and the +laden clouds which had brought it having burst and dissolved +themselves, the sky was a clear pale vault, filled with diffused and +dazzling brightness. + +From a door there issued a young girl, trim and slight. She was +dressed in brown--brown close-fitting, warm and shaggy--muffled as to +ears and chin in a wisp of "cloud" of the same colour, out of which +there peered the daintiest little pink nose and a pair of eyes of +merry blue, shining as they looked out from under the edge of her +sealskin cap, with the gleeful twinkle of a squirrel's in the snugness +of his nest. I would have said they were like fawn's eyes, save that +it has a sentimental association which does not accord with Muriel +Stanley, now arrived at the age of fifteen--the border land between +child and woman--and fancy free. She stood on the doorsteps with a +roll of music under her arm, and her hands in the pockets of her +jacket. Muff she had none, it is in the way with active people who do +their five or six miles on snow-shoes of winter afternoons, and +"_toboggan_" down slopes in the moonlight. + +The air was so chill it seemed to catch the breath on emerging from +the indoor warmth; but it was so transfused with brightness and +dancing sunshine that it sent the blood coursing quicker through the +veins, and prickled in the nostrils with an exhilarating joy, like the +sting of the air bubbles in effervescing wine. + +The doorsteps were as yet unswept, and deep in snow, the shovellers +being still a good many doors off, and Muriel stood on the top looking +down and around ere she made the knee-deep plunge, when a voice +accosted her coming down the street. + +"Miss Muriel! yet surely not, at this hour of the morning." + +"Yes, it's me, Mr. Gerald," she said, turning round. "What would any +one stay indoors for on a jolly morning like this?" + +"But you do not go out at this hour of the morning in general?" + +"Neither do you; I know that much. We see the business people go +past--M. Petitôt and the Ferretings--about half-past eight, but you +gentlemen of the Stock Board never by any chance before half-past ten. +If I were a man, and lazy, I would be a stockbroker. No going back to +the office in the evening!" + +"Ha, ha! you are severe this morning. Does that come of being out so +early?" + +"That? Oh! I have to go for my music lesson this morning; if I am to +have one at all. Mr. Selby has fallen on the ice and sprained both his +ankle and his wrist. I have a note from him, written with his left +hand, asking me to come to his house, as he cannot come to me--written +with his left hand, actually; think of the trouble it must have cost +him!--so I could not refuse to go." + +"Poor old Selby! I did not hear of that. He is my uncle, you know, or +at least he is married to my aunt. And Judy--Mrs. Bunce, I mean--is +there just now, with Betsey, to show her the gaieties of the city. +Nice house to see the gaieties from. They will consist of a _musicale_ +at Counter Tenor's, the dry-goods man, and one or two select +performances of the Classical Quartette Club. Betsey's mind won't be +unsettled by the dissipation, I guess. She won't leave town thoroughly +dissatisfied with country life. Then again, what a pretty specimen of +musical culture poor Betsey must be for Selby to lead around. I can +imagine his being silently thankful for the sprain as an excuse to +stay at home. Just come in the nick of time. However, as my mother was +saying to me, though somehow it seems to have slipped out of my mind, +we must do what we can for Betsey. If she _is_ a rumpty-tumpty little +thing, with her hair always lying the wrong way, she can't help it, +and Uncle Bunce is not half bad--for a parson. I have it! I shall go +in with you now, if you don't mind, find them all at breakfast, like +an intimate and affectionate nephew--it will save more valuable time +in the afternoon--and offer to take Betsey to the Rink to-day at three +or four o'clock--that is, if you will promise to be there. But let me +see! Have I time? Ah, yes! Twenty minutes to spare before I am due at +Hammerstone's." + +"Hammerstone's? Professor Hammerstone's? Is it a breakfast? Do you +attend scientific breakfasts?" + +"No. But I study the sciences, though perhaps you would not think it. +You see we have so much to do with mineral lands, mines, metals, and +that sort of thing, that the governor thinks it is worth while for me +to try and find out what it all means. Those sharks, the experts, +impose on you so abominably if you do not know something of what they +are talking about. So I go to Hammerstone for an hour three mornings +in the week, if I get up in time; and really it is more interesting +than you would suppose. It is settled, then, that you will be on the +Rink this afternoon?" + +"I scarcely think it. Mr. Considine is coming to drive us out this +afternoon." + +"Considine! Phew--But gooseberries are not in season at this time of +year! He! he!" + +"I do not understand. I said we were going for a sleigh ride." + +"With Considine? Will it not be rather cold work sitting with your +back to the horses while the old chap makes--conversation--to the Miss +Stanleys?" + +"Aunt Penelope is afraid to venture out these cold days." + +"Just what I said about wholesome summer fruit. That old Considine +must be a sad bore, running out and in so much to one's house--like a +tame cat." + +"Mr. Considine is very nice. I like him. He is so good-natured, and he +never says a word against people in their absence." + +"One for me! But he _is_ a good fellow, and I fancy you are not the +only Miss Stanley who thinks so." + +"How slippery it is! You turn off here, I think, to go to Professor +Hammerstone's, do you not? I hope you will not be late. Thanks for +carrying my music; I will take it now." + +"But I mean to carry your music all the way, Miss Muriel. As I told +you, I am going to look in on my three aunts at breakfast, and ask +them for a cup of hot coffee. That will have a good effect on my aunt +Judy, who I fear suspects me of being not very steady. She is a great +promoter of coffee taverns. Tried to start one at St. Euphrase, I +believe, and had to drink all the coffee herself because the +_habitants_ would not buy it. She will say I am an improving character +if I ask for a cup of coffee." + + +When Muriel had finished her music lesson and was resuming her gloves +and cloud, she found herself caught from behind by a pair of short fat +arms in a sort of hug, accompanied by a little scream of enthusiasm. + +"Muriel! And were you going away without ever asking to see me?" + +Muriel turned in surprise. "Betsey Bunce! But I did not know you were +in town till an hour ago. You know you never wrote." + +"Wrote! What is there to write about at St. Euphrase?--unless I were +to walk up to the farm and ask Bruneau about your cows and chickens. +But you knew an hour ago, you say, and yet you were going away without +asking for me. I call it real unkind." + +"It is only ten o'clock, you know--far too early an hour for calling." + +"You are so particular! Just like an old woman--and a stiff +old-country woman, too--Miss Penelope all over." + +"I hope so. Aunt Penelope is always right." + +"Come in now, anyway, and take off your things. I am dying for +somebody to talk to, after sitting round the stove for three days with +three old women. What with Mr. Selby's bandages, and embrocations, and +Miss Susan's neuralgia, and Mrs. Selby's poor health, this house is +worse than a hospital. Auntie likes it first-rate; she enjoys giving +people physic, and says it was a Providence which brought her here at +this time; but I find it real lonesome. I have read through the only +two novels I can find, and I declare my back aches with sitting still +and doing nothing. Couldn't we go down town by-and-by and look at the +shops? Let me help you off with your jacket. Fur-lined, I do declare! +Cost twenty dollars, I dare say. Thirty was it? You're the lucky +girl! Never mind fixing up before the glass, you're all right--here's +a pin if you want one. Wherever did you pick up that cunning +neck-ribbon?--lady bugs and grasshoppers--I call it sweet. It would +just suit my geranium-coloured poplin! By-the-way, do you think that +will do for evening wear, if I am asked anywhere? It is made with a +tablier--looked scrumptious the night they gave charades at Madame +Podevin's boarding-house. Mdlle. Ciseau cut it out for me, and I run +it on the machine myself--fits like a glove. But your city fashions +are so different, one never can be sure. We will go upstairs and look +at it; but first you must come into the Snuggery and see the old +ladies." + +The "Snuggery" was at the back of the house, a sort of family room in +which strangers were not received. It had been the chief apartment of +the old log homestead which preceded the existing dwelling. The logs +had been found so sound and the chamber so desirable that it had been +suffered to remain, and been incorporated with the "frame" building +erected in front, which it promised to survive, and last on in solid +stability when the lighter structure of posts and boards should have +fallen to pieces. It was cooler than the rest of the house in warm +weather, and warmer in cold; built of twelve inch logs carefully +jointed together, plastered on the outside, panelled and ceiled within +with red pine highly varnished, and floored with parquetry of +different native woods. It had a window on each of three sides, +flanked by heavy curtains. There was no fire-place, but in the centre +an old-fashioned box-stove, capable of holding billets from two to +three feet long, and whose great black smoke-pipe pierced the roof +like a pivot for the family life to revolve on. + +A bear skin and rugs lay about the floor, sofas and tables stood by +the walls, and round the domestic altar, the blazing stove, were the +rocking-chairs of the three sisters, gently oscillating like pendulums +in a clockmaker's shop, and making the wooden chamber feel like the +cabin of a ship, heaving and swinging on a restless tide. + +Muriel was greeted effusively by Mrs. Bunce, who looked more fidgety +and alert than ever in that reposeful place, and then she was +presented to the sisters. Miss Susan, swathed in quilted silk and webs +of knitting, a bundle rather than a person, and immersed in her own +misery far too deeply to feel or to excite interest in a stranger, +merely bowed and shuddered at the breath of cooler air which entered +from without; but to the other, Mrs. Selby, Muriel felt strongly +drawn, and pleased in a strange and restful way to feel the gentle +eyes of the sick and rather silent lady dwelling on her with wistful +kindness. She was tall and pale, and in the cross light of windows +admitting the dazzling reflections from the snow, and among the browns +and yellows of the wainscoting, there was a lambent whiteness which +associated itself in Muriel's mind with those "shining ones" she had +read of when a child in the "Pilgrim's Progress," and filled her with +pleasant reverence. + +The lady scarcely spoke, spoke only the necessary words of welcome to +a stranger, and then withdrew from the hurry of Betsey's and Judith's +eager talk, sitting silently by and looking on the new comer with +gentle earnest eyes. In the focus of streaming daylight and backed by +russet shadows she sat and looked, wrapped in her white knitted shawl, +and with hair like frosted silver, features and hands delicate, +transparent, and colourless like wax, and eyes which had the weary +faded look which comes of sleepless nights and many tears. She found +it pleasant to sit and rest her eyes on Muriel, so elastic and freshly +bright, as she chatted with the others; she felt as when a breath of +spring comes rustling through the dead and wintry woods, through +sapless withered twigs and fallen leaves, whispering of good to come, +and sweet with springing grass and opening buds. + +She scanned the girl's face and guessed her age, and then her thoughts +went back across the years, the weary sunless years which had come and +gone since her joys had withered, and she could not but think that had +her own lost daughter been spared, she would have been nearly of that +age now, and perhaps she would have been gay and bright and sweet as +this one was before her. Her eyes grew moist, but it was with a +softer, less harrowing regret than she had hitherto known, more +plaintive and almost soothing in its sadness. The girl looked so +innocent and free of care, with low sweet laughter coming from a heart +that had never known sorrow or unkindness. It did her good to watch, +and made her feel more patient in her long and weary grief. + +For the others, they had their own affairs to make busy with, and it +was not every day they came to town. What interest, either, for them, +could there be in the emotional variations of their silent and always +sorrowful hostess? She had suffered--though it was fourteen years +since then--and of course they "felt" for her; but there is a limit to +sympathy as to all things human--if there were not, life would be +unbearable--and to see her after so many years still cherishing the +olden sorrow had grown tedious, if yet touching after a sort, and the +family had grown to disregard it as a settled melancholy or monomania, +to be pitied and passed over, like the deafness, old age, or palsy of +family friends. So Betsey and her aunt had settled themselves one on +either side of Muriel "for a good old talk," as Betsey said, and they +talked accordingly. + +"I shall come round to-morrow morning to see your aunts," said Mrs. +Bunce, "and spend a long forenoon with them," and so on _ad +infinitum_. + +A letter was brought in while the talk was in full swing. + +"An invitation!" cried Judith. "Mrs. Jordan--requests the pleasure--a +juvenile party. Well--I declare!--Betsey, we forgot to bring your +pinafores--or should it have been a certificate of the date of your +birth? A very strange way to pay attention to their rector's wife and +niece! I thought Mrs. Jordan would have known better." + +"Aunt Matilda and I are going," said Muriel in astonishment. "It was +very nice last time. More than a hundred, big and little. They had the +band, a splendid supper and lots of fun. Indeed, Aunt Penelope was +almost unwilling I should go this time; it was so late when we got +home." + +"Very proper, my dear; I quite approve. Young people should keep early +hours; but, you know, Betsey is a little older than you are. Not +much," she added, as prudence pointed to the day, only a year or two +ahead, when it would suit Betsey, if still a young lady, to be no +older than Muriel--"still she is in long dresses, and it seems odd to +invite her the first time to a child's party." + +"They are not all children. Tilly Martindale, for instance, is as old +as Betsey. So is Randolph Jordan himself and Gerald Herkimer." + +"Will _they_ be there?" cried Betsey kindling into interest. "We'd +better go, auntie, there's no slight. I see the sort of thing it is; +there are a few little girls--_big_ little girls though, all the +same--to give it the name of juvenile and take off the stiffness. Just +like the candy pulling we had at Farmer Belmore's. You know Farmer +Belmore's, Muriel? He lives just across the river and down below the +island at St. Euphrase. His son's family from Michigan were with him +in the fall, and his wife and daughters are too _dévotes_ to meet +their neighbours, and are only waiting his death to go off to the +convent. However, the old man--and a good Protestant he is--was +determined the children should have a good time, so he gave--a candy +pulling and invited everybody for miles round--said it was for the +children. So we all went--drove across the river on the first ice of +the season--whether we knew Mrs. Belmore or no. And, Muriel, we had +just the most too-too time you can imagine. The daughters sat in the +back-room with one or two old French women, away from everybody, and +the eldest granddaughter received the guests. There was a fiddle, and, +oh, just a lovely time! Joe Webb and I pulled the whitest hank of +candy in the room, and we danced eight-hand reels and country dances, +till one of my shoes gave way and I had to sit out with Joe Webb. It +was something beyond, I tell you!" + +"Tush, Betsey!" said her aunt. "You are in the city now and must not +go into raptures over rustic frolics, or people will think you know no +better. I shall ask the Miss Stanleys about this, when I see them +to-morrow. They will be able to tell me if we had better go, and how +you should dress." + +"Dress! Haven't I my geranium poplin?" + +"But this is _town_, my dear, which may make a difference; one never +knows. In _my_ young days, now, I always wore white muslin and a blue +sash! And you cannot think how many civil speeches I used to get" +added the old lady, bridling, with a spot of pink on either cheek and +a toss which set the treacle-coloured curls quivering. The war-horse +is never too old to prance and champ his bit at the sound of the +trumpet, though he may be so old that no one can remember his ever +having been in action. + +"I do not remember ever seeing geranium poplin at a party," said +Muriel, looking to Betsey; but her eyes fell before the glance of +displeased superiority she met there. + +"You have not seen my dress, or you would speak more guardedly. +Besides, you are not out yet, and cannot be expected to know what goes +on at fashionable gatherings." + +"No," said Muriel, meekly, "I am only a little girl, I know that. +Still, at the juvenile parties I go to--Mrs. Jordan's, Mrs. +Herkimer's, and the rest--and at our parties at home, though _they_ +are not balls by any means--quite small affairs--the people dress very +nicely--velvet, satin, lace, and so on--but I never saw a geranium +poplin." + +"No! Poplin is only coming in! I know that from 'Godey's Magazine.' It +was just a mere chance Quiproquo of St. Euphrase having one dress +piece. I bought it, and you cannot think how rich it looks. Cut +square!--they are all cut square in the higher circles this year--with +elbow sleeves and a fall of rich lace at twenty-five cents a yard." + +Muriel held her breath at the catalogue of rustic splendour. She would +have liked to say a word in mitigation of the fright she feared Betsey +was intending to make of herself, but dreaded to have her youth flung +in her face again. The young are so ashamed of their youth while they +have it; it is only after it has fled, that, like flowers drooping in +the midday heat, they sigh for the dried-up dews of morning which +erewhile weighed down their heads with mistaken shame. + +There followed more talk of millinery, and then it was time for Muriel +to go, after effusive farewells and appointments for future meeting. +Mrs. Selby came forward last, when the more boisterous adieux were +over. She would have liked to take this young girl in her arms; she +felt so strongly drawn to her, and knew not why; but she restrained +herself, and only begged her to come often while Betsey remained, and +to be sure to come to the family room in passing, next time she came +for a music lesson. And Muriel, looking in the face of the whitened +lady, so venerable and sweet, not only promised--as in good nature she +could not avoid--but really intended to fulfil, promising herself +pleasure in doing it. + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + CONSIDINE. + + +A great rise in the world had come to Cornelius Jordan, Q C. They seem +all to be Q.C.'s, my reader, those lawyers in Canada; or more than +half of them. The Queen is so remote a centre, that the beams of her +favour are very widely, if thinly, spread, and this especial title of +honour has come to be regarded as a polite and inexpensive attention +which new prime ministers make haste to bestow upon their friends. And +there are so many prime ministers, that at last it became a ground of +dispute, between the minor premiers of the several provinces, and the +premier-major at Ottawa, as to which should have the exclusive run of +the alphabet for decorative purposes. Mr. Jordan, I repeat, had risen +since we met him last at the Misses Stanley's garden tea. Then he was +a rising man in his profession, doing well, and in comfortable +circumstances; now, he was one risen--full head and shoulders above +his fellows, living in a house of the very largest size, and with +horses and servants to equal the most prosperous of his neighbours, +and reported to be wealthy; not with the startling but evanescent +opulence of the merchant prince, which to-day is, and to-morrow is +nowhere; but with the reality which attaches to professional wealth in +the popular mind, as money actually coined from a man's own brain--the +golden fees raked in from grateful clients--without risk, and +irrespective of rising and falling markets. His name was spoken with +that slight involuntary pause before and after which carries more +distinction than any title; it is a form of respect so undefined. +"What a man he must be!" his neighbours said, "to have made so much +money, and made it so quickly!" made it at his profession, too. Nobody +doubted that, for his name was never mixed up in other affairs. + +It would have been hard guessing for a _quidnunc_ about the Court +House, had he attempted to trace how all that prosperity had been +built up out of the fairly good solicitor's and conveyancer's practice +carried on at his chambers, or from his not unusually frequent or +brilliant appearances in Court; though now that the fruits of success +were so evident, these were vastly on the increase. "Ah!" those +knowing ones would say, "he is not a brilliant speaker; but sound, +sir, sound! What a head for Law the man must have! What clearness of +understanding, to have realized such an income. What a style of living +he keeps up! How many thousands a year does it take? Quite the leading +counsel at our bar." And so clients multiplied, and the suitor whose +case failed in his hands felt surer it had had the best presentment +than he would have felt had it succeeded with any one else. "If Jordan +could not win the suit, pray who could?" + +Jordan was liked, too, as well as respected. How could he fail of +that? At his dinners, given every week all through the winter, were +found the choicest bills of fare and the best people, and every one +else was invited to share the feast. It is manifest that one cannot +talk unkindly of a man while the flavour of his wine still hovers +about the palate--so long, that is, as there is prospect of another +invitation. When the last dinner has been eaten, and the last bottle +of wine drunk, then truth is apt to come up from the bottom of her +well--disturbed, no doubt, by the pumping, when the family is forced +to resume water as a beverage--and people's memories become +wonderfully refreshed. They recollect--the women, that is--that really +the man's wife was not a lady, that things were said at the time of +the marriage, and there has been such levity and extravagance since; +while the men shake their heads in cynical wisdom. They knew it from +the first, and wonder how it has gone on so long, and how a fellow +like that could have had the effrontery to entertain their high +mightinesses so profusely. + +For the present, however, if there was any unacceptable truth at the +bottom of Jordan's well, she had the kindness to remain there, well +out of sight. The hospitalities proceeded in a genial round; every one +was proud to assist at them and spoke highly of the entertainer. + +Considine was the only man who had a misgiving, and he kept his doubts +and surmises to himself, hoping he was in error. He was associated +with this man in many ways; and nothing is gained by letting slip an +insinuation against a friend, even if good feeling did not stamp the +act as abominable. His own conscience, too, was not at rest in the +matter, for the expansion appeared to him to date from very shortly +after the change they had adopted in managing the Herkimer Estate. He +reproached himself constantly for having consented to sell out the old +man's investments, and wondered how he could have been tempted by +those miserable brokerages to smirch the honest record of a lifetime. +No doubt there had been considerable gain on the new securities +purchased with the moiety of the funds which he administered; but what +of the other half? Jordan had displayed so implicit a confidence in +his judgment, such complete beautiful and gentlemanlike faith in his +probity, waiving explanations, motioning off statements with +expressions of unbounded reliance in his ability to do what was best, +while really "in the press of other matters he had no leisure for +unnecessary examinations into matters on which he could not advise," +that Considine was completely silenced, and was left no opening to +claim reciprocal explanations as to how the moneys in Jordan's hands +had been applied. + +He heard on 'Change now and then of Jordan granting short loans at +fancy rates, and of his "doing" paper which was far from being +"gilt-edged," and he thought of that other moiety of the Herkimer +fortune. Such operations are not the way in which trust moneys are +used for the benefit of the trust; but rather one in which, while +loss, if there be any, must needs fall on the trust, the extra profit +accrues to the trustee. And what other funds could Jordan have to +operate with? Considine knew of none but those which should have been +otherwise employed, and for which, he himself would be held +responsible if any misadventure were to befall them, and the sum was +so large that in case of a catastrophe his own poor little fortune +would go but a small way to make up the loss. He could contemplate +that with comparative patience--though certainly it would be hard, +after the labours and vicissitudes of a lifetime, to see the provision +for his declining years swept into a pit, and one not of his own +digging--but disgrace would accompany the ruin; that was the +intolerable thought. + +To finish a life in which he had striven to keep his hands unsoiled +and his name without reproach as a defaulting trustee! How he had been +wont to scorn such, when they crossed his path! And to think that he +should end in being classed with them! Who would stop to inquire into +the merits? Had he ever himself stopped to sift the intricacies of a +defalcation, before declaring the defaulter to be a rogue? Had not the +money been confided to his care, and was he not responsible for it to +the heirs? Many a night when he lay awake in the darkness, with +nothing to break the stillness but the ticking of his watch at the +bed-head, the misgiving and the dread would waken in his mind, and +possess him with the restless misery of an aching tooth, which would +not be dulled or forgotten, toss and stretch himself as he might; and +he would vow in desperation to go down the first thing in the morning +and have it out with Jordan; and so, at last, he would fall into a +dose, as the grey twilight was stealing on the night. + +In the morning his resolution would be with him still. All through +dressing and shaving he would feel determined "to have it out with +Jordan," and he would run over in his mind the points of his +unanswerable argument on which his co-trustee must needs be caught, +and compelled to the fullest explanation, clearing away another +expected sophism in the defence, with each scrape of the razor on his +chin. When he descended to breakfast, however, the morning papers, the +smoke of the coffee, the greetings of his fellow-boarders in the +hotel, would gradually lead him back to the tone of every-day life and +its amenities, and then his intentions would grow less stern. The +trenchant points in his argument would grow dim before his eyes, and +he would recollect how many things there might be to say on the other +side. Perhaps, too, he might have been misinformed as to something, or +he might be under some misapprehension--for who, after all, can tell +the true inwardness of his neighbour's affairs until death or +bankruptcy overtake him?--and how very uncomfortable his position +would then be! In what an ungenerous, nay, churlish light he would be +exhibiting himself before this most open-hearted and genial of all his +friends! Indeed the prospect was not pleasant; then why should he +force an interview and place himself in a false position? Was it not a +shame in one claiming to be "high-toned," a soldier and a Southern +gentleman of _ante bellum_ times, to harbour injurious suspicions of a +friend? "He must be bilious this morning--want of exercise. He would +ride off his megrims in a two hours' gallop." + +And so the days would pass in struggles to drive away the doubts which +returned but the more persistently with darkness to spoil his sleep, +till at length, in dread of their nightly upbraidings, he would nerve +himself to the ungrateful task and stride down to Jordan's chambers, +frowningly constraining himself to anticipate the worst, if only to +keep his courage from oozing away, as it sometimes would, when he +reached the office door, leaving him to turn aside at the last moment +and retreat ignominiously into his club, there to solace his drooping +self-respect with brandy and soda. When, however, in sterner mood he +persevered, it was still not always that the much-engaged lawyer could +be seen. He was busy upon a case and could see no one; a client was +with him, and two more were waiting their turn for an audience, or he +was in court, and Considine--not altogether sorry at the respite--went +home in comparative relief. He had done what he could, at least, and +surely now the suspicions would leave him for a night or two and let +him sleep in peace. + +Once or twice, by a lucky chance, he was able to catch the busy man at +a vacant moment intrenched behind black bags bursting with briefs, +volumes of consolidated statutes, and calf-bound authorities. + +"Ha, Considine!" he would cry, in a tone almost too jolly for "the +profession" in business hours, "so glad to have been disengaged when +you called! See you so seldom. Sit down, old man, and tell me what I +can do for you. Don't hurry, I am at leisure now--that is to say, for +the next four minutes and a half," he would add, pulling out his +watch. "Am to see the judge in chambers just five minutes from now. +But take time, I can run down in thirty seconds, so you have good four +minutes and a half. So glad you dropped in when I was at leisure." + +Then Considine would hesitate and grow confused. He had charged +batteries of artillery in his day, had "difficulties" on Mississippi +steamboats, which were afterwards arranged with six shooters, "each to +go on firing till one dropped," and he had never flinched from his +task or quailed before antagonist. But how call this man antagonist? +He seemed more ready to embrace than to fight. It was grievous to see +him so friendly, and made our warrior feel but a shabby fellow with +his inquiries and questions, which would sound so like insinuations, +and might wound the genial soul which bore him so much goodwill. Being +in for it, however, he must go on. It would never do for a +Mississippian to run away, even in honour's cause. He pulled from his +pocket a list of the bonds and debentures he held under their joint +trusteeship. + +"I want you to examine this list of securities, which I keep in my box +at the Bank of Progress, and indorse your approval on the back, if you +do approve, and we can go over to the bank and compare the papers with +the memorandum any day you find convenient." + +"Tush, man! It's all perfectly right, I am quite certain. I have every +confidence in you, General," declining to receive the paper. + +"But I really wish you would look at it. I feel this irregular +responsibility unpleasant." + +"Bosh! it's all regular enough among friends. You know Ralph Herkimer +this ever so long, and I should hope you know _me!_ Imagine either of +us getting ugly, and blaming you--whom the testator trusted so +entirely--for anything you may do. No, no! And really, you must +excuse me, but I cannot afford to muddle my head with unnecessary +figures--even to please you! I need, all my clearness for the delicate +questions which arise in my practice. I abominate figures at all +times, and never tackle them unnecessarily." + +"But ought not I to affix some sort of approval to the mortgages you +have bought for the estate?" + +Jordan lifted his eyes to the other's face, in gentle wonder, as a +good man might when wounded rather than offended by an unlooked for +aspersion on his honour; and Considine, confused and abashed, stopped +short, and then floundered on again: + +"I mean it, of course, in no distrustfulness--for what should I +distrust?--but just so as fairly and fully to divide the +responsibility in case of the heirs desiring to call us to account." + +"I really do not know," answered Jordan, matching his voice to the +look of mild disappointment without reproach which the other found it +so hard to bear up under; "I really don't know. I have not considered +the point. It did not occur to me that you would wish to enter into +the intricacies of titles in this country, which is a comparatively +old one, and the tenures bear no resemblance to those of Mississippi, +where I am told you go back only to General Jackson. Our system of +law, too, is very different, being derived from the French, and not +from the common law, as with you. No! It did not occur to me that you +could possibly wish to enter into these mysteries. Our period of +trusteeship, too, is drawing near its close. Three years, I should +suppose, would conclude it; though I cannot speak precisely without +reference to the will, and the date of Mrs. Selby's marriage. Will the +study of our Quebec land-system repay you, do you think? And our +friend Ralph is so entirely satisfied. Why should you bother? + +"But we are not responsible to Ralph." + +"No, not exactly. But it will be his boy Gerald, which is much the +same thing. The lad goes into partnership with his father shortly, so +their interests are identical; and it would surprise me to be told +that Master Gerald did or knew anything but what his father told him. +A nice boy. Wish my scapegrace was as manageable." + +"I have never felt sure of that--of Ralph's boy being heir, I mean. +There has been no proof of the missing infant's death; and where there +is money the claimant seemingly never dies, but is always reappearing +when least expected. But if, as you anticipate, it is to be Ralph we +shall have to make up accounts with in the end, I am not confident +that we might not have trouble, if he saw an opening for complaint. I +have known him long, as you are aware, he is a fine man for +business--none better--and has made a handsome fortune, but I had +rather not be in his power." + +"No fear of that! I fancy I know blaster Ralph, too," pulling out his +watch, "but there are few men of mark, especially in business, whom we +lawyers cannot lay a hand on, when necessary, to keep them quiet. His +bark would be worse than his bite in our case, for I think I know +where to light on a muzzle that will keep him quiet enough. Time's up, +I see. If you are bent on overhauling those papers of mine, why not +come up to dinner some evening? We could do it far more comfortably +with the help of a glass of sherry and a good cigar. What day will you +come? Friday? Or, let me see, what are you doing this evening? Come up +to-night. Half-past seven, sharp. Good-bye, for the present. So glad +you are coming." + +And Considine would go as invited, and would find a number of other +guests assembled; and Jordan would be all geniality and pleasure at +having him; but never an allusion to business would escape his lips, +nor would they find themselves alone together, even for a moment, till +the evening was spent and it was time to go home. And so it fell that +Considine's anxieties, while seeming to himself to require but one +vigorous effort to end them, were never resolved, but hung about him +vague and undefined, like the beginning of a low fever which has not +as yet pronounced itself; causing restlessness and care, but bringing +also a habit of acceptance which enabled him to live his life in spite +of it, only with a diminished relish. His distrust wore in time out of +the acute into the chronic form; and it is remarkable, with time, how +much of anxiety a healthy man can work through, and apparently be none +the worse. Endurance brings a kind of strength to the mind like that +which persistence does to the body, when the arsenic eater, after +having consumed ounces of the deadly stuff, becomes able to swallow +with impunity more than would have killed him not so many months +before. The gouty and the rheumatic, too, how long they live!--live +and enjoy even, somewhat, through their sufferings. + +And in some such fashion Considine lived on, in moderate comfort and +prosperity, with the shadow of possible ruin in the back-ground; +always felt, but not so strongly that he must disturb the daily +furniture of his life by an effort to exorcise the demon; which is a +state of things not so very different from what the rest of us endure. +We have our threatening shadows too, loss, disease, madness, not so +very far off, and always the dismal shade of Death himself looming up +behind and dwarfing all the others; yet, like the people before the +flood, we manage pretty well to comfort and amuse ourselves in the +present. + +Considine solaced himself not unsuccessfully under his cares. He had +naturally much of the wise vegetable enjoyment of existence, and +things conducing thereto, eating, smoking and gentle exercise, which +is natural to the country bred more than to those brought up in +cities. He had 'Change through the day to gossip and lounge upon, and +his club in the evening. He had opportunities too of going into +society, even if he did not make the most of them, and very frequently +he would spend an hour in the Misses Stanley's drawing-room, sipping +tea and talking over the news. He had fallen into the way of spending +the hot months at St. Euphrase, just as those ladies spent the cold +ones in the city. Their migrations agreed pretty closely in time, and +both he and they, owing to years and circumstances, being somewhat out +of the swim of busy life, found it pleasant to sit together on the +banks, as it were, and watch the gambols and antics of those younger +and brisker, who disported themselves in mid-current. + +The ladies had come to town the first winter solely for their niece's +education, but the following year they undoubtedly had their own +solacement quite as much in view as her improvement. The tranquillity +and repose of their rural life was if anything too complete, and after +having once broken it by wintering in the city, it would have felt +like returning to bed after lunch to have remained in the country all +the following year. There is a feeling of companionship to be derived +even from the faces of our fellows as they pass us in the street, +which is pleasant to such as have been leading secluded lives, and it +takes months for this mild excitement to lose its relish; but it will +grow tame eventually, and so, too, will the morning calls among ladies +of a certain age. Humanity being in two forms, which combine with and +supplement each other to constitute the perfect whole, a social circle +composed of one kind alone must needs be incomplete, tending to +limpness if it be feminine, to hardness if all of men. + +The day for flirtation and matrimonial intentions may be over, but +still the habits and tastes formed in that brighter time survive, even +when incorrigible celibacy has caused society to pass by the offenders +as hopeless subjects. Fortune, by endowing a young lady with +competence, grants her the privilege to be unworldly or critical, so +that she lets her precious springtime pass unused. The privilege is by +no means an unalloyed boon as the years go by. She finds herself +inadmissible to the conclaves of matrons of her own age, where +husbands, doctors and children are discussed with freedom; yet her +god-daughters and nieces can scarcely be expected to accept her as a +compeer; she is a _demoiselle passée_, an outside hoverer on the +confines of social life, with the gay bachelors of earlier decades who +are still unwed, and whom society passes by as obdurate and hopelessly +unavailable for matrimonial use. + +It is pitiful to see these disappointed "have-beens," with their +relish for youthful pleasures still unslaked, flitting in a +disregarded twilight, like Homer's ghosts, while the reviving blood of +the sacrificial bull is quaffed by other lips. Well for them, is it +not, if they can make up a little party among themselves, and by +keeping each other in countenance, contrive to ruffle it without +ridicule among the younger revellers? + +And so, from mutual convenience and sympathy, Considine and the Misses +Stanley became fast comrades. In their drawing-room he could drink a +cup of tea with the ladies whenever he had a mind, and they were sure +of an escort for the evening when they so desired. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + BETSEY EX FÊTE. + + +In spite of her pretence to make little of an invitation to a juvenile +party, the prospect of that gaiety took strong possession of Betsey +Bunce. Mr. Selby's lameness had prevented his taking her anywhere or +affording her opportunity to spread her plumage among strangers; +which, indeed, was all the satisfaction which could have accrued from +going out with him, she not being musical, and he very little else. +Betsey's dissipations, therefore, had been of so meagre a kind that +she might well set store by Mrs. Jordan's invitation; it would at +least, she told herself, be an opportunity to show people that she was +fit for better things. Her cousin Muriel had told her she might expect +to meet a hundred guests or more, and surely they would not all be +children, though poor Muriel was too young perhaps to know; but, at +least, both her Montreal _beaux_, as she choose to denominate Randolph +Jordan and Gerald Herkimer, would be there. So she made no doubt of +having a "good time." The image of Joe Webb rose before her mind's eye +as that idea occurred to her, and he seemed to her to look +reproachful. "Poor Joe!" she sighed to herself, glancing archly in her +glass; but Joe was fifteen miles away, and Betsey fancied herself a +heart-breaker. "A girl can't help these things," her thoughts ran on; +"and Joe has never said a word--though I can tell by the sinking of +his voice when he speaks to me, he would say plenty if I just gave him +encouragement. Poor Joe! he's too modest. The _beaux_ won't need +encouragement! I guess I shall rather have to make them stand off a +bit--at first, that is, they ain't going to think they are to have it +all their own way with an Upper Canadian, even if she _has_ moved down +to St. Euphrase. Nice fellows both; but such awful _dudes!_ When they +walk down the street of St. Euphrase in their cricketing suits, the +sidewalk don't seem broad enough to give them both room. And my! don't +the _habitants_ stare at them? I kind of like a _dude_, or I almost +think I could bring myself to like one," and as she glanced in the +glass again, she coloured half shyly before the intelligence in her +own eyes. "Their gloves and their boots do fit so splendid! Their +necks look tight like in the stiff collars, but their tongues wag +freely enough--too freely sometimes, at St. Euphrase. They're real +'sassy' sometimes. But at a large party, no doubt they'll know enough +to behave. No! Dudes ain't half bad. But these two hai'nt got the fine +manly shoulders and strong arms of Joe Webb." + +"Ah, how big he is! And how safe a girl would be with him to take care +of her! To see him gather up the reins behind that young team of his +in one hand, when they grow fractious, and lash them with the other +till they simmer down like lambs! Poor Joe!" and she took another look +at her all conquering charms in the glass. + +Her hair--how should she arrange it on the night of conquest? There +was searching of fashion magazines for something distinguished yet +chaste. Many startling novelties, with much expenditure of time and +hairpins, were attempted, with signal unsuccess; and it was only after +every florid device had been exhausted, that she had at last to +confess that a severe simplicity accorded best with her other charms; +or to speak plainly was the only hairdressing she could succeed in. + +These labours led to a more critical scrutiny of her complexion than +she had ever made before. Hitherto she had accepted it like her other +perfections in contented faith; but now, on closer observation, was +there not just a suspicion of yellowness under the eyes--tan marks on +the neck--a freckle or two across the ridge of the nose? Violet +powder! that was what she needed, and forthwith she repaired to an +apothecary, who, I fear, supplied her with other embellishments at the +same time. It is certain, at least, that on the looked-for evening, +when, after keeping her aunt long waiting, she at length came +downstairs arrayed in all her glory, with shawl and hood carried in +her hand, that the assembled family might have the privilege of a +private view, before she set out on her career of conquest, Mr. and +Mrs. Selby being in the hall and a maidservant near to open the door +and catch a glimpse of the show, she appeared in one of those +startling complexions which are affected by equestrian ladies of the +circus, in which not the lily and the rose combine, but the chalk-ball +and rouge contrast their rawness. + +Mrs. Selby's mild and weary eyes opened in amused amazement, and her +spouse coughed industriously behind his hand to stifle his laughter. +Mrs. Bunce lifted her "pinch-nose" to her eyes in dismay and +indignation. + +"What is it? Who is it?" she asked, while Betsey simpered and tossed +her head. "That I should live to see a clergyman's niece make a----" + +"Guy of herself with violet powder and druggist's red," volunteered +Mr. Selby. "It's a mistake, my dear Betsey, I assure you, attempting +to improve Nature's choicest effort, the cheek of a pretty girl. It's +like painting the lily--gilding refined gold." + +Betsey turned wrathfully round, flushing scarlet here and there where +the powder lay less thickly. "But perhaps he meant well, too," she +thought. His concluding words implied a gratifying appreciation of her +everyday looks; so she let it pass, and the angry red subsided from +her forehead. + +"Fie, Betsey!" continued the aunt. "There is scripture against such +sinful interference with the natural complexion. Think of the wicked +Hebrew queen." + +"Who painted her face and was thrown out of the window," added Selby, +with some irreverence. Poor man, he was apt to grow jocose. + +"But, auntie, the fashion magazine says brilliant complexions are all +the go, especially with simple _coiffures_; and I am sure mine is +simple enough--nothing but a bang, an Irish wisp, and--well, only +three or four pads. In Europe, it is said, they use rouge and +pearl-white quite freely. I have only put on a little powder." + +"A _little_, my dear?" muttered Selby, half aside, "you look as if you +had come out of a flour barrel--with the white flakes sticking all +over you. It ought to be a fancy ball you were going to, and you to +represent a snowstorm. The dust is flying from you every time you turn +your head." + +"Nonsense, George," said his wife. "You are vexing, and very +ridiculous. Why tease the girl? We have all made mistakes of that kind +in our day, Betsey, my dear. You should have seen Mr. Selby himself, +when he was a young man, and wanted to look his best. He could hardly +walk--he hobbled--from the tightness of his boots." + +"You are mean, Mary, to go back to that. If I did, it was only when I +hoped to walk or dance with you." + +"And you would have danced far better if your shoes had been a larger +size. But truly, Betsey, if you will try the effect of a wet sponge on +your face, you will find your own nice natural colour infinitely more +becoming." + +"I am afraid it will make me awful pale. I'd hate to look pale +alongside Muriel, her colour brightens so when she gets animated. And +there's Tilly Martindale; perhaps she'll be there, and I guess _she's_ +sure to have a colour, however she comes by it." + +"_They_ are not in the Church," said Mrs. Bunce, grandly. + +"Nor am I, auntie. It's a _party_ I'm going to." Public opinion, +however, so freely expressed, had its effect, and Betsey returned to +her room, to reappear more like her ordinary self, and accept with +little satisfaction the congratulations and praises which good-hearted +Mrs. Selby felt bound to shower upon her. + +As the aunt and niece drew near their destination they felt their hack +suddenly slow off into a walk. There was a sleigh in front of them, +and when Betsey stood up, craning her short neck to reconnoitre, there +was another in front of that, and another, and another. Then there +were gates and an illuminated mansion beyond, up to which the line of +sleighs was streaming, slowly and intermittently, as each in +succession stopped to set down its load, and then vanished. + +"I declare, auntie, we're in a procession! Ain't it cunning? and +quite grand. The company will all arrive together, and there's no +doubt they will make a grand entry, two and two with the music playing +a march--just like there was in Tullover's Circus, last year, at St. +Euphrase. Only we'll have to walk, on account of the stairs, and not +having horses. I always knew it was the stage and the pulpit gave the +law about speaking, but I didn't know before, it was the circus set +the fashion for other things. Ain't it well, now, that I was +there?--though you scarcely thought so at the time. You just keep as +near me as you can, and I'll tell you what to do--all I know. But, to +be sure, they'll be providin' us with _beaux_, and we'll have to go +wherever the gentlemen take us. Ah! When I remember the lady in the +yellow satin riding habit, with the knight in steel button armour and +the peacock plume! It was something beyond. I don't see why steel +button armour should not go quite as well with geranium poplin as +yellow satin. But knights, if there are any, won't wear their uniform +at a private party, I'm afraid. The Queen makes them keep it for +wearing at the palace, most likely; but it's mean of her, all the +same. However, black swallow-tails look real nice, with almost any +colour a girl can put on, and it's just the very thing to tone down my +geranium colour, and make it look moderate." + +There was no place for Mrs. Bunce to slip in a word as her niece ran +on in a continuous monologue--soliloquy--rather, for she was merely +thinking aloud, and her thoughts had grown so engrossing that she +probably would not have heard, had she been spoken to. Presently the +sleigh came to a final halt, and it was their own turn to alight and +follow the stream of cloaked figures up the stairs. A counter-stream +of those who had disentangled themselves, like moths escaped from the +dusky chrysalids, and were rustling their airy glories into form, +passed them on the banister side, while the arrivals not yet perfected +in the cloak-room slunk upwards by the wall. + +Betsey's breath seemed to forsake her in one little gasp of ecstasy. +She followed her aunt upwards mechanically. Her consciousness had +gathered itself into her eyes, and sat there all athirst, drinking in +impressions from the novel scene. The scent of flowers was everywhere, +and the sound of sackbut, psaltery, fiddle, and all that she could +dream of festive music. Through the open doors below, as she ascended, +appeared dancing figures, whirling and vanishing in endless +succession. Lamps and glitter seemed everywhere, and gowns of every +hue--a moving rainbow. She could only liken it to the description from +a New York pantomime in that morning's newspaper of the "Halls of +Dazzling Light." The hall-way, which she looked down on as she went +up, was filled with people in evening dress, circulating to and fro, +and a stream of people in festive array was passing her on the +stairs--velvets, satins, jewellery, lace and flowers, not to speak of +niceties in hair-dressing and general arrangement, which it had not +hitherto entered into her mind to conceive, but were still so +beautiful. She caught them all in the passage of her eye across that +serried stream as she went up a flight of stairs. She was a born +milliner, as the upper Canadiennie not very seldom is. + +Mrs. Bunce and her niece had been almost the last of the guests to +arrive, and had been long detained in the cloak-room by those +finishing touches to their adornment over which it is by no means the +young or the beautiful who spend the longest time. In the present case +it was the treacle-coloured _chevelure_ of the aunt which had come +askew under the hoods and wrappings she had worn upon her head, and +her cap secured in its place by many a hairpin required to be removed +before the other invention could be adjusted. She lingered over minor +embellishments till the other occupants had left the room, when she +found some pretext to send away the attendant also. Then she sprang to +the door and locked it, and turning to Betsey with startling +vehemence, made her promise by all she held sacred never on any +pretext to reveal or divulge what she was presently to behold. Betsey +has kept her promise. + +Whatever awful rite may have supervened has remained unknown. The maid +at the keyhole saw moving figures, but what they were doing she could +not tell, though the time allowed for observation was ample during +which she was kept outside. Eventually the door was unbarred, and Mrs. +Bunce came forth with the dignified self-possession of a well-dressed +woman, Betsey followed, looking pale and anxious, as the inquisitive +waiting-maid discerned, and with the far-off look in her eyes which +the books tell us is worn by those who have come through a new +experience. + +They were so long of getting down stairs that Mrs. Jordan had left the +doorway, in which she had been standing to receive her guests, and was +now by a fireplace with some of her friends. It was necessary for Mrs. +Bunce to cross the room, at some risk to herself from passing +dancer's, in order to pay her respects. Betsey followed as well as she +was able, but she did not reach the presence of her hostess. + +From beyond the radius of a dowager in truffle-coloured satin drifting +easily onwards in the same direction, in whose wake Betsey had found +it safe and easy to steer her course among the throng--from out of the +unknown region, which the bulk of truffle-coloured satin concealed, +there came a whirlwind of palest blue, with silver chains and bangles +tossing among curling hair, and smiles and dimples, revolving wildly +with the music, and with a shock and a little cry there came into her +arms--who but Muriel Stanley! The meeting was of the briefest. They +had scarcely time to ejaculate each other's names ere Muriel's +cavalier had his partner well in hand again, and they were gone, +Betsey looking after them with all her eyes. It was Randolph Jordan +who was dancing with Muriel, looking, as Betsey phrased it, "fit to +kill," in his evening suit. One of Betsey's _beaux!_ How engagingly +she looked at him, and after him, out of her boiled gooseberry +eyes--throwing glances of fascination which I fear fell short, or were +not understood--with a simper on her round fat cheeks, and lips parted +in smiles, displaying slab-like teeth. + +"Whoever was that we cannoned off just now?" said Randolph, when his +partner stopped for breath, "Curious looking person to meet at a +party. Who is it? You seemed to know her." + +"That was my cousin, Miss Bunce. You know her too--quite ready to know +her out at St. Euphrase you seem. In your own house I should have +thought you would know every one." + +"There, now, I've put my foot in it. She's your cousin, she's all +right of course. Don't be vexed, Muriel. But what makes her wear that +horrid gown? I never saw anything like it." + +Something stole into Muriel's eyes as she thought of the "geranium +poplin," and how very superior its wearer intended to be when she put +it on--"made with a _tablier_ and cut square"--but she checked the +impulse, and only said: "Poor Betsey must feel herself a stranger +here; I do not think she knows a soul but those she has met at St. +Euphrase. I think I shall sit down now. No! Not another turn, I feel +quite tired. Go and ask Betsey; you will do me a favour if you will, +and then introduce a few gentlemen to her. Help her to enjoy herself. +It must be dreadful to be so alone in a room full of people." + +"You are hard on me, Muriel, to deprive me half my dance and then hand +me over to--to-- If she were quietly dressed, it would not be so bad. +She used to look quite passable at St. Euphrase in her cotton gowns; +but the sumptuous apparel is really too dreadful. Every one will +observe us. And see! I do declare she is ogling somebody up in +this part of the room. Just look. Did you ever see such facial +contortions? and what a mouthful of teeth! Like an amiable hyena, or +the show-window at a tombstone factory." + +"I am fond of my cousin Betsey, Randolph. If you do not hurry away to +her she will lose this dance, and I shall be disappointed." + +It was with tardy and reluctant steps that Randolph obeyed, but he had +not to go far to meet the engaging Betsey. That young lady, watching +her _beau_ from afar, saw Muriel led to a seat, and himself, after a +few words of conversation, turn in her direction; and with the +inspiration of conquering beauty, she divined that it was to her his +steps were tending. And yet the steps seemed lagging even after they +were disencumbered of the partner. They positively seemed to falter. +Ah! poor young man, the _beau_ was diffident--needed encouragement; +and he should have it. It seemed to her tender heart to be no time for +standing on punctilio. The young man suffered; and it was for her. +That was enough. + +She turned her steps to meet him as he came--meet him half-way, I +might have said, had I been censorious--and as he came in view she +smiled, smiled like a brimming tea-cup filled with sugar and water; +and she spread her hands in welcome, spread them, that is, as to the +fingers, she did not move the wrists, for, notwithstanding the +certainty of beauty's intuitions, there is still the possibility that +one may be mistaken, as Betsey had been ere now--and she stood with +her eyes fixed on Randolph's countenance. + +The look met him full in the face as he came before her, struck him as +the jets from the fire-engines may have struck the Parisian mob which +General La Moricière so cleverly dispersed without the help of steel +or gunpowder; and he would have run away, but he could not. Not only +was Betsey before him, but Muriel was somewhere behind, and both would +have seen his demoralization. Betsey's eyes were beaming on him with a +peculiar radiance. They swam, it seemed to him, in a shining +wateriness, and with a light in which the green rays and the yellow +blended as they do in an over-ripe gooseberry where the sun is +shining, looking luscious, and not too cool--inviting, to those whose +tastes that way incline. + +The greetings between these two were not prolonged--the one had been +ordered to give a dance, the other was eager to encourage a _beau_. +There was a bow and a word or two. Miss Betsey's head lay back on her +short neck as the gentleman's arm slid around her waist. Then, as she +laid her little fat hand on his arm, her head rolled over to the other +shoulder, and she found herself in the ecstasies of the mazy dance. +She drew a long breath of delight, and leant just a trifle heavier on +the strong encircling arm, when--crash! sharps and flats. Another +chord--the music ceased, and--oh, bathos--she found herself standing +on the train of a lady's gown, who was regarding her with a scowl, +while she herself was pinned to the ground from behind in the same +way, and she could not but dread how the hoof-marks would look on her +geranium poplin. + +It was Randolph's turn now to draw a breath of relief, and he looked +over his shoulder to where he had left his little friend--little, not +obviously in stature, but only because she still wore short frocks, +though counting for more to him than all the grown-up ladies in the +room. The feeling of holiday, however, was of short duration; he could +read disappointment on Muriel's features, and when he gazed towards +her as claiming thanks for what he had done at her behest, she looked +another way, ignoring the demand. It was little satisfaction he could +look for during the rest of the evening if Muriel were disobliged, and +her present demand was one of those disinterested ones which must be +fulfilled specifically and cannot be made up for, or "squared" by +attentiveness in other ways; therefore, as one who can not make a +better of it, he turned to Betsey, regretting that their dance had +been cut short prematurely, and begging that the next might be his. + +Betsey was nothing loth. The _beau_ must be very far gone indeed, she +thought, and she could not but cast a backward and regretful glance of +her mind to Joe Webb, Gerald Herkimer, and several others, taking them +all pell-mell and quite "promiskis," as she pronounced the word. +However, she could only have one, she knew that; and she intended to +take whoever offered first, if he was eligible, and not run risks by +"fooling" after the rest. So much for being practical-minded and not +idiotically in love, except with one's own sweet self! + +Randolph resigned himself to work out his dance conscientiously, but +without enthusiasm. Her waist was so far down that he would have to +stretch to get steering leverage upon this rather compact partner, and +as has happened before to many a tall youth with a stumpy fair one, he +had a presentiment that his arm would ache before the exercise was +concluded. In walking round the room, however, before the solemnity +commenced, he caught so pleasant a smile of thanks from Muriel over +his lady's head that he was consoled, and set himself manfully to +perform the task before him; the more so, perhaps, that Muriel was +sitting, and though he would not have owned to grudging her a +pleasure, it pleased him best when she danced with himself. He had +kept more than half his card free from engagements, that she might +have plenty of dances, and his mother was looking for an opportunity +to take him to task for the horrid way in which he was neglecting her +guests. He would have been less content could he have looked back and +seen the alacrity with which she rose a moment later when Gerald +Herkimer came forward to claim her. Of all the "fellows" in the room; +Gerald was the only one as to whose standing in Muriel's good graces +he had a misgiving. + +The dance began, and Randolph found he had not under-estimated the +work before him. Betsey was positively festive, exuberant and +unconfined, on the very top rung of her gamut of feeling, as she +bounced and caracoled along. She could dance, of course--every +Canadian woman can dance--but she possessed a solid massiveness +peculiar to herself, and really remarkable in one of her size. +Randolph found there was little he could do but merely hold on. Strain +and adjust himself as he might, the centre of their joint equilibrium +would not be brought under his control. Betsey seemed totally +inelastic, and her ballast was in her heels. "Hefty" was the word a +Vermont cattle dealer had used to describe her action after a dance at +St. Euphrase. Deviously she pranced, a filly whom no rein ever +invented could be hoped to guide; and as the rapture of the music wore +into her soul, she threw herself back on poor Randolph's arm with an +_abandon_ and an entirety which made it feel strained and paralyzed +for long after. + +"Oh, Mr. Jordan," she cried, when at last the poor fellow was +compelled to stop; "you seem fairly done up and out of breath. For me, +now, I feel fresher, I do declare, than when we started off." + +"Small wonder," thought Randolph, "after making me all but carry you +completely round the room;" but he said nothing, merely looking at the +half-paralyzed hand and finger's of his strained arm, and wondering +how long it would be before he should be able to use them. + +"You're a lovely dancer," the Syren resumed. "Reely, too--too--awfully +nice for anything. Something quite beyond! But to think of _your_ +being tired! And here's me, a fragile girl, feelin', I declare, just +as good as new, or rather better! Now, if you would like to go on +again, I'm quite ready," and she drew herself up ready to relapse on +the manly support of Randolph's arm the moment it should come behind +her. + +But it did not come. Randolph observed that it was very warm; "had +they not better walk to the other end of the room?--they might be able +to find ice there, or something to drink;" and he led her round the +outskirts of the dancers. The dancers were all intently engaged, +disporting themselves some more and some less deftly, but all as best +they could, and Betsey eyed them enviously, glancing reproachfully on +her _beau_. + +And then there passed them a pair which drew the eyes of both, it +passed them so easily, so lightly, so swiftly, like a curl of blue +smoke across a wooded hillside, and it was flown, like the crotchets +and semi-quavers in a bygone bar of the tune--a waft upon the air, +they passed so lightly, passed like the music, leaving but the memory +of glancing smiles as the music leaves a sense of sweetness when it +has ceased. + +"Was that not Muriel went by just now, and Gerald Herkimer?" asked +Betsey. + +"I think so," said Randolph, with just a tone of sulky disgust in his +voice. + +"I wonder at Penelope and Matilda bringing a child like that to a ball +like this. It's real bad for young children bringing them forward so +soon--just tempts people to think them old before their time; and if +Muriel takes after her aunts, she'll have plenty time for parties +before she marries, even if she came out three years late in place of +three years too soon. I doubt if she is fourteen yet." + +"Oh, yes, she will be sixteen next July, she told me so herself." + +"A great age. But still she shouldn't be here to-night at a grown-up +dance." + +"This is a juvenile party. Miss Bunce." + +"Muriel is the only juvenile I see, and she seems to be carrying on +just like one of the grown-ups--all but the frock. She has on a short +frock, I'll admit that, and I don't see another in the room but her +own." + +"The juveniles are in the ball-room. Perhaps you have not been there +yet. Would you like to go? This is only the drawing-room with the +carpet up, for a few grown-up friends of my mother's--a mere side +show. Let us go and see the children. You will find Miss Matilda +Stanley there, and have an opportunity to give her your views about +Miss Muriel's nurture." + +"Oh, pshaw!" cried Betsey, in deep disgust. It was really too +tantalizing to have secured a splendid partner for a round dance, to +have been checked in full career before the dance was a third part +over, to have been led away under the promise of ice cream and +something to drink; and if there was anything Betsey liked next best +to dancing, it was ice cream, with red wine after--not claret by any +means, but something sweet, warming and--if not exactly strong, it +would be so horrid to like anything strong--at least able to +communicate a sensation of strength or general betterment. To have all +these delights dangled before one's eyes, and then to be led away to +look at a parcel of children, who should have been in their beds hours +before, dancing the polka! Oh, no! Betsey felt she was being wronged. +If she were not to have her dance out, at least she should get the +bribe she had been promised. She would be so far true to herself as to +strike a blow for the ice cream. It was easily done. She observed to +Randolph that she felt a little faint, and really the rooms _were_ +warm. He acquiesced at once. So long as it was not to dance, he would +do anything for her. And so they sat down snugly enough near a +refreshment table and tried to be comfortable. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + RANDOLPH'S TRIBULATIONS. + + +"Randolph!" hissed Cornelius Jordan in his son's ear, as they met in a +vacant doorway not long after. "You're a fool!--a pig-headed young +fool. There are plenty young duffers around to tend the children and +the wall-flowers, and yet you have done nothing else the whole +evening. Dancing three times running with a little girl, and then +towing round a curiosity, just as if you wanted to tell your mother's +guests that you didn't mind any of them, and would as soon dance with +a stitcher. What do you mean, sir?" and he shook the young man's arm +to rouse him. + +The young man moved his eyes lazily round to the other's face and +said, "Yes, sir;" whereat the other stamped his foot. + +"Well for me, father, is it not, that I'm too big to whip, or I'd +catch it now?" + +"You'll catch worse than whipping if you don't mind. You'll ruin your +prospects for life! If I'd whipped you better when it was in my power, +you'd be more sensible now." + +"Don't blame yourself, sir; you did your best in that way. I believe I +got more lickings than the five other boys on our street all put +together. You have nothing to reproach yourself with on that score. +You made me squirm, and perhaps it did good, relieving _your_ feelings +if it lacerated mine, but it's over now--forgotten and forgiven, I +suppose, as it has left no marks or effects behind it; for I fancy the +other fellows' fathers have more influence with them than we can +flatter ourselves you have with me." + +"You can come to my study to-morrow morning when I am shaving if you +want me to hear the rest of your discourse upon the evil of harshness +in bringing up a supersensitive boy; though my own belief is that it +was your mother who spoiled you. Meanwhile, use your common sense for +once, if you have any; hear me out, and then do as I say. + +"You think yourself talented, and for myself I should be pleased to +think so too, but you hate work, and will not drudge at the routine of +our profession, without which success cannot come. You think you have +a turn for politics, and could make your mark that way; and for +myself, I am bound to say I think you might become a good speaker with +practice; but success in politics wants either industry and +application at the beginning, qualities which you do not possess or +will not exercise, or else a connection with some influential +interest. This last you have not either, but with very moderate +assiduity any young man, who is also my son, may at this moment +acquire and retain it for life. Mlle. Rouget is of an age to +marry--just the right age for you. Her granduncle is archbishop, her +uncle a cabinet minister. She is an only child, and her father is +seignior of La Hache. I have been able to be useful to the old man, +and he will consider your pretensions favourably if you will only +declare yourself. In fact, I have in a manner declared on your +behalf, and a very moderate degree of attention on your part, in +confirmation, is all that is necessary. You see she is French, and +well reared--willing to let her parents bestow her hand where they see +fit. So you will not be compelled to such lavish demonstrations as I +have seen you make elsewhere, where nothing was to be got by it; only +of course, it will be good taste to discontinue the attentions in +other quarters while you are a pretender to mademoiselle's hand! + +"Why, man! with the church and the government at your back there is +not a constituency in the country you may not aspire to represent; and +with experience and my advice--which is worth more, my son, than you +in your sapiency can very well make out--there is no position whatever +which you may not rise to. Now don't be pig-headed! I see the +obstinate look gathering; but do not let us have a public row for the +entertainment of our friends. Go and dance with Mdlle. Rouget, and be +civil to her; and take in her or her mother to supper. That will not +compromise you either way, and it will save me for the present from +the false position in which my zeal for your prospects, and your own +indifference to them, seem like to land me." + +Jordan and his son were scarcely good friends, though both were +inclined to do their family duty. Like the positive poles of two +magnets, they never met without repelling each other. Jordan was +naturally diplomatic, with a pronounced turn for management, which +generally ended in his getting his own way, and therefore made him +disinclined to yield. In town he was liked for his pleasant ways, and +generally he was yielded to; but at home, his consort, whom the rest +of the world found charming, had, for him, what charming women so +often possess for the enlivenment of their nearest and dearest, and +without which, perhaps, they would soon cease to be charming at all, a +will of her own. She had an inconvenient turn for epigram, and with a +verb, or even with a laugh, could prick a bubble or a wind-bag in its +weakest place, bringing the poor high-flyer flapping to the ground; +and Jordan, doubtless, like other Benedicts, though moderate in his +flights abroad, would at times adventure to soar a little by his own +fireside. Amelia permitted no soaring there except her own--is not +home the woman's kingdom?--and perhaps it was thus that her boy +learned a disregard for paternal advice and reproof which could not +but irritate a man accustomed to guide and control in the outer world. +A boy! and his own. It would have been too humiliating to stoop to +management there, especially with mischief-loving Amelia looking on; +so he fell into a habit of commanding, and beating the boy when he +transgressed. + +The stick, however, is a sceptre little suited to the nineteenth +century or the Western Continent. For the subjects of the Khedive it +is manifestly just the thing. The people understand it, and the more +vigorously it is applied the happier are the results--for the State at +least. But then His Highness is generous even to prodigality in +administering the State medicine, without stint or exception, and on +every occasion. It is _Thorough_ which succeeds in Government. James +II. was perfectly correct when he said that it was yielding which cost +King Charles his head. It _was_ yielding, yielding after having +attempted "thorough" without the strength or the daring to work it +out. When the bad rider, inexpert with spur, whip, and bridle, strokes +the steed's neck and says "poor fellow," softly and soothingly, depend +upon it the horse understands the situation as well as his so-called +master, and goes his own way. Conciliation, reparation--what you +will--to noisy discontent, is a mistake of the same kind; the rider +may borrow a handsome name for it from the doctrinaire, but he will +not persuade the steed that anything but weakness or fright has wrung +from him his pretty behaviour. So much we may gather from recent +British history. + +But the teller of this story may well leave British history to run its +own course, and he craves pardon for his trespass. What he would +testify against, in his small way, is historical inconsistency and +hysterical interference, however well meant, with the sequence of +events. See how a ship has to tack and turn when the wind changes, if +she would continue her voyage; if the ship of state is merely to turn +her helm and scud before an altered wind of popular feeling, without +regard to whence she comes or whither she is bound, sooner or later +she will find herself among the breakers, and on a lee shore. + +Jordan had attempted the _fortiter in re_ with his son, but not +consistently, and especially not persistently. Indeed, like many +another, he would have let the brat alone during his growing years, +merely sending him out of the room when he was noisy, or tossing him +silver in moments of paternal pride, for his thoughts were kept busy +on other things; but the whelp acquired a trick of ensconsing himself +behind his mother's gown and bidding defiance to the rightful lord of +the manor, and then the latent savage, which is said still to survive +in the most cultured, would break out, and nothing but blows and howls +would appease him. On these occasions it was the lad's mother who +brought fuel to inflame the father's wrath. It pleased her so much +that her boy should come to her for protection in his troubles, and +she was so pleasing a person herself--or the world said so, and she +had got to think it--with her vivacity, her brightness, and her +satiric smile, wherewith she could goad old Slow-coach to fury; and he +being man enough, at least, to respect his wife, the fury glanced +harmless past her and fell in stinging whacks on the poor little +adventurer behind her, who had raised the storm. Yet even at his +worst, Jordan could find nothing soul-satisfying in beating a small +boy, and after a clout or two he would desist, with no harm done +except to the young one's personal dignity and the resentment bred +therefrom, and that was an evil not to be measured by the severity of +the assault, but rather inversely. The lighter the correction the +heavier the resentment and offence. + +"If you _will_ whip a child," as I once heard an American lecturess +say--she was a superior person who knew all about it, and had left her +own seven lambs at home under the care of a hired help, while she went +out into the world with her evangel of nursery tactics--"If you _will_ +whip a child, _be sure you really hurt it!_" There must be tingle +enough to overbear the indignation and resentment which the violence +you are doing to its person will naturally arouse; you must whip +enough to make it forget the outrage in the solid pain which it +suffers. It is only then that you need expect to super-impose your own +will upon that of the patient. + +I suppose Jordan had never listened to the American lecturess, if he +had, he did not lay the homily to heart. At any rate, he struck, when +he might have managed quite as well without; and striking, he struck +only enough to arouse in his son feelings of deeper rebellion than +those which he undertook to quell; and thereafter a grudge and a +suspicion came between the old man and the young, which perhaps the +mother without any evil intent, but merely from loving to be first +with her own son, his councillor and his friend, did more to aggravate +than any one else. + +Randolph went in search of Miss Rouget to secure his dance, but the +young lady's card was filled up. She had kept a vacancy for him some +time, but at length her mother sitting by, displeased at the young +man's neglect, had made her fill it up with some one else, and now +glanced at the offender with a somewhat stony reserve, which softened, +however, when he approached herself, and prayed the honour of leading +her to supper. On glancing round the company she could see no good +reason why her host had not come forward in person to perform the +office. "But then those English," as she told herself, "are so +ignorant of the _convenances_." Again, the young man might be diffident +in pursuit of his matrimonial aspirations, which was to his credit; +and also, she was getting very tired where she sat. Her English was +not fluent, and the French of the others was so indifferent, that few +dared use the little they had, whence she had not been entertained +with much conversation, and the smiling bows had grown monotonous. +Supper was the one recreation open to her, and as she looked, behold, +her husband was leading the way with his hostess. So after all there +was no ground of offence, and her features relaxed into their wonted +graciousness as she joined the procession. The younger people +continued to dance, and Randolph felt a little twinge of jealousy to +see Muriel again dancing with Gerald. He was able to whisper to her in +passing, however, which was something, begging her to linger and let +him take her to supper by-and-by. Madame ceased speaking just then, to +some one on her other side, and claimed his attention by an +observation, so that he failed to catch what Muriel said in reply. + +Madame enjoyed her supper, as was fitting. She had earned it by hours +of conscientious _chaperonage_, which had declined even the +allurements of the neighbouring card-room. She was so fortunate too as +to be placed near a gentleman who spoke French well, and now +indemnified herself for the enforced silence under which she had been +yawning so wearily. In the comings and goings, the risings and +sittings down, of some going back to dance and others coming in to +sup, a little circle of her intimates gathered round madame, and +Randolph, no way averse, found himself merely a supernumerary on its +outskirts. It was his opportunity; he availed himself of it, and stole +back to look for Muriel among the dancers. He came upon her as she +rested at the end of a dance, with still that same too constant Gerald +in attendance. + +"Now then, Miss Muriel," he cried; "if you are ready we will go at +once. The dowagers are leaving the supper-room, and after this dance +the musicians will take a rest, and there will be a crush of all the +dancers coming in at once. If you are ready we will go." + +Muriel looked up. + +"Thanks for the information. Miss Muriel is going presently. We will +get in ahead of those who are dancing now," said Gerald with a +suppressed smile. + +Randolph drew himself up just a little, and strove to look dignified +while he ignored the last speaker. "Of course there is no need to +hurry if you prefer to rest; but it is so much cooler in the +supper-room; do you not think you will be better to come at once, +Muriel?" + +"I was just rising to go with Gerald Herkimer when you spoke." + +"But I spoke some time ago--when I passed you with Madame Rouget. You +were dancing at the time." + +"That was my dance, Muriel," interjected Gerald; "you promised then to +let me take you to supper." + +Randolph drew himself up to his tallest--he was two inches taller than +Gerald--and turned his flushed face with all the dignity he could +muster in it upon his offending friend. "I have only Miss Stanley to +deal with in this matter, and I prefer to settle it with herself." + +"Bosh! man. What is the use of your putting on grand airs with me? +Haven't we gone to school together? It isn't a bit of good your trying +to play Don Fandango. If you like, we can go down to your back yard, +take off our coats, and have it out with lists in the old way; but the +people will be sure to laugh, and we shall look rather rumpled when we +get back here. We are getting old for that sort of thing, besides. +Don't you see you have made a mistake somehow, and the young lady is +engaged for supper to me?" + +"I don't! and I won't! and I do----" + +"Law, now! Mr. Jordan, ain't this just splendid? You are making up a +party for supper, I see, and I am a hungry party that will be most +pleased to join you;" and Randolph felt a fat arm slip through that +arm of his own which he had been offering so pressingly to Muriel. +There was a vision of geranium-coloured poplin flapping against him, +and when he looked round, behold, Miss Betsey had him in possession. +There was nothing for it but to submit and lead the way while the +other two followed; even though a smothered "haw, haw," which he could +hear behind him, filled his heart with fury, and made him long to face +about and brain the offender on the spot. The natural man is a savage +still, especially when his inclination to the fair is crossed; +culture, good-manners, and white kid gloves notwithstanding. + +Betsey was exuberant. Thanks to Muriel's efforts, she had danced and +eaten ice with Randolph, and Gerald, and a good many more--danced +almost continuously, and quite energetically--having, in her own +words, "a real good time." And now she was a little hungry, but in +overflowing spirits, as she trotted beside her tall cavalier, with her +chin pressed into the dimpling redundancy of her short thick neck, +where every line and crease seemed to vie with the parted lips in +smiling content. + +Randolph stalked gloomily by her side, realizing his helplessness, and +resenting the amused glances which met him as he proceeded. But what +could he do? He could only submit, and get through with the interlude +as quickly as possible. He was lucky enough to find a small table +vacant in a retired corner of the supper-room, where he placed himself +and his little companion, ignoring tugs and nods and pointings to more +conspicuous places, where the lights would have shone brighter on her +beauty and her revelry--which were just the things he wished to keep +out of sight. Betsey had the best of everything to eat, however, which +was compensatory, and her companion had at least the satisfaction of +sitting opposite Muriel. He had secured them for the rest of his own +table, and if he was unable to say much to her himself, it was +something to have prevented a _tête-à-tête_ with his rival. + +Randolph's disturbed feelings were subsiding into sullen calm. He was +eating his supper. He had filled his companion's glass and his own; +and Betsey, smiling to pledge him, held her foaming goblet in her hand +awaiting his answering glance, when a sombre body--the back and +shoulders of a man's coat--interposed itself between them. + +"Jordan! Here you are at last," it said. It was only a man's coat, so +far as Betsey could see, intruding most impertinently between herself +and her _beau_. "I have been looking for you everywhere. Now I have +found you. Madame Rouget has done supper, and is waiting for you to go +back to the dancing-room." + +Betsey made a little gulp of indignation; but no one perceived +it, or seemed to heed her. Randolph rose like a truant returning to +school, led away by the man in the coat; and she, poor Betsey! was +left--lamenting? No--finishing her supper. She held her glass across +to Gerald for a little more champagne, and thereby tacitly placed +herself under his protection for the rest of the meal. There was much +natural adaptability to circumstances in Betsey, notwithstanding her +too evident lack of polish. Like the celebrated brook, she went +tranquilly forward, however "men might come, or men might go," in a +consistent following out of what seemed the attainably best for +herself. With opportunity and culture Betsey might have gone far. + +Madame Rouget rose at Randolph's approach, and took his arm to leave +the room. She showed no displeasure or cognisance of his desertion, +but there was a distinct refrigeration of the graciousness with which +she had accepted his escort to the supper-table half-an-hour before. +In leaving the room they were stopped for an instant in front of +the little table which Randolph had risen from. Madame lifted her +eye-glass just where geranium-coloured poplin made the feature of the +view, and its wearer in much comfort held a wine-glass to her lips, +smiling across to Gerald Herkimer, a modernized suggestion of one of +Jourdain's carousing beauties, though with the flesh tints far less +delicately rendered. She dropped the eye-glass with a click, and a +French shrug, and that accompanying rise of the eyebrows so infinitely +more expressive of scorn and contempt than any word. + +"I am _desolée_, to have take Mistaire Jordain from ze plaisirs of his +soopaire. But ze demoiselle aippears herself to console ver well. Wich +rassure me ver much." + +Madame must certainly have been indignant when she used these words, +for, when quite herself, her English was grammatically correct enough +if the vocabulary was restricted and a word was sometimes used in a +wrong sense. It is a woman's right to take offence at the _formam +spretam_ by a suitor, and if the form despised be her daughter's +instead of her own, she can resent it with even better grace. + +Not long after, Mr. Jordan senior came upon Mr. Rouget leaving the +card-room, and expressed a hope that he had been able to amuse +himself. + +"I have not the good fortunes at cards this evening," that gentleman +replied; "I have won nothing; lost, rather, I fear." + +"So sorry; come have a glass of wine, and perhaps the luck may turn." + +"_N'importe_, I shall play no more to-night. The fortunes are +not _propices_. My _système_ does not conform to the play of +Mistaire--what you call?--Constantine." + +"Considine. Probably not. He generally plays euchre. You were playing +whist. Liable to trump his partner's best card. I know his weakness. +Let me find you some one else." + +"I thank you. No. It grows late. I go in search of madame. _M'sieur_ +himself does not succeed well in the little plan he did me the honour +to propose--to ally our families. I observe M'sieur Randolphe +withholds the--what you say?--the _petits soins_ which aire of custom +when a gentleman pretends to the hand of a demoiselle. _N'importe_, I +accept the excuses of m'sieur without saying. One knows the authority +of father counts for nothing with you English; but the more should +have been an understanding before to approach me." + +"My dear sir," Jordan began deprecatingly; but the other raised his +hand in dignified protest. + +"Enough. I make no reproach--_N'importe_. My good brother, the +ministre, has views. We will forget." + +"My dear Mr. Rouget--I beg!--I will even admit that you have ground of +offence, but pray take into account the waywardness of a head-strong +youth who resents being dictated to, and fancies he should decide his +own movements. Still, I must say for him, the boy really is steady, +and a good lad; and that, you will allow, is a qualification not +always to be met with among the eligible young men of the present day. +The mortgage upon La Hache would be a nice provision for the young +people, would save you from the possibility of instalments falling due +at inconvenient times, and I think--though perhaps I am too nearly +related to be an impartial judge--the lad has parts, and would not +discredit the Honourable the Minister of Drainage and Irrigation +either in politics or the public service. He has been bred to the law, +as perhaps you know, and passed his examinations with distinction." + +M. Rouget bowed his head and allowed the look of displeasure to relax +upon his countenance. He was most willing to push forward the +matrimonial scheme, though naturally, as being the weaker party, it +behoved him to keep that fact to himself, and to be ready, at the +first sign of backwardness on the other side, to feign offended +dignity, that he might be able to withdraw from the fruitless +negotiation with the honours of war. + +They were now leaving the supper-room together, and Considine +approached just as the Frenchman walked forward alone in search of his +ladies. + +"At last," thought Considine, "I shall catch Jordan alone, and get +over that talk I have been so long wanting to have with him;" and he +pressed his breast pocket to make sure of the documents he had carried +about so long, in hopes of catching the busy man in a moment of +leisure. Jordan noticed the movement, and was defensively on the alert +at once. + +"Considine, old fellow! Not dancing?" + +"My dancing days are over. But I say, Jordan, I wish you would give me +just a few minutes quiet----" + +"Over? What an idea! The springiest man of our set! Without the first +sign of either gout or rheumatism! And you would give up dancing, and +ticket yourself a fogy before your time? No! no! Couldn't think of it. +Yonder are a score of ladies, all your friends, sitting down after +supper, and waiting to be asked to dance. Every woman likes to be +danced with after supper, if only to show the world that men don't +look upon her as too old. Come along! Let me find you a partner, +though you know every one here." + +"But I never valse." + +"It is Lancers this time. I am going to dance myself. Mrs. Martindale. +A very old friend. Knew her before either of us were married. We +always have a dance when we meet. Come along!--Miss Stanley! Here is a +gentleman so desirous of dancing with you, and too modest to ask. Pray +take pity on him." + +Miss Matilda looked up in a little surprise, but smiled on seeing +Considine. + +"You are a sad wag, Mr. Jordan. It seems scarcely fair that we +grown-up people should crowd out the young ones. However, as Mr. +Considine is so kind----" and she rose, and taking his arm they joined +the dancers. + +Age is not a question to be decided by almanacs or the comparison of +dates. How many generations of roses have bloomed and disappeared +since the aloe was sown, a hundred years ago, which now is only +opening its flower. The willow has fallen into battered decrepitude, +while the oak, its slow-growing contemporary hard by, has barely +reached his prime. Life should not be measured by the tale of years, +but by itself--by the measure of oil unburnt, which remains within the +lamp. There be some, who, making bonfire of their store--lighting the +candle at both ends in the gusty weather--have consumed it mostly ere +the seventh lustrum has run out, and go darkling thenceforth with +nothing but a smoky wick and a guttering remnant; and there are others +who have dwelt where the winds were still, and have shaded their lamps +and trimmed them, like prudent virgins, whose light grows clearer as +they pass along, and accompanies them with a tranquil radiance far +down into the valley where the shadows are, and the inevitable end. It +is the excitements and the cares which devour our strength, the +unsatisfied greeds which eat inward, the ill-regulated pleasures which +exhaust. Work never killed a man; or, if it did, he was a weakling, or +he had mistaken his trade. + +"Only look!" cried Amelia Jordan, touching her neighbour, Martha +Herkimer, with her fan, "I think I may flatter myself that my juvenile +party is a success, when the contagious gaiety has caught even that +superannuated couple. I should feel flattered, but I confess I am not +fond of frisky grey beards. There is a time for everything, even for +sitting still and watching the young ones. I wonder at Considine; and +really Matilda might have had more sense than yield to his absurdity." + +"Do you mean the gineral and Matildy Stanley? Well now, 'pears to me, +they're about the likeliest couple on the floor. If they're old it's +their own business, their bones will ache the worse and the sooner; +but as far as looks go, I will say there ain't man or boy of them all +looks as spry as the gineral. And, as for Matildy, she looks well. I +always liked Matildy, and I admire her." + +"Oh, certainly, my dear, I quite agree with you. I am fond of +Matilda--good simple soul--I cannot think how she missed getting +married. So many worse, have established themselves well, since she +was young. But really you know it is just a little ridiculous, at her +time of life, to see her disporting herself. Why, there are her niece +and your own boy in the same set!" + +"So are Mr. Jordan and Mrs. Martindale." + +"Oh, yes, but that is nothing. Jordan must make himself useful in his +own house; and every one knows Louisa is a fool, who would like to be +thought gay, giddy, and dangerous. I would bet a box of gloves, now, +she thinks she is breaking my heart with jealousy. Just look how she +wriggles about, and how the chandelier so nearly over her head brings +out the crowsfeet and wrinkles round her eyes. I would not, for fifty +dollars, walk down the centre of the room when that thing is lighted, +if anybody were looking. + +"You don't see no crowsfeet around Matildy's eyes, I guess. She's a +fine woman, is Matildy Stanley. I wonder where the man's eyes have +been that she should have stayed Matildy Stanley so long. See how she +walks! As upright as a broomstick, and as springy as a cane." + +"Men like other things along with looks," said Amelia bridling. +"Though really Matilda looks quite nice--considering. One can scarcely +claim to be in one's first youth now-a-days, and we all came out the +same year, so our ages cannot be very far apart, Louisa Martindale, +Matilda, and I; and Louisa and I have grown up children." + +"You don't say that Mrs. Martindale is one age with Matildy? She looks +nigh on twenty years older. _You're_ different," she added quickly, as +the gathering of a look on her friend's face, which did not betoken +satisfaction, became apparent. + +"Perhaps Louisa does wear a little badly," she answered, in returning +good humour. "That light betrays everything. Louisa has so much +vivacity, and perhaps she is just the least bit in the world affected, +I believe it must be that has made her go off so. So much simpering +and smiling, when one doesn't feel so very pleased, and makes believe +a good deal, must naturally wear creases in the face. Do you not think +so? Matilda, on the other hand, as you know, is so calm and tranquil; +her face has not half the tear and wear of Louisa's, and therefore it +lasts ever so much better. But, somehow, Louisa, I should say, has got +more good out of her life. She has got more bad, too, I grant, for she +has been in the thick of everything; but I think I prefer that. +Matilda seemed never just to hit it off with the men. I do not +recollect her ever receiving any marked attentions, and she did not +betray any strong preferences to her. There are no little vignettes, +that I ever heard of, to illustrate her biography. You know what I +mean. _Passages_, people call them, which most of us like to bring out +of our memories and look at, when we feel low and a little +sentimental; just as we open the old box where our bridal wreath is +laid away, and wonder as we wrap the thing up again in its tissue +papers, if the gingerbread has really been worth all the gilding we +overlaid it with." + +Martha sniffed. It did not become an honest married woman to talk that +way, she thought; but she said nothing, and the sniff proved enough to +modulate Amelia's tone down to the narrational key again. + +"When the officers were quartered here, of course it made society +lively; and they paid a great deal of attention to us all,"--with just +a suspicion of bridling, as she said it, as though she had "vignettes" +of her own to remember, if it were worth while to count the scalps won +in such old-world encounters. "Matilda was in the thick of it all, and +got plenty of attention, but it never came to anything; and I am bound +to say she betrayed no anxiety that it should. Her father was an +Englishman, you see, and she has travelled; and she has money, and a +sister; so I suppose it comes natural to them to take things easily +and be comfortable in their own cool-blooded and retired sort of way. +Very nice women, I must admit, and always the same wherever you meet +them; but one cannot make free with them as we do amongst ourselves. +Really it is quite like long ago, to see Matilda dancing out there +with Considine. She is little changed. Fuller in the figure, perhaps, +but that is becoming as one gets up in life. Her hair is in the same +old way she always wore it--in streaming side curls. 'Books of +Beauty,' when I was a little girl, displayed ladies with hair-dressing +like that; but, except Matilda, I never saw a living woman wear it. +Though it becomes her." + +"Splendid hair! So long and thick; and not one white thread in it. +Now, what colour was Mrs. Martindale's originally? It's dun-duckety +mud colour now, or what you please," and her eyes involuntarily rested +on Amelia's head-dress, eliciting an angry red spot upon either cheek, +which was answered by a flush of ashamed confusion on her own, at the +inadvertence, and brought the conversation to an abrupt conclusion. + +The unconscious subject of her friend's criticism swam here and there +through the figures of her dance in sympathy with the music, borne up +and carried forward, like a well-trimmed yacht, upon the current of +sound. She had danced little, if at all, for years; but it came +naturally to her to dance. There was no heart-heaviness or carking +care, no malice, envy, or uncharitableness--the unadjustable ballast +which makes so many a hull roll heavily. Her health was good, as it +had always been, her nerves as well strung, and her ear as sensitive +to the spirit of sound. She looked well, and she knew it, with the +mature and realized beauty of a summer afternoon--a lady such as the +late King George admired. There was not the dewy promise of morning, +but neither were there evening's pensive shadows pointing backward in +regret--a handsome woman who had shed her girlhood, but showed no +other sign by which to count the years. It was pleasant to be brought +down off the shelf where matrons and old ladies sit and contemplate +the gambols of the young, and made her think of her first ball, and +how nice it had been, but without regret, for it was nice even now; +and there was her own little Muriel whom she had reared, almost grown +up, and marching before her just like another woman in the evolutions +of the dance. And really it was very nice to have a gentleman so +attentive, and all to one's self; like long ago, before her married +friends got their establishments, and put on their absurdly +patronizing airs, which were sometimes so provoking, though always so +ridiculous--"as if one could not have done everything _they_ succeeded +in doing if one had cared to try." + +That reflection brought perhaps a trifle more colour in her face, and +made her shake out the ringlets just a little, till she looked at her +partner before her, carefully executing with conscientious precision a +gyration in her honour. She could not but smile as she gave him her +hand to turn round, and the man looked positively grateful as he +received it. Grateful, but was it for the smile or the hand? Yet +surely he gave the hand a little squeeze. The man must be growing +audacious. And yet he was so respectful. But Mr. Considine she knew +was always respectful, and really very nice. + +Considine thought it very nice too--did not know, in fact, how long it +was since he had enjoyed anything so much. "Amazing fine woman," is +how some of his compeers would have expressed their feelings; but +Considine did not even pretend to be a _roué_, and he was not a fogy, +though quite old enough to have been one, if that had been a necessary +phase of existence to pass through. He felt happy with a respectful +enjoyment, such as he might have known thirty years earlier, in the +recognized season for such things, and he only regretted that it was +to end so soon. He wondered if he might venture to ask her to dance +again, and that smile we have mentioned, met him, and he thought he +would risk it; but alas, the programme had been arranged to suit the +younger talent, and this proved to be the last square dance. Then he +bethought him of the subscription assemblies, and wondered if Miss +Stanley attended them, and then the evolutions of the next figure +brought him back to the business in hand. + +Muriel and her partner watched him carefully solemnizing the rite with +a good deal of amusement. Youth is so graspingly exclusive, and so +intolerant. It engrosses the present and claims the future for itself, +and accords as little place to its quite recent predecessors, the have +beens, as would be given to the ancient kings at Westminster, if they +should leave their vaults in the abbey and walk across the street to +the hall or the palace over the way. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + A BENEVOLENT SPIDER. + + +M. Rouget de la Hache was hard up. He was a "swell," in a small way, +after the mild colonial fashion, with a seigniory whose ancient +privileges had been curtailed by advancing civilization; but +civilization had paid him a good round sum when it abolished his +rights over the persons and property of his humble neighbours--rights +which were becoming an anachronism, and always more difficult to +exercise. Being a swell, he did not work, but he was closely related +to many who did, and who exercised the most important functions in the +country, while they still looked up to him as in some sort their +chief; though, in reason, the deference should have been all the other +way. M. Rouget did not work, and therefore, not being a vegetable, it +was necessary that he should play. When circumstances, in mistaken +kindness, lay no burden on a man's shoulders, he fits one on +himself--_il faut s'amuser_--and one which often proves hard to carry. +There is a taskmaster, as the nursery saw tells us, still ready to +find occupation for idle hands, occupation in which they too often +burn their fingers. + +Guns and dogs answer well enough at a time, so do trotting horses; but +by-and-by there must be other men's horses to trot with, and give the +interest of emulation. A man cannot continue to amuse himself on his +own land; and in colonial cities people are too busy making their +fortunes to be amusing company for an idle man. However, Saratoga, in +its season, was not far away, and there was New York beyond, which +lasts all the year round--more or less. Rouget had been used to be +"of the best" at home--a personage, in a small way, wherever he +appeared--and abroad it did not occur to him to abate his pretentions. +Measured by the golden foot-rule of New York, he would have found +himself on a far back bench, and even then his neighbours would have +been able to lay down a dollar for every dime which he could produce; +but the idea of applying such a standard did not occur to him. He +believed himself a notability, and looked among the foremost for his +peers. Was he not related to several of those old French governors who +traded beads for peltry in the wake of a Jesuit Missionary, chaffering +with the simple children of the wilderness beneath the forest shade, +ere ever a vulgar common-place Englishman had arrived to cut timber, +open a shop, or make money? And the foremost accepted him at his own +valuation, as something "_ro_mantic, and quite beyond." He was ready +to put down his stakes alongside theirs, and it would not be "manners" +to ask the size of the pile from whence the stakes were drawn. +Wherefore the American heart opened genially to receive him, just as +it opens to the Lord Toms and Sir Harrys who each year enter its +hospitable gates, and remain while their money lasts, or till they are +found out. + +It is hard upon the pipkin who adventures to sail down stream with the +brazen bowls. There are eddies on the smoothest streams, and among the +eddies there will be bumping. Only the pipkins need mind that, it is +they alone who suffer. They inevitably get cracked in a collision, +while the brass goes bumping and ringing along for very sport. It can +come to no harm. Mr. Rouget got cracked--badly cracked--at last; but +the wonder is that it had not befallen him long before. His friends +did what they could for him--friends always do, when the subject is a +worthless one, while virtue gets leave to shift for itself in its +disasters, virtue being essentially prosaic, uninteresting and +unpicturesque--but even his friends ran dry at last, and he had to +mortgage his land. That occurred when Jordan began first to invest +moneys for the Herkimer estate, and it was he who had bought the +mortgage. It was a fairly profitable operation for Jordan, and had +been the beginning of a useful intimacy; but it seemed to him, ere +long, after the accruing advantages were well secured, that to sink so +large a sum in so long-winded a transaction had been a mistake, and he +might have done better in short loans, money on call, and general +usury. There was the idea, to be sure, of engrafting his son +effectually upon the dominant French interest by marriage, and if that +could be compassed, it might turn out that the money had been well +invested; but the boy was so head-strong and contrary, so like the +Irishman's pig, which insists on going the other way, in what way +soever he may be desired to go, that there was no certainty of working +out the scheme, however compliant they of the other side might be. + +Jordan was sitting in his office one day, in the week following his +wife's party, examining his diary of bills coming due, considering +where renewals might be granted, and how much he might extort in +consideration of his forebearance, what sums would be paid him, and +how they were to be employed. Rouget, overbearing the clerk who kept +the sanctum door--it was an inner room, lined with tin boxes, but free +from the professional lumber which garnished that wherein he received +his clients, the spider-hole, in fact, where he sat to devour his +flies, and very private--appeared before him. + +"Jordain! Your clerk ees not _respectueux_. I must complain. He tell +me you were gone out. Yen vid dis ear I hear you cough my ownself. +Everee body know Jordain's cough. Yet he _défend_ my entry." + +Jordan laid down his pen testily, but composed himself at once. "M. +Rouget de la Hache, eh? The young man has orders to let no one in +here. He should have said I was engaged. Those were his orders." + +"He deed say so; but I shust look heem in ze eye--so!--vit a grand +_sévérité_; and he fail of his word, and grow _confus_; and zen he +tell me you were gone out. And so--behold me." + +"Sim should stick to his orders. The first lie is always the best and +safest. Not that this was a lie--he had his orders to say I was +engaged, and admit no one. _You_ would have been an exception, of +course, had I expected to see you. But how should I? Nevertheless, +most pleased to see you; though really I am very busy. Pray sit down. +How can I serve you?" + +Rouget sat down, looking vacantly about him. To attempt to hurry him, +shook up his muddy wits, which needed all their accustomed rest to +clarify themselves in any measure. + +It was a bare little room, all but its wall covering of shelves, +supporting tin boxes, which were all brown japanned alike, and +garnished with gold letters and numbers enough to give one headache. +There were three chairs, on one of which he was sitting, while Jordan +had another, and the third stood waiting--for whom? It disturbed him, +this foolish question, for it was impossible to answer it. The table +was covered with black leather, and there was a book open--a big fat +book--wonder what it was about?--and a bit of paper with names and +figures, which Jordan was noting down with a pencil. Wonder what he +meant by it? Had it anything to do with him, Jean Vincent de Paul +Rouget? But yet the pencil and slip of paper looked unimportant +enough, and so, with the bold assurance of ignorance Rouget concluded +that they could not possibly be of much consequence, and Jordan was +only making believe--a humbug, in fact, as all people _là bas_ mostly +were. It takes a transatlantic "swell," who has never seen one of the +acknowledged great ones of the earth, to fully realize the vast +inferiority of the "lower orders" to his own ineffable mightiness. + +And yet it was easier to make the grand entrance he had achieved, and +even to seat himself with dignity, than to plunge at once _in medias +res_. He shuddered a little, like a bather on the brink, and looked +round the room again, but it was so bare it would not suggest +anything; and he wanted an idea--some neutral subject of talk which +could be steered and edged about, whither he would; like a boat to +waft him round the cliffs on the opposing shore, to some unguarded +inlet with sloping banks, where he could land in good order and deploy +at will toward the point he sought to gain. But this fellow was so +abrupt. The _brusquerie_ was not in good taste, and at another time he +would have let him see it; but now---- + +"How can I serve you?" said the spider again. He knew the value of +directness and dispatch. A fly must be well inmeshed in the web to be +there present. It is mercy to the poor things to come to the point +with a bound, and bleed or devour. To prolong the preliminaries is but +adding gratuitous pain. The victim will but flutter the more wildly, +and what usurer would make rich if he heeded the remonstrance of +impotence? In prolonged palaver, too, and the frantic flutterings, may +not the captive burst a gossamer bond, and be free? The bonds are all +gossamer, at first, like the rainbow-coloured rays of a sea anemone, +but they thicken and grow tense when the prey gets among them, and do +it so quietly that he is partly swallowed before he realizes his +danger, and then his struggles are apt to be in vain. Still, there are +chances, and vigour and dispatch are best. + +"How can I serve you?" and Jordan glanced into the book before him, +and then made a cross with his pencil at a name and some failures on +the list he seemed to be making out. It was manifest that he guessed +already what was going to be said. It was mortifying, and still it was +a relief to see that preliminaries were unnecessary and the subject +already opened. + +"I find I cannot meet all the interest due the day after to-morrow." + +A mere bow of the head from the spider. Not a motion of an eyebrow, +even, in token of surprise. This composure hurt M. Rouget much. Was he +not an important person, and looked upon as rich? And was it not the +duty of ordinary people to expect him to pay up? He felt almost +insulted that anybody should thus take his inability as a matter of +course. He coloured, and looked an interrogation. + +"Yes?" said Jordan. + +"I vill give a cheque for two tousand dollars. You must hold over the +rest for the present." + +"Make it three, and I will take your note for the rest at thirty +days--Sim!" touching the hand-bell at his elbow. + +"That vill not do! I shall not be able to pay so soon," said Rouget +more disturbed. What did the man mean by calling in his clerk so +quickly to increase his embarrassment? + +"Never mind, Sim! a mistake," and the door closed again. + +"Tirty days would be no use. You mus give me time. I have had looses, +and want time to retrieve myself." + +"But how? Mr. Rouget. You will say I have no right to ask such a +question, perhaps, and I dare say I appear discourteous; but in +business it is essential to understand the case clearly, and our +transactions are for such large sums that you must excuse seeming +intrusiveness. Will sixty days suit you?" + +"No. I want time! and freedom from all anxieties. I have a _système_ +wich is infallible in the end, and must make me rich, but it demands +time, watchfulness, and money." + +"Phew!"--Jordan whistled slowly, lying back in his chair and burying +his hands in his pockets. "That is--Well, we will not wrangle over +spilt milk, and I do not question your right to do as you choose with +your own money; but it seems to me, when you granted those large +mortgages, you made use of that same expression--referred to +something, something or other under the name of a system." + +"And what then?" said Rouget flushing. A little indignation would help +him, conversationally at least, he began to think. Not being in trade, +he was unfamiliar with the liberties which money will empower a lender +to take with the man who would borrow, or worse, who would be excused +when the time comes round for repayment. + +"Oh! nothing. Only if it has cost $150,000 already before the system +begins to work favourably, it may take as much more yet, and where is +the money to come from?" + +"It vill not! It _cannot_ take so much. It mus' be propice ver soon. I +have confidence. I have considered. There is certainty!" + +"And the first of the three repayments of $50,000 comes due in six +months." + +"I know it, and I want you to add dese few tousands to the new +mortgage you will draw--wid interests and commissions, all to be sure, +widout question;" and the poor man rallied his waning pomposity to +make one little shrug in naming the gains and perquisites of the +_roturier_; before whom, his heart misgave him, he might yet have to +quake. + +"But, my dear sir, the operation is not a profitable one, and I did +not contemplate renewing the mortgage. I can do much better with the +money on the street." + +"_Mon Dieu!_ Jourdain. What do I hear? Increase ze interests if so +mus' be--and ze security is good. Ze ministre, _mon frère_, say zey +are firs class, and zat I pay _trop_--too much." + +"Quite so, Mr. Rouget, that is just where it is. I have my feelings +and my reputation like another man. Why should I place myself in such +a position that the Minister of Drainage and Irrigation should look on +me as a usurer? I can command better terms for my money on the street, +with nothing said, than I could charge you on your mortgage even with +the loss of reputation involved in that word usurer." + +"My dear sair! But ze mortgages were to be for fortune to M. +Randolphe, in heemself marrying to Adeline, who would have the +_survivance_ of La Hashe for _dot_." + +"But if receiving interest on the mortgages is to be contingent on the +success of a 'system'--and of course a son-in-law must grant +indulgence if his wife's father gets behind--the young people might +not have much to live on. In any case, there are still the other +instalments--a very fair provision--if the young lady should +condescend, and the young man can be brought to the point--which, with +the unruly youth of the present day, is, I confess, doubtful; and the +more difficult to accomplish, the less ground of dissatisfaction there +may be, beyond mere aversion to be dictated to. Business arrangements +cannot be left open, in waiting, to accommodate the whims of boys and +girls." + +"Would you buy La Hache? How much would you give?" + +"Are you in earnest? Do you propose to hand it over in settlement of +the mortgages?" + +"How much more would you give--'to boot,' as you say in buying a +horse." + +"I didn't contemplate buying. It would not suit me to have so large a +sum tied up in unremunerative acres. If I were to buy, it could only +be that I might sell again, and that involves delays, expenses, +uncertainties, loss of interest. No! Mr. Rouget, it is not to be +thought of. If there is a default in payment all the mortgages fall +due at once, and in our small market the sum involved in the +foreclosure is as large as any buyer would be likely to bid on one +property." + +"But, my friend! Ze securities aire ample. You had it valued four +years ago." + +"Certainly. It seemed safe for the money at that time. But you were +then supposed to be well off, independently of the property; today you +have explained that you are so no longer, and cannot even attend to +the regular interest." + +"Lend me anoder fifty tousand on de property." + +"Not to be thought of." + +"Tirty----" + +"Could not do it." + +"Tventy----" + +"Sorry it cannot be." + +"Ze lands aire rich." + +"Realize them, then, Mr. Rouget. I will promise to place no +unnecessary impediments in your way." + +"Zere is vealth in ze ground itself. Richesses of minerals. See! +Behold," and he drew from under his fur gloves, cap, and muffler, +which he had thrown upon the table in a heap on entering, a small box +which he proceeded to open, and displaying a number of mineralogical +specimens, handed across to the other. There was a green incrustation +on the stones where they had been long exposed to the weather, but the +new faces made by recent hammer-fracture, shone red and metallic like +a beetle's back. + +"Ah," said Jordan. "Really very nice. I am no judge of such things, +but to my ignorant eye some of these must be nearly pure copper. Were +they found at La Hache, and does the deposit appear extensive?" + +"Dey were in de swamp, a mile back from the river, last fall. We were +shooting, I, that is, and a young _savant_ of my friend's, who studies +wit Professor Hammerstone. The professor has examined, himself, since +den, and he finds the indications ver rich and abundant. He says zere +is a fortune there beyond compute. Now! What say you? You know the +Professor Hammerstone is of great reputation. Wat you say now?" + +"Say? For one thing, Mr. Rouget, I congratulate you, and I would say +that your prospects look infinitely more hopeful from this point of +view than in connection with your 'system,' which--you must forgive my +saying it--was leading you to destruction. In heaven's name let the +'system' slide, and apply yourself to develop your property." + +"But ze money? my friend. You cannot develop wid notting. Lend me +money, and I vill give my vor d'honneur"--and he patted his palms +outstretched on the bosom of his greatcoat--"to abandon de système." + +"Mining matters are outside of my field; I do not understand them. You +should call on some of our leading capitalists and speculators with +your specimens. They will look into the affair, and if there is +anything in it, will make you a proposal. On one point only let me +offer a word of advice. Do not insist upon too much money down to +begin with. You cannot expect them to subscribe a capital merely to +hand it over to you. Show your willingness to take the bulk of your +price in shares and you will get something very handsome indeed. So +soon as the stock is all taken up, the shares become saleable, rising +and falling in sympathy with public talk, long before any of the ore +has been got to market, and you may be able to sell out at good prices +very soon, if the scheme happens to strike the general fancy. For +myself, as I have said, mining is not in my line, but I will do what I +can not to embarrass you. I will take your note at ninety days for +that unpaid interest, and as for the mortgage due next summer, we will +talk of it when the time comes, and, meanwhile, we shall have time to +see how the mining enterprise will prosper--Sim!" + +Sim appeared, received orders to draw a promissory note for Mr. +Rouget to sign, and withdrew, followed by that gentleman seemingly let +down from the self-satisfied attitude of feeling in which he had +entered--meeker, much meeker, but yet more hopeful for his own future +than he would have felt, perhaps, if his demands had been complied +with. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + IN THE RUE DES BORGNES. + + +The Banque Sangsue Prêtense occupied the chief part of its own +cut-sandstone building on the Rue des Borgnes, the remainder, +conspicuous in brass and plate glass, being the offices of Ralph +Herkimer and Son, general operators, who were "in" railways, in +minerals, in finance, in whatever promised to turn an honest penny. A +smart man was that Ralph Herkimer, his neighbours said, who tried +everything, and made everything pay. Always early in the field, and +getting the cream of the speculation, while other men were pondering +its prospects, and then putting off on them the closely skimmed milk +which must always be got rid of--the shells, which the oyster-eater +must make somebody carry away if he would not be smothered in the +ruins of his former banquets. + +The bank was an enterprise originated by Ralph himself--evolved by him +when his ambition had found the local share list too narrow a field. +Why should he labour, he thought, to pull strings, and not always +efficient ones, to make established stocks jump up and down as he +desired, when he was now strong enough to build an automaton of his +own, which should obey his wishes without fail, and without outside +interference? His friends wondered at his choice of a name so little +calculated to invite business; but he was of opinion that that was of +little moment. Wherever there is money to lend, the borrowers will +scent it out, as flies discover a honey-pot, by instinct. It was small +investors whom he wished to attract, those who, having little money, +are eager to get much interest. In the general increase of wealth, and +the fall in rates of interest, these worthy people find their expenses +increasing while their incomes are falling off, and the image of a +lending bloodsucker, while unattractive to the borrower, who +nevertheless submits to the lancet, is pleasing rather than otherwise +to those who would share the spoils. + +Ralph was president and manager of the institution, "filling two +offices for one salary," as he sometimes said, "in his desire that the +bank should do well;" and benefiting largely in many ways, as he did +_not_ say, by the unsupervised control which thus fell into his hands. +The bank parlour and his own private office were only divided by a +wall, and they were connected by a very private door between the +dressing rooms pertaining to the two apartments, so that the clerks +and the business of both establishments were at all times under the +master's eye, the master was virtually in both places at the same +time, and he could at any time be in the other if an undesirable +visitor was to be evaded. + +Ralph was in his office. He had been presiding at a meeting of the St. +Laurence, Gattineau and Hudson's Bay Railway, consisting of himself +and a couple of others, at which they had granted a contract to +construct another fifty miles running north. They had also arranged to +hold a demonstration on the occasion, with speeches and champagne, to +be followed on the morrow by placing a quantity of the stock on the +market. As soon as he was left alone he took from a drawer some +specimens of plumbago brought from lands of his which the road he had +been assisting to place under construction would open up. Lumps of +lustrous purple blackness, like a raven's plumage, which he lingered +admiringly, muttering to himself, "They will bring value soon now, but +we must wait till the road is nearly built. If they were brought out +now they would be half forgot before we could take people up to look +at them. Revivals generally fall flat, people just remember enough of +what they heard before to make it harder to interest them with it +again. We must wait till just before the road is going to open, and +then spring tracts A and B upon the public. Rich deposit, rare +mineral, joint stock company, limited liability, unlimited profit, and +so forth. When these are disposed of, and the company is just going to +work upon them, tracts C and D can be discovered to be as rich as the +others, and offered likewise. That will be enough to attempt for some +years. By the time C and D are in working order, the owners of A and B +will be doing something foolish, and having discouragement, and then +it will be no use to offer E and F for ever so long. Yet it would not +improve prospects to offer all at once, it would only bring down the +value and send other people prospecting. We can then fall back on the +phosphate beds," and he glanced at some other specimens in his drawer. +"By that time the second fifty miles of rail will be built, and we +will be able to issue debentures. Our stockholders will have had no +dividends, so they will be sure to take the bonds and new preference +shares to get something out of the old enterprise--no operation so +popular as throwing good money after bad--and then, to secure traffic +for the far-away end of the line, they will buy my phosphate beds, and +work them. That will answer well enough. I shall have unloaded the +last of my railway shares ere then. I wonder why the contractors +agreed to take so much stock in payment? They must have more faith in +our enterprise than I have, or can they have got hold of tracts G, K, +L, and Q? But they have never named plumbago once. Can that be +slyness? In any case they want watching. I'll keep my eyes peeled." + +A card was brought in by a clerk with a timid--"Would like to see you, +sir." + +"I told you, Stinson, to say I was engaged, whoever called." + +"The gentleman was so positive you would see him, I was afraid he +might have reason for what he said." + +"Who is it?--Rouget--Hm--Who wants to be bothered with Rouget in +business hours? Say I shall be pleased to see him at half-past three. +I am occupied till then. Let no one in, now, but Mattock the builder, +and Calcimine the architect, and bring over that roll of plans, and +the maps marked 'proposed St. Hypolite suburb,' and spread them out +upon the table. Ha! Bank bell? What do they want in there? Who can it +be? Bid those men wait, Stinson, if they arrive before I get back from +the bank. Tell them you expect me every moment. At the same time, if +any cheques have to be signed, send them into the bank; I do not know +how long I may be detained. Any one in the outer office besides +Rouget? You go first; send him away and then tell me. I like going +into the bank by the front door." + +"The Bishop of Anticosti is waiting, and two sisters of charity with a +subscription list, waiting till you are disengaged." + +"They can wait, then. I shall go the other way," and so saying he +disappeared by way of the dressing-room. + +It was half-past four instead of half-past three when Rouget was at +last admitted to the presence. His consequence was a good deal ruffled +at being kept waiting, and he gave Stinson to understand that he did +not like it; whereupon the clerk suggested that he should call another +day, and was altogether so callous and unimpressed, that, after +failing to get him to carry in another card with messages scrawled +across, Mr. Rouget desisted, submitted, and sat down in a chair like +any humble person awaiting an audience. + +"Ha! Mr. Rouget!" was his reception when at last the moment of +admission arrived. "So sorry that you should have had to wait; but +business--you know. How do things go on at St. Euphrase? I have been +meaning to drive over there, some day, now the ice and the sleighing +are so good; but have been so busy." + +"We have been making discoveries at St. Euphrase, Misterre +Herkimaire--discoveries of mines and metals. Wat do you tink of dat, +for instance, Misterre Herkimaire?" and he laid some lumps of nearly +pure copper, each about the size of an egg, and a piece of rock, green +with exposure to the weather, and veined with metallic bands upon the +table. The window, as it happened, faced the west, catching the last +of the daylight from the radiant sky. A gleam, grown ruddy, and +struggling with the gathering shadows, seemed drawn to the polished +faces of the ore, and made them shine with enhancing lustre. + +"What?" cried Ralph, thrown off his guard at the unexpected sight, +which made him forget the cool and critical attitude of a business +mind. "Copper! Virgin copper, or I'm a Dutchman! Specimens sent in by +his explorers to the Minister of Irrigation? Kind of you to bring them +to me, Mr. Rouget, and give me a chance to bid for the lands. Many +thanks. I have been turning my attention to minerals lately, I doubt +not but with the minister's goodwill we may arrange something to our +mutual advantage--yours and mine. Where do they come from? Up the +Ottawa? Or, perhaps the Gattineau? Yes! that must be it, the +Gattineau. I am interested in Gattineau lands already, and we have +indications of copper; but I am free to confess I did not dream of +anything so fine as this. If the government wants a company formed to +develop minerals on the Gattineau, I'm their man. It will help us to +build our railway at once. I did not calculate on extending so far out +for a year or two, but the mines will require an outlet, and they will +bring the road into notice, and enable us to make an increased issue +of stock. The government will have to increase our land-grant, +however." + +Rouget stood regarding the "promoter" with a smile. How he did run on, +to be sure! + +"W'ere you say dey come from?" + +"The Gattineau, I have no doubt. I never saw a Lake Superior specimen +half as rich." + +"Eet ees not Lake Superior, you aire right. W'at you say eef I tell +you it come from sout' of de Saint Laurence?" + +"It will be a fortune for the owner if it does. Freight and expenses +there will be so light in comparison with Fond du Lae." + +"Dese specimens aire from La Hache." + +"You don't----" + +"Fact. Here is Professor Hammerstone's report." + +"Hammerstone? I see him constantly, but he has never mentioned it. He +spent a week with me at St. Euphrase last summer. My son Gerald reads +with him several times a week, but he has heard nothing of this or he +would have told me." + +"Hammerstone was employed by me--a private survey--confidential +affair." + +"Ah?" said Ralph, looking at his friend the personage and man of +pleasure with newborn respect. Who could have supposed it? A man he +had always looked on as a fool--spending his days in losing money on +race-courses, his nights in poker!--to think that such a one should +have taken up with science, economies, and the intelligent development +of his property! + +"You see it arrived to me all unexpected to make the discovery. The +young Richaud, of the Crown Lands Department, is of the relatives of +madame the most intimate. He made a _séjour_ wid us the last +Septembre, and one day we go for the _chasse aux oiseaux_, and we stop +to repose ourselves in the svamp by the river not far from Saint +Euphrase--the svamp is dried up as you may know in Septembre--and +Richaud, he cry out, and he say, 'M. Rouget,' he say, 'how you aire +_riche!_--more _riche_ as the dreams of avarice.' 'Behold!' he cry, +and frappe wid a large stone ze rock laid bare by the uprooting of a +fallen tree, w'ere I myself had seated. And truly the fragment broken +off did shine wid a lustre as of the metals. Richaud has information +of such tings in the department, and he advised me to consult the +Professeur Hammerstone, w'ich, by-and-by, w'en the frosts have +wizzered the herbage, I do, and you behold his report rendered." + +Ralph took the report and read it through, while recovering at the +same time his self-possession. It was an injudicious display of +eagerness which he had been betrayed into, and he felt heartily +ashamed as well as sorry that his nerves should have relaxed from that +critical calm which becomes a proposing buyer while the bargain is +incomplete. How many thousands, he wondered, would his lack of +circumspection cost him? Yet who could have associated the ass Rouget +with anything to sell? It was most provoking. + +He sniffed a depreciating sniff as he read through the report, raised +his eyebrows and pursed his lips; and in concluding read aloud the +saving clause in which the worthy scientist guarded his reputation for +infallibility by reminding his readers of the impossibility of +ascertaining the depth to which the outcropping lodes extended, by +mere surface observations, and without sinking an experimental shaft, +and the chances of faults, breaks, and interruptions in the vein at +any depth below that to which his examination had extended. + +"You want to sell this, then, Mr. Rouget? this parcel of, say a +thousand acres, with its metalliferous indications? What value do you +put upon it?" + +Had Rouget come there the day before, ere he had had speech with +Jordan, or had slept and dreamed upon the encouraging visions which +that conversation had bred, and which had been expanding themselves +ever since, as is the way with visions, there is no doubt he would +have jumped at once, named a sum, and been thankful to take half of +it; but he had spent the night in building castles, and storing them +with the uncounted riches which other men were to dig out of his land +and pay over to him, and the idea of a fixed sum even if far larger +than he had yet named, was now cold and unattractive. + +"I vish not to compromise my interests in zis land. I vill not sell." + +"Then what do you come to me for?" + +"I vish to inaugurate a company to develop ze mines." + +"But the mines, if there are any, are yours, Mr. Rouget. It is for the +proprietor to develop his property." + +"I have hoped since three months to do so. Money is ze difficulty; I +need money." + +"Then sell! Those who have the money are likely to give a good price. +It will be pure gain to you, for this thousand acres, I dare assert, +has never yielded you one cent. Sell to wealthy men who can afford to +develop the property, it will bring in population, perhaps originate a +town, and in any case create a new market for your tenants, and +increase the value of all your lands." + +"If it vould be good for dose vealthy men to buy, it vill be my affair +not to sell. I shall keep my interests in ze mines." + +"How much good will they do you if you have no capital to work them?" + +"I have come to you to get ze capital." + +"And how would you purpose to pay for the accommodation?" + +"Your bank lends, does it not? I would borrow!" + +"What security?" + +"My own. Is that not enough? And now there will be dis mine also." + +"You would mortgage it then to get an advance? Can you give a first +mortgage?--No?--mortgaged already, eh? Then sell, Mr. Rouget. Sell to +a company. If your ideas are reasonable I may be able to help you; but +a large outlay will be required to start the enterprise, and getting +up a company is an expensive process. However, I think I am safe in +saying you can sell your unproductive swamp for the price of the best +agricultural land in the province, or double what any cleared land +round St. Euphrase would bring. Yes! I will even risk giving you fifty +dollars the _arpent_ myself, and take all the risk and expense, while +you will have the prospective advantage when population comes +streaming in to work the mines." + +"You are kind, Mr. Herkimaire. I thank you. But either you are not +serious, or you believe me more fool than is the case. Messieurs +Pyrites and Sulphuret may be willing to put me in the way to develop +my property. I am told they do large business in metals. I shall wish +you a good evening, Mr. Herkimaire." + +"No, no! Mr. Rouget. Stop a moment! Just tell me plainly what it is +you want, and I shall be pleased to promote your views if I can. I +have asked you how much you would take for your property, or what you +wish to do with it. You have made no answer. I then made you an offer +for the land, which of course you were quite at liberty to refuse; but +surely your refusing to take my price does not necessitate your taking +offence, especially seeing that you have not yet said what value you +put on the property yourself--and I am sure there is no arrangement +which Pyrites and Sulphuret would make with you which I am not quite +as able to carry out. Since you have been good enough to give me the +first chance, pray do not go before we have had time to understand +each other. What is your own idea in the matter?" + +"Mr. Jordain, he say----" + +"Jordan is in it, then, is he?" muttered Ralph. "Worse luck." + +"He says I should place myself in the hands of some capitalist, who +would form a company, paying me some in money and the rest in stock. +Is not that the fashion to speak of in the language of commerce." + +"Quite so, Mr. Rouget. That is the usual way of fixing things. And +your figures?" + +And here there arose much altercation and argument, as was inevitable +where each wanted to get as much and give as little as possible. The +dialogue need not be recorded. Its like can be heard in any market +place, between hucksters and old women, chaffering and wrangling over +a copper cent as if their lives depended on having it, though the one +must sell and the other will buy, in any wise, and they both know it. + +It was settled at last. Ralph was to arrange and bring out the +company, with all perquisites thereto accruing, Rouget got a fifth +part of the stock as his price, and a few thousand dollars, wherewith +he hurried to New York in a fever of restlessness until he should have +dropped them all into the same abyss which had swallowed so much +already, in obedience to the infallible _système_. Jordan being first +mortgagee, with power to become troublesome, was made solicitor of the +concern, with a handsome block of stock allotted, the calls on which, +it was understood, were not to be pressed. Ralph, as promoter, kept +still, acquiesced, and said not much while the other two preferred +their extravagant demands. It was he who was to issue the stock and +handle the funds, and as the venture progressed he was sure of +abundant profit. Meanwhile, it was best that his mates should have +their way, be kept sanguine and in good humour, if only that they +might innoculate the public mind with their brilliant anticipations. + +The prospectus was a work of art, and it was fortified by certificates +from the greatest authorities. True, these authorities had not seen +the metalliferous deposits--indeed no one could see them just then, +buried as they were under drifts of frozen snow--but they were allowed +to see Hammerstone's survey, and Hammerstone was a man of knowledge +and character, whom even the most distinguished felt safe in +endorsing, if the fee were sufficient. As the mind of practical +science puts it--practical science is the science of making as much +money out of as little knowledge as possible--to express another man's +observations in finer and more taking language, is surely the highest +compliment one can pay him, and the most emphatic manner of granting +him our valuable indorsation. Hammerstone was immensely gratified to +read in the prospectus the opinions of Professor Sesquioxide, of +Boston, and other luminaries, his bigger brothers among the sons of +knowledge, so minutely confirmatory of his own; but he wondered much +as to when they had been called in, and he felt a little hurt that +they should have been so near to him and Montreal without visiting +him. + +The public mind was judiciously educated up to the receptive point by +a series of graduated rumours and paragraphs of ascending interest. +One may come to believe anything if it seems in sequence with what +went before; therefore, when an assertion seems corroborated by others +already accepted, and which yet appear to be in no way connected with +it, the natural man accepts it at once. The newspapers swarmed with +clippings from the latest mining sensations in Colorado, and following +them would appear rumours of important mineralogical discoveries +"nearer home." By-and-by there were descriptions of California +bonanzas, followed by more rumours of vast metallic wealth at the very +doors. Then an imaginative reporter received confidential information +which he was not at liberty to divulge, but which he felt it a duty to +his beloved public to hint at in various picturesque ways. He +described gigantic masses of virgin copper quarried from their beds +with pre-historic wedges which still lay beside them in witness, and +discussed the civilization of the ancient Mound-builders in the +popular archæological manner, still ringing the changes on the wealth +of copper so near at hand. Finally, when people's minds were ready to +believe, the prospectus of the Mining Association of St. Euphrase +appeared. + +After the association's subscription lists had remained open only a +few days they were suddenly closed, and it was announced that the +capital was all subscribed. Then all the dilatory who had contemplated +investing in a general sort of way, but had not done it, grew eager to +hold shares, which they hurried to buy at a premium. It was afterwards +said that in every instance it was Ralph Herkimer who was the seller, +and that he only subscribed for the shares which he sold, after he had +touched the premiums. But people are uncharitable, and if a man ever +ceases to be rich, they are sure to recollect naughty things which +they say he did in his time of prosperity. + +Before the snow was gone, material and machinery had been collected on +the ground, and there was a rise in the price of the stock. + +When the snow went, operations began, and the stock rose higher, with +inquiries for it from distant places, which sent the price bounding +still higher and higher still. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + THE TIE OF KINDRED. + + +In those days--the days of Judith's visit--George Selby and his wife +were always punctual in coming down to breakfast. It was their hour +for undisturbed conversation and intercourse. The guests, unaccustomed +to city gaiety and late hours, were still in their soundest sleep, +when the clang of the breakfast bell would wake them to the knowledge +that another day had begun, and they must drag themselves from between +the blankets. As for Susan, owing to neuralgia or laziness, she always +breakfasted in bed. + +"Mary!" cried George eagerly, when they met one morning, about a week +after Betsey's first ball. "It is needless to ask you if you have +slept well. You look refreshed and revived as I have not seen you look +for years and years. I have noticed a change for the better going on +for these last two weeks, and this morning it almost seems as if the +Mary of long ago were coming back again. The clouds are lifting, +dearest, I do believe, and we shall know peace and quiet happiness yet +again. It is wearing on to afternoon with us both now, and ours has +been a sad, black, rainy day; but at least we have been together +through it all, and that has been more than sunshine. And now if the +rain but cease and the clouds break up, we may be blessed with a +peaceful sunset and the serene twilight of old age, with the clear, +pure brightness far off behind the hills waiting for us till we enter +the eternal day." + +George was a worthy, gentle soul, with yearnings true, if not +powerful, towards the spiritual and poetic. Who, condemned to hammer +scales into stupid little girls without ear or fingers, through all +the years, could be expected to carry more of the golden but +unpractical gift into hum-drum middle life? + +Mary laid her hand upon his shoulder, leant her head upon his cheek, +and her eyes grew moist. They were grey-haired people both, those two, +but people do not cease to be foolish, my dear young friends--if it +_is_ foolish, which I deny--when they cease to be young and handsome; +that is, if they have not ceased to be good. Goodness is the salt, the +preserver, the eternal spring, which can keep a heart from ever +growing old. Egotism in youth, when all is fair, may shine and glitter +like a dainty varnish, but it dulls and hardens and cracks as the +years go on, and becomes but the sorriest item in the general break-up +and decay, when that sets in. Love only is immortal, a giver of life +to the failing forces, like the olive tree in the prophet's vision, +which supplied in continuous flow the oil to furnish the perpetual +lamp. + +Mary leaned up against her husband in a mute caress, and then drawing +a long breath, sat down at the table to pour out his coffee. She was +not accustomed to put her feelings into words. She had suffered far +too long and too terribly for that. Had she been a woman of emotional +utterance, she must have exhausted her sorrow or her life, whichever +of the two were the weaker, long ago; but voice was wanting. She had +held her peace, had borne and lived and suffered, till those about her +had trembled for her reason; trembled, and yet in pity, at times, had +almost hoped for her the fearful anodyne of madness; but she was +strong of body as well as mind, she agonized in silence and lived on. + +She poured out her husband's coffee, and, handing it, met his eyes +still fastened on her face in earnest, happy love. "Yes," she said, +replying to his still unanswered observation, "I have had a long +delicious sleep, without a dream, or only one short sweet fancy before +I woke, as if our baby were lying in my arms, as she lay that very +last morning before we lost her. Oh, George! The delightfulness of the +sound oblivious sleep I have enjoyed of late! No one can conceive it +who has not gone through all these weary years. I had forgotten what +refreshing sleep was like. It was dreadful to me to lie down at night +and give myself up to cruel horrible dreams. You know how constantly I +have wakened with a cry--always the same bad dream, yet always with a +cruel difference in the horrors. Always the child in danger or in +pain, destruction in every fearful shape impending, and I unable to +reach, incapable of protecting her. I have always felt that she was +alive and needed my care, and how I have yearned and prayed to get to +her, God only knows. And now, George, it seems to me that God must +have heard, and taken pity on me. It is well with her now. I seem to +feel it. She is with God I do believe, and perhaps He lets her spirit +come down and comfort me. At least I am very sure now that she is +happy, and I feel resigned as a Christian woman should, in a way I +have never been able to feel before." + +"The company of your sister Judith has done you good, Mary. I have +been wrong, and judged her harshly, I am afraid. She is a good woman I +believe now, for all her queerness, and I should have thought of +having her to stay with you long ere now. A fellow is so unthinkingly +selfish, and I suppose I judged of your feelings by my own. You are my +all, you see, and I fear I grudge sharing you with others. But it was +selfish in me to forget that you and she are sisters, and must have +many feelings in common. In any case I owe her a debt now, and I shall +never think a thought against her again as long as I live." + +"You have no occasion to blame yourself, George. I do not imagine it +is owing to her visit that I feel so calmed; though certainly I am +happy to have her. We never had much sympathy, she and I. The +difference in our age and disposition was too great. I was always +fonder of Susan. No! It is not that. Her coming brought me no +consolation, I am sure. I do not think I ever passed more miserable +nights than those two first after her coming. But then there came a +change, a peace and consolation which I cannot describe or explain, +and I do not understand. It is just a blind unreasoned certainty that +all is well, and I want no more. The Good God has heard me at last, +and taken pity on a miserable mother. He has taken my darling to +Himself, I surely believe, and she is safe at last in the Everlasting +Arms. Oh George, I have been wicked to repine, and distress you as I +have done, with my ignorant complainings. She is safer far, I +recognize it now, than she could have been had she been left in such +care as mine. No! It is the Great Consoler who has pitied me and sent +me comfort; such distraction as poor Judith could have brought would +have been of little avail. That little girl, Betsey's cousin, seems to +bring a far more soothing influence with her than Judith or Susan, or +any one I ever met, but you. There seems a peacefulness in the air +when she is by, that rests my weary, hungry heart. It does me good to +sit and look when she comes in, and to hear her talk. She is a darling +little girl, and I could feel it in my heart to envy the people she +belongs to. She is an orphan, poor thing, they tell me. She must be +very near the age our Edith would have been if she had been spared to +us," and the poor lady wiped her eyes and sighed. + +"You mean Muriel Stanley. Yes, she is a dear little girl, or at least +she was till very lately; but she is opening out into young womanhood +now, as they all do, the pretty buds that I am so fond of. I see the +dawning woman more clearly every week, and I shall soon be losing her. +She is so pretty, you see, and those wretched boys see it, too, and +tell her it. Why is there not a Herod in Montreal to kill off the +sprouting striplings? They spoil all my little maids for me, just as I +get fond of them, when they are at their freshest and sweetest; turn +their pretty heads with nonsense and make them think themselves +grown up; and then good-bye to the poor music-master. Your young +nephew--Ralph's son--has something to answer for in this case, the +rogue. I have noticed him lurking round our gate more than once, and +have kept her an extra fifteen minutes out of pure malice. There is +always some one, and they make one feel so old." + +Mary smiled, as her husband meant she should, and then the door +opened, and Judith and her niece appeared together. The scenes was +changed into one of bustle and small talk, fumigated with the smoke of +coffee and hot broiled fish. + +"You were late of getting home last night," said George. "I was so +blind sleepy that I could scarcely see you when I let you in. But pray +don't apologize. I am glad of it. One wants to see one's country +friends entertained when they come to town, and, what with my sprains, +I feel conscience-stricken at having been able to do nothing to amuse +you myself. I hope you spent a pleasant evening?" + +"Oh, yes, Martha always does that kind of thing well. She's a good +hostess." + +"And, Miss Betsey? Were you much admired?" + +Betsey gave her head a little toss with a Venus Victrix glance--_à la_ +Bunce, that is. The marble goddess in the Louvre looks straight out of +level eyes, too proud for petty wiles; but Betsy's glance came from +the corners. She was arch, you see, or thought so, and the certainty +of conquest was all that she had in common with her divine prototype. + +"I wore a nice new dress, Mr. Selby, a present from Aunt +Martha--cousin, I suppose I should call her, seeing she is auntie's +niece; but she is too old to be a cousin to _me_. I think I shall call +her simply Martha, I am sure she will not mind. She would like it, I +do believe, only----" and Betsey began to change colour. + +"Only?" said George, who had been looking her in the face, with +a laugh. "Only it would be awkward to be heard calling one's +mother-in-law by her Christian name, and it is not easy to get out of +a habit of speaking--is that it?" + +Betsey grew crimson and bent over her plate. + +"George! You are too bad altogether," said Mary. + +"Mr. Selby, you are a dreadful quiz," said Betsey, not at all +displeased. "But about my dress. I was quite disappointed to find you +were not at hand as we went out, I wanted you to admire it. +Beautifully made. It must have cost a lot of money. Black _tulle_, +with any quantity of Marshal Niell roses, and just a morsel of scarlet +salvia here and there to light it up. The salvia was my own idea, and +an immense improvement. The dressmaker said all she could against it, +and a deal about severe simplicity; but I hate simpletons of all +kinds, and I fear my taste is not severe at all. However, it was I who +was to wear the gown, so I had my way. I would not have chosen black +myself, but M----" (with a returning flush) "Mrs. Herkimer said black, +so what could I do? I am fond of warm colouring myself, and a good +deal of it. That is why I got my geranium poplin; but one wants a +change, and the _tulle_ is that. Only it is so quiet, nobody would +guess how expensive it is." + +"I would pin a card with the price on behind. People who wear +ready-made clothing have been known to appear in public so decorated, +when the shopman forgot to remove his ticket. It attracts a good deal +of attention. All for $15 say, or your choice for $20." + +"It cost a great deal more than that, Mr. Selby," answered Betsey, +with just a touch of crossness in the tone, as she began to recognize +that she was being chaffed. "Shows how little _you_ know about ladies' +wear," she added, as Selby rose to go into another room and give her +music lesson to Muriel Stanley, who could be heard arriving. + +The ladies gathered round the fire and proceeded to talk over the +events of the party. Betsey sat in the middle in front of the blaze, +and as opportunity offered, strove to enlighten the inexperience of +her elders in matters of "style" and good behaviour, with items drawn +chiefly from her recollections of "Godey's Magazine," which were +copious, and sometimes startling, and illustrated by reminiscences of +festivity at St. Euphrase, in which a certain Mr. Joe Webb appeared to +have borne a prominent part. She was still in full career when Selby +returned, introducing Muriel Stanley, whom for his wife's sake he had +persuaded to come and shake hands with her cousin at that early hour. +Mary was leaning back in her chair, and had armed herself with +patience to endure the torrent of Betsey's talk, which needed only an +occasional exclamation of dissent, easily overborne, from Judith, to +keep it running in the full turbulence of its muddy flow. No word of +hers was needed, and her thoughts had drifted away into their +accustomed channels. Her husband noted the flush of pleasure and the +kindling of her eye at sight of the stranger, who also seemed drawn to +the invalid, and who, in the rearranging of the party, dropped into a +low seat by her side. Unconsciously, as it seemed, Mary's hand was +laid on the girl's shoulder, and then, as recollecting itself, drew +back, to steal again involuntarily towards her, and touch her hair. + +Muriel, too, unwittingly seemed to lean towards the other, and accept +contentedly the unconscious caress; and George, regarding them, could +not but wonder how the girl seemed drawn to his wife, so nearly a +stranger to her, even in the presence of the others whom she saw so +constantly in the country. It showed the tenderness of a womanly +heart, he thought, and its overflowing sympathy, thus silently to go +out to the stricken invalid, and he loved and admired his favourite +pupil more than he had ever done before. + +The loquacious Betsey had other things to think of, things to speak +about, and to speak about a great deal. The subject of the party was +taken up again from the beginning, to be gone all over once more, +while Judith held her hands out to the blaze to shield her eyes, and +Mary sat mutely happy, she knew not why, gently stroking the hair +plait with her finger. + +"You were not at Mrs. Herkimer's party last night, Muriel? and I did +not see your aunts." + +"No, they were not there. Aunt Matilda rarely goes to a dance, except +a juvenile one, when I am invited. I am not out yet, you know." + +"To be sure not, Muriel; I know it. Time enough, my dear," said this +experienced woman of the world. "Your time will come quite soon +enough, and I hope you will enjoy it. Ah!----" and she heaved an +ecstatic sigh, "It was a lovely party. So many gentlemen! And such a +floor! I put in a heavenly time, Muriel. I wish you could have seen +it. I wish you could have seen me in my new ball-dress--a present, you +know--from auntie's niece--by Mme. Jupon! no less--just too elegant +for anything. Quite subdued, you know--black _tulle_--much draped. +Too subdued, if anything, for my taste--you know I like things +cheerful--but awfully sweet. Garnitures of roses--large Marshal Niell +roses--dollars and dollars' worth of them--frightfully expensive--and +real chaste. I saw the people asking each other who that +elegantly-dressed person could be, and my card was filled up just like +winking. There was, let me see, there was Mr.---- But what of that? +You are not out yet. You could not be expected to know any of them. +But it was lovely. Oh, how some of those dear men do valse!" + +"Betsey!" said Judith reprovingly, "how you do run on. It is scarcely +feminine." + +Betsey looked not well pleased, and a retort was rising to her lips, +when she caught sight of Selby watching her, and the twinkle of +"impertinent" amusement, as she thought it, in his eye was too much. +It scattered her forces and snapped the thread of her discourse. + +"There is a tobogganing party to-night, Betsey" said Muriel, now that +there came a lull; "that is, there is always one these moonlight +nights; but we are going to-night. Would you care to come? Aunt +Penelope will be so pleased if you and Betsey will dine with us, Mrs. +Bunce, and she can go in our party. Aunt Matilda is going. You will +meet all your St. Euphrase friends, Betsey. Mdlle. Rouget will be +there, I understand." + +"I scarcely know the girl, and she don't want to know me, so that is +no inducement. However, we'll go, auntie? I think we had better go. +It's home to St. Euphrase tomorrow, you know, with lots of time for +sedateness and parish duties. Let's enjoy ourselves all we can while +we're here." + +And so it was agreed. + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + TOBOGGANING. + + +The moon was at the full, and she hung, still tending upwards, high in +the transparent vault where all the host of heaven were burning and +blinking like tapers in a fitful wind, so brilliant was their +scintillating lustre seen through that clear dry atmosphere where the +moonlight shows the red and the green of brick wall and painted +verandah, colours which are but modulated greys where insular +moistness thickens and dims the air. It was bright as day over the +snow-covered landscape, with even a trace of the yellowness of +sunshine in the light, but with an uncertainty in distances, and a +liquid idealizing of objects and their shadows, sublimating reality +out of commonplace, and lifting it into the likeness of what is seen +in dreams. + +The thermometer stood at zero, but the air was still, for all the +fantastic flicker of the stars overhead; and it was so dry with the +frost, which had precipitated all moisture, that it did not feel cold +on emerging from heated houses. It was bright and exhilarating to +breathe--like something to drink--and sent the blood dancing more +briskly than before down to the tips of the thickly-gloved fingers +Sounds of laughter and frolic were about, every one who was young and +strong was abroad in the intoxicating lustre, arrayed in blanket-coat +and moccasins, with _toque_ and sash of blue or scarlet. + +It was a steep snow-covered bank in the suburbs, with a long meadow +spreading out below. Steps and footpaths were worn up the face on +either hand, and in the middle was the slide polished into glass, down +which the toboggans, pushed past the brink of the descent, a girl or +even two seated in front with a man behind to steer, shot with the +celerity of an arrow from above, slackening in speed when the steepest +of the declivity was past, and travelling far out across the level +meadow on the spending impulse they had gathered on their way. With +steering and good luck the crew reach a standstill as they started, +the damsel gets up, the swain draws his vehicle by the cord, and both +mount again to the summit, once more to precipitate themselves down +the slope, and if there be no miscarriage, resulting in shipwreck, +with toboggan overturned or broken, and crew shot out promiscuously +with ugly cuts and bruises, to repeat the experience a score of times, +till at length the weary limbs shall refuse to scale the slippery +height again. + +"Miss Stanley," said Randolph Jordan, addressing Miss Matilda, "won't +you trust yourself to me. I promise to steer carefully, and I can say +what every one cannot, that I have never spilled my cargo yet." + +"Thanks, Mr. Randolph, I do not mistrust you in the least; but +really--it is so long since I got upon a toboggan--that I--I shall +just stay here with Mr. Considine, now I have got to the top of the +hill, and watch you young people like a sedate chaperon. But here is +my cousin, Betsey Bunce; I am sure she will be delighted. They do not +toboggan at St. Euphrase, and I am sure she never saw one in Upper +Canada. Oh!"--with a little scream--"It really is quite frightful to +see them start. And that is Muriel, I declare, and Gerald Herkimer. He +will break the child's neck, I do believe; he is so heedless. I wish +we were home again." + +"Oh, law!" cried Betsey; "are you sure it is quite safe? I used to +coast with my hand-sled, like the rest of the kids, when I was little, +but it kind of frightens one to see the go-off. Are you quite sure you +can protect my bones, Mr. Jordan?"--looking clingingly in his face in +search of encouragement--"I feel awful frightened." + +"Well, perhaps you are right," said Randolph, impervious to the cling; +"it is a good plan to watch the others for a while first, it gives one +confidence," and he was gone. He had paid his duty invitation to the +head of the party, and, not having bargained for Betsey as a +substitute, availed himself at once of the simulated dread which was +intended merely to make him urgent and assiduous. Betsey felt foolish, +and turned round to Matilda, but she, supposing she had provided for +her charge, had taken Considine's arm and strolled away. Betsey was +pretty well able to do for herself, however, and ere long she descried +a bachelor, unprovided with a maid, and whom she had danced with the +evening before; he, on her recognizing him, was not averse to taking +her on his conveyance _faute de mieux_, it being "kind o' lonesome," +as he told himself, to ride alone, "when every other fellow was +provided with his bit of muslin." + +Randolph was at Miss Rouget's side in a moment, tendering his +respectful services, which she at once accepted with the grave bow of +a maiden obedient to her parents, who feels gratified in her +conscience with the sense of a duty fulfilled, in doing what she knows +they would approve--the superior satisfaction of a well-regulated +mind, higher, because a moral pleasure, than the indulgence of mere +personal preference, but by no means so gratifying to the gentleman, +if he only knew it, which, fortunately, he seldom does. Randolph's +feelings, too, might perhaps be considered as of that same higher +moral sort, which dispenses with good honest attachment of the natural +kind; more exactly to be described as indifference touched with filial +piety and flavoured with a pinch of self-interest. + +Old Jordan had been immensely impressed by the mining discoveries at +La Hache, and although it was a damper to recognize in the desired +father-in-law of his son a rapid and an unsuccessful gambler, still, +the man's interest in the mine could be saved, he thought, by settling +it upon his daughter as _dot_, if the old man were permitted to enjoy +the usufruct during his life; besides, was there not a certain +institution where troublesome old gentlemen had been locked up ere +then, at the instance of wives or heirs? and was not monsieur the +seignior eccentric enough for any purpose, with skilful counsel to lay +it properly before a jury? Randolph was the impediment himself; he was +like a badly-ridden colt, whom the horseman, armed with whip and spur, +which he has not the judgment to use, vexes into rebellion which he +cannot overbear. + +It was humiliating, but his sight was clear enough to see that Amelia, +in opposition to whom all his dealings with his son hitherto had been +taken, must now be called in to use the very influence which had +hitherto made the lad so unruly, and render him tractable for once. +Amelia, for a wonder, lent a favourable ear. She recognized it as a +tribute, and an admission, in arranging the most important +circumstance in her son's life, that the arrogant block-head, who had +attempted to lord it with so high a hand over herself and the boy, had +come to see his impotence at last. The sense of victory soothed her, +and made her gentle, as a filly has been known to become under +coaxings with lump sugar and carrots, when rougher means had failed. +She agreed to take the youth in hand, and she moulded him without his +knowledge, as she had done all his life before, like wax between her +fingers. + +He had as yet--whatever later years might bring him--no very +pronounced faculty of love for other than himself; his attachment to +herself, as she saw full well, being due chiefly to what she could do +for him and give him in the way of flattery, sympathy, and help to +assist himself, and so forth. She saw it without much pain, though she +was his mother, for she was a practical-minded person who indulged in +the affections but sparingly as being too luscious and apt to pall; +"it was just," she thought, "the way of the coarser sex--brutal, +selfish, stupid--overbearing in the rude strength of their muscle, the +delicate nerve-power of the women." "But brain-fibre was more than a +match in the long run for such fibre as theirs," she told herself; and +after all the boy was her own, to be proud of among other women, and +to make do in the long run, as she only could make him, by delicately +pulling the strings she wot of in his being, pretty much as she would. + +She was aware, of course, of his kindness for Muriel, but she divined +that its roots did not go deep, and when she now took him in hand to +direct his attachments, his own description confessed the truth when +he spoke of her as "a jolly little girl, and awfully pretty, whom the +fellows were crazy after, and he meant to take the cake from them +all." + +"I am not so sure that you can, my boy; having been a girl myself I am +likely to guess nearer the truth than you can; girls are such goosy +little things, and I should say your friend Gerald has the best chance +there." + +"Gerald!" said the young man, drawing himself up to the full of that +one-inch advantage he had over his friend; but then he remembered how +Gerald had taken her in to supper the evening or two before, and he +felt a doubt; but it only made him angry and more obstinate to win the +prize. + +"I think, Randolph," his mother went on, reading his thoughts, "your +cake, as you call her, you gluttonous boy, is hardly worth the eating; +leave it for your friends, and make them welcome. Muriel Stanley is no +match for you, and no great catch for anybody. She will get her aunt's +money, I suppose--a comfortable little sum--when they die, which is +not likely to happen for twenty years; but she has no connections +whatever, and a good connection is so very advantageous for a young +man. You will realize that more and more as you get on." + +"But she is awfully pretty, the prettiest little thing in Montreal, +and the nicest." + +"I grant you that, if you think so; but she is only fifteen, and her +aunts will not let her marry for five years yet. She will be stout at +twenty; that kind of girl whose figure forms so early, always gets +stout, and you will think her a little coarse--men of taste always +think that of plump girls, I have observed--but you will sacrifice +yourself all the same, like a man of honour, if you are already +engaged. That will not be the worst, however; five years more and she +will be positively fat! Imagine yourself with a wife like that! You +will be about thirty then, just in your prime, with your nice slim +figure merely improved from what it is now, the shoulders a little +broader, of course, which will be no disadvantage, and your moustache +a trifle heavier, but otherwise scarcely changed--in fact, at your +very best. How will you like then walking down St. James's Street on +the circumference of a copious wife?--a sprig of lavender tied to a +marigold! Does the picture attract you?" + +When you drive together or have stalls at the theatre, imagine +yourself protruding from among your spouse's cloaks and flounces. The +buggy could be built of extra size, to be sure, but all the stall +chairs are alike. It is a subject for your own consideration +exclusively. Personally, I am fond of Muriel. She is a nice little +thing, and I should welcome her as a daughter; but it is not I who +should have to appear in public with her for the remainder of my days; +and if a man means to go into society, he is wise to choose a wife who +will group well with him. + +"Now, there are our neighbours at St. Euphrase. Think of an only +daughter!--heiress to a seigniory, and connected with all the best +people in the province. You will say she has not a good complexion; +but how short a time complexion lasts in this climate! and those who +have had one, and lost it, always look haggard and older than those +who never had any. A man married to an old-looking woman, whether fat +or lean, always strikes me as a melancholy spectacle--like a sapling +sprouting from a crumbling wall, as the poet says--and the world is +seldom respectful. It is apt to look on him as the man who broke the +commandments and married his grandmama, because nobody of his own age +would have him. There is no fear of that with Adèline Rouget; she will +improve every year she lives. She is distinguished looking now, though +she is not pretty. Every year she will improve, that is the advantage +of having plenty of bone. She will look stately in middle life, and be +beautiful--the rarest kind of beauty--in old age. Look forward always, +my boy, when you think about marrying, it is an experiment which +generally can be tried but once, so bought experience can do you no +good." + +Mother and son had a long conversation, in which she plied him with so +many flatteries, that finally of his own free choice he promised to +"go in" for Miss Rouget, yet at the same time felt himself magnanimous +and dutiful in yielding his own wish to the gratification of his +parent; and she encouraged the delusion as likely to hold him to her +point. Self-denial is a heroic sort of virtue, and rather above the +purchase of most folks; therefore, to be self-denying, and so, +admirable to his seldom gratified moral sense, while still pleasing +himself, was exaltedly delightful. If a man is not a hero, it pleases +him the more to see himself in a heroic light. It is new, and it may +not occur again, therefore he will do his best to retain the gallant +attitude in which he finds himself; and Randolph set himself to _live +up to his ideal_. + +It was in ceremonious and most well-behaved fashion that the young +lady placed herself on the toboggan, and permitted her cavalier to +wrap the outflowing draperies more compactly about her in gracious +quietude. The gentleman gave the equipage a push beyond the brink, +jumped in behind with a parting kick against the shore, and they were +away; swiftly, and with ever-accelerating speed as the hill grew +steeper--"shooting Niagara." The _bienséances_ of the convent, with +their modest tranquillity, are scarcely maintainable in a toboggan +shooting down a glassy incline of fifty degrees or more, at the rate +of miles in a minute, with the certainty that dislodgment from the +quarter-inch board one is seated on may hurl one anywhere, bruised or +maimed, but assuredly ridiculous. + +Adèline caught her breath with a gasp as she found they were off, and, +as the pace quickened down hill, she clenched her teeth tightly and +closed her eyes; and then there came a jolt as they sped across some +swelling in the ice, and she felt herself thrown backwards, and gave a +little scream; and Randolph was there behind to support her, with a +laugh, as she bumped against his chest, a laugh she could not but join +in, though a little hysterically, perhaps, at first. And then the pace +began to slacken as they reached the level of the meadow below, and +still it slackened, and finally they stopped, and stood up, and shook +themselves from adhering snow, and found, the experience was over, +that they were both safe, and that it had been a little thrilling, but +"_awfully jolly_." The ice was broken between the two young people +forthwith, and the Lady Superior with her nuns, who had taken such +pains in the formation of Adèline's character and manners, would +scarcely have recognized her, or been able to distinguish her from one +of those dreadful, fast, heretical English girls, they had been wont +to hold up to her and her companions as models to avoid, as she caught +Randolph's arm to climb to the top of the bank again, and vowed it had +been delightful. + +Conventional mannerisms are like mud in a slough, when the animal +which has floundered through gets out into the sunshine, it dries and +peels off and falls away very quickly. These two were average young +people who had been comfortably reared, with warm clothes and +nourishing victuals imagination, sentiment, "yearnings" of any kind +had been omitted from their composition, but they were unconscious of +the deficiency, so were perfectly content. They were both healthy and +strong, and the physical surroundings of the moment were exhilarating +in the highest degree--bright clear air and exciting exercise. The +quickening of their pulses, caused by their romp upon the snow, was as +high a delight as either was capable of knowing, and they clung closer +together each time they re-climbed the steep to shoot again from the +summit, and laughed more joyously with each succeeding jolt, and +persuaded themselves even, perhaps, that they were really falling in +love--it is a delusion which often has no more substantial foundation. + +And Muriel, too, was careering merrily down the slope, with Gerald for +steersman. It was a sport in which they frequently indulged, and many +a chilly promenade upon the frozen snow, on the top of the hill, had +it cost Aunt Matilda that winter, though she never dropped a complaint +which might check or damp her darling's pleasure. Perhaps, too, she +may have found the _chaperonage_ not altogether an infliction in every +aspect. By some happy concurrence of circumstances Considine was +always of the party. He might have dropped in to visit the ladies +before the hour for setting out, or else he would accompany young +Gerald when he called to persuade them to go; assuredly he was always +there, and freighted with rugs of the thickest and warmest. When the +ground was reached, he was curious in his selection of the snuggest +nooks and corners sheltered from the wind to rest in; and when his +rugs were heaped on the sealskins she already wore, Miss Matilda found +she was not one bit cold in the world, and Considine in attendance, +who on these occasions was invited to smoke, was perfectly happy, and +blessed the inventor of the toboggan. + +Muriel and Gerald were experienced voyagers who slid down and +clambered up again in calm familiarity with what they were about, +without transports of timidity or delight, but in thorough enjoyment. +Muriel sat motionless like a part of the outfit, and Gerald was able +to steer their way intricately and securely between others more +laggard or awkward who got in the way and would have brought grief to +a less skilful pilot. And then it was so pleasant to be together, +though neither said so, they were so used to it--had been used to it +for three or four winters now--and it had grown on them so quietly +that they said and perhaps thought nothing about it. There were no +speeches; there was no opportunity for them, for there had been no +breaks in their intimacy. A boy and girl companionship at first, it +had strengthened and progressed with themselves, till, while it was +possible neither might have confessed an attachment to the other, it +was certain they could never, now, attach themselves to any one else. +They were comrades, at least in their winter exercises, but without +the rough familiarity which sometimes arises in that relation. +Muriel's virginal rearing by those worthy gentlewomen, her aunts, had +made that impossible on her side; and Gerald had been his mother +Martha's "vineyard," tended and weeded and cared for assiduously as to +his moral nature, brought up in manliness to scorn evil and reverence +women, as only that quaint daughter of the solitary places in "Noo +Hampshire" could have done. + +The moon hung in the highest heaven, the snow near by was aglitter in +its sheen, the distance was dim with hazy brightness, and many +tobogganers had come in from around to join the sport. The place was +not inclosed, it was a bare hill-face at other times, and somewhat out +of the way; but it suited, and when once a few had used it into shape, +all the tobogganing world was glad to avail itself of it. Its +out-of-the-way-ness alone preserved it to the use of its quieter +frequenters from the gamins and "roughs" of the more densely-peopled +streets; but this night was so gloriously still and bright and +exhilarating that those who had tasted its brightness could not tear +themselves away, and as the shop-lights were extinguished they +wandered farther afield instead of creeping under dusky shelter and +going to sleep. The snow was dotted with groups of a dozen or a score, +streaming out from the town and coming to the snow slide. All were on +foot, a few on snow shoes, and many dragging hand-sleds behind +them--those devices of the enemy which make the winter street of +America so dangerous for an elderly gentleman. He will look around for +a policeman to stop urchins coasting in mid-highway, at the hazard of +their skulls, from passing horse-kicks; he will not find one, but with +a roar and a sweep another coaster will rush down the pavement, +bruising his shins, over-turning him, and passing on its career of +devastation before he can gather himself up to box the audacious ears +of the offenders. + +"What a crowd of people are gathering down here at the end of the +track," observed Muriel, as she stepped off the toboggan at the +journey's end to re-climb the hill. + +"Yes," said Gerald, "a great many. I do not mind their standing down +here, they seem peaceable. They are only looking on, and soon they +will find it cold, and go away. But look at the crowd up there at the +top! They seem a more unruly crew. I fear there will be a row. Ah!" he +added, "there it is! Our pleasure is over for to-night. There is a +rowdy with a hand-sled, starting down the course. Hsh! what a +pace--and another--and a third. The third has upset, however, and +rolled down the hill. I could almost wish he would get in front of +number four. It would certainly hurt him, and spill number four as +well, and both deserve it. It will not be safe to launch a toboggan +now. The iron shod runners of the sleds travel as fast again as a flat +toboggan board. We shall get run into and smashed. I fear we must +knock off for to-night. I am awfully sorry, but really it is not safe, +with a parcel of roughs in possession of the slide." + +"Don't say so," said Muriel. They were climbing the bank, she leaned +on his arm, and she pressed on it just a shade heavier as she said it. + +"No doubt," he answered; "they must soon give it up. The ground is too +steep for runners. See how they shoot, and how far they are carried +beyond where we stopped. And there is a ditch there too. The least +thing will upset them coming down at such a bat, and somebody will get +hurt. They will all get hurt in time, but we shall have too long to +wait for it, I fear." + +"Don't you think we might have just one or two more? The evening is +only beginning, and it is so lovely. I do not feel one bit afraid, you +steer so beautifully." + +And what could Gerald do but yield when so appealed to, and so +flattered? + +They made another descent in safety, and then another, in which Gerald +performed prodigies of steering which elicited the lively applause of +the onlookers, and filled himself and his companion with confidence +and pride. For now the sled-riding invaders were in possession of the +field, the tobogganers having withdrawn, all save Gerald, who, in the +new position of affairs, appeared as the intruder, and whom the +majority in possession now set themselves deliberately to molest and +chase from the ground; shooting down after him, and endeavouring to +run into him from different sides, when he would suddenly veer out of +his course and leave the chasers to run into each other, with bruises +and scatterings, and derision from the onlookers. + +Each descent they made Gerald begged might be their last, but Muriel +more eagerly pleaded they might have yet another. It was so splendid, +she thought, to see the rowdies, balked in their malice, run +thundering into each other, while Gerald received rounds of applause. +What taskmaster ever drove so hard as does the female partizan, who +desires nothing for herself but merely the glory of her champion? + +They made the descent again. It was to be really the last time. "Just +this once more;" but it proved the once too often. They started +immediately behind a sled which shot down like lightning, and insured +a clear course at the going off; but presently one slid by on their +right, and they had to swerve to avoid it, and then there passed one +on their left which almost grazed them. They had scarcely escaped when +another came thundering down behind them. Gerald veered aside as well +as he could, but still as it came on it was only by flinging himself +against the foremost passenger that he avoided being run over, and it +cost him his balance. In the instant, while he was still in poise, he +was able to lay a goodly stroke with his guiding stick across the head +of the steersman of the buccaneer, and then he fell out of his seat +and rolled down the steep. The sled had turned cross-wise to the +incline, and rolled over with the three who were its crew; and Muriel +startled, alarmed, and with the toboggan turned aslant, fell out +likewise, and slid downward with the toboggan atop. + +Gerald reached the bottom pell-mell among the brawling, kicking, and +swearing cargo of the sled, who set on him in concert ere yet he had +well reached his feet, when Muriel's falling amidst them, covered by +the over-turned toboggan, dispersed the combatants for an instant, and +gave Gerald time to recover his guard. Then with a howl the three +rushed upon the one, or rather on the two, for they knocked down +Muriel, half risen, and trampled the toboggan to pieces in rushing +over her. Gerald was ready with one from the shoulder, delivered +squarely in the jaw, to knock down the first, but the other two sprang +on him together, and he would have fared ill if one from the crowd had +not leaped into the fray with blazing eye, clenched fist, and gnashing +teeth, and a growl of _sssacrrré_ and _chien_, as he felled one +ruffian with a blow under the ear and attacked the other. The first +was now up again, assaulting Gerald with foot and fist, and calling +his fellows in the crowd to come and help him, when the ministers of +the law appeared in the persons of two burly constables, who caught +Gerald and his succourer by the collar, and stood over the last felled +of the assailants while the other two ran away. + +It was a "brache of the pace," they declared, and all must come to the +station, stretching out a hand to seize Muriel by the muffler--an act +which nearly upset Gerald's composure, and brought him into collision +with the police; but fortunately at that moment Considine intervened. + +He had been spending an enchanted hour near the top of the hill with +Miss Matilda, swathed in rugs--all but her head--looking down upon the +sports, and chatting pleasantly while he buzzed round her, near enough +to hear and answer, but far enough off to let the fumes of his cigar +travel elsewhere. Something said in the crowd hard by had drawn their +attention to the slide. "Is not that Muriel?" Matilda had exclaimed, +jumping to her feet; and then the collision had come, and the upset, +and they both hurried down the bank to arrive on the scene at the same +moment as the police. + +"You need not take the young lady into custody, my man," said +Considine, assuming his grand military manner--learned in "the +war"--so effective with policemen, who, like other disciplined beings, +seem to love being spoken down to. "Here is my card, and I write the +lady's address on the back. She will appear before the magistrate +whenever he desires." + +"Roight, yur haunur!" said the man, coming to "attention," and +saluting. + +"And this gentleman will give you his card, too, and promise to appear +when wanted," a suggestion which was also complied with, and Gerald +was liberated from custody. + +"And this young fellow, who has behaved like a man, can I do nothing +for him?" + +"This is Pierre Bruneau," cried Matilda, "our farmer's son at St. +Euphrase. So good of you, Pierre, to come to Miss Muriel's rescue. I +did not know you were in Montreal." + +Pierre pulled off his _toque_ and made a shame-faced bow, smiling +gratification all over his countenance to find his service +appreciated. + +"The Frinchman must com wid us, sorr. He kin hilp to dhraw the sled +wid the chap he knocked down--an' roight nately he did that same--for +a Frinchman. We'll thrate him well, sorr, but we'll have to lock him +up. Ye kin spake a worrd to his haunor to-morrow maurnin', sorr." + +Pierre started, and looked piteously to Miss Matilda, and then his +manly heart gave way--he was not very old--he stuffed his fists into +his eyes and wept sore. To prison! To be locked up! It was dreadful, +and it was shame; and yet, even then, if it had had to be done over +again, he would have done it just the same. It was for Muriel he had +fought, and for her sake he was content to suffer. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + ANNETTE. + + +"Poor Pierre!" was the natural burden of the conversation round the +Misses Stanley's supper table that night. + +"Did not think it was in him," said Considine. "A quiet, fat, +soft-eyed, soft-spoken boy--just like some of my mulatto +table-niggers at home, in the old time. Never struck me there was man +in him at all." + +"He struck out splendidly," cried Gerald. "Straight from the +shoulder--just one almighty drive, and the rowdy fell in his +tracks--felled like an ox--without a struggle. Hope, for Pierre's +sake, he has not killed him. He had not moved up to the time we left +the ground. There could not have been a prettier stroke. We must not +let him get into trouble about it. It would have gone roughly with me +if he had not run in just then. One on either side, and I dared not +hit out at the one, for laying myself open to the other." + +"You did very well, Gerald. Your own man was not at all badly floored, +though he recovered more quickly than the other. 'Pon honour, I felt +my old blood warming at sight of the fray. I should have been at your +side in another instant, when I saw that ruffian get on his feet +again, with musket clubbed--walking stick, I should say--a rather +ridiculous object, I fear; but the old war-horse, you know"--and he +turned to Matilda as if he had made a happy quotation from the poets, +and she responded with an approving smile as in duty bound--"pricks up +his ears at the noise of battle. However, the policeman appeared, and +saved me from making a show of myself. That is one of the troubles of +getting old. A man is more likely to get laughed at for showing his +mettle than admired." + +"Nobody would have laughed, Mr. Considine," said Matilda. "It was kind +of you to mean it. But about Pierre. I can think of nothing but poor +Pierre being taken up for trying to protect Muriel from a gang of +ruffians. How came he to be there? He might have dropped from the +clouds, I was so surprised." + +"There were some beef cattle at the farm," said Miss Penelope. "Pierre +drove them into town. He was here in the afternoon. I gave him money +to stay in town overnight and go home by the cars to-morrow. So that +is explained." + +"Mr. Considine, may we commission you to engage the very best advice +for Pierre?" said Matilda. "Being our servant we should feel bound to +help him out of a difficulty in any case; but when he was assisting to +protect Muriel, we must do more still. Spare no expense. See Mr. +Jordan, or whomever you think the best. We would have sent word to Mr. +Jordan by Randolph to act for us, but Randolph has not come back here. +He will have walked home with Miss Rouget, I dare say. They seemed to +enjoy each other's company immensely, which rather surprised me. +Adèline is a nice girl, but rather inanimate, and Randolph is a lazy +fellow, who prefers to sit still and let a lady amuse him. So they +struck me, when they went off together, as being not a well-assorted +pair, and yet they seemed to hit it off together uncommonly well. In +fact, I have quite come to the conclusion that in such cases one never +knows." + +"Jean Bruneau will be anxious about his boy if he does not get home by +to-morrow evening," said Penelope; "but how to send him word? I need +not write, for he never goes to the post-office, and a letter to him +would lie there till the postmaster happened to see him in the +village. Telegraphing is the same; the message might lie a week at the +post-office." + +"We are going home to-morrow, Betsey and I," said Mrs. Bunce. "Can we +assist you, Miss Stanley?" + +"Indeed you can, Mrs. Bunce; if it is not too much trouble. If you +would walk out to Bruneau's cottage and explain to them the detention +of their boy. Tell them how well he has behaved, how indebted we feel +to him, and how willingly we will go to every expense to send him home +as soon as possible. You will indeed do us a favour. We will write you +to-morrow, after Mr. Considine has spoken to the magistrate, so as to +give the very latest news." + + +The Rev. Dionysius had eaten his morning rasher, and was consuming his +second plateful of buckwheat cakes and maple syrup--there is nothing +like a copious breakfast for enabling one to resist the cold--and was +basking in his regained domesticity. He had been dwelling alone for +three or four weeks, and though at first he had plunged with +enthusiasm into his books, secure of freedom from interruption, he +soon found the unbroken stillness grow oppressive. He wanted to speak, +but there was no one to listen. He had felt himself, like the +psalmist's solitary sparrow on the housetop, desolate and forlorn, and +now he enjoyed even his wife's wordy narrations with a zest which +surprised himself as much as it gratified her. + +She was pouring forth a continuous stream of ecclesiastical tittle +tattle, about curates, choirs, congregations and preferments, which +would have been idle talk and a sinful waste of time in her serious +eyes if it had related to politics or the public offices, but seeing +it was not the State which it remotely touched on, but the Church, she +believed it both important and improving; for with her, Church, like +charity, covered anything, and transmuted even back-biting into +holiness. + +Dionysius listened and ate his cakes. Human speech of any sort was +much, after three whole weeks of silence, broken only by the heavy +foot of his domestic, or the clatter of delf-breaking in the kitchen. +Judith, again, was a good woman, he knew, and it was his duty to bear +with her infirmities--and bear up under them, too, at times, which was +a heavier task. Perhaps she was not in all respects as much to be +admired and respected as he had persuaded himself when he married her, +but at least he knew that she admired and respected _him_, which was +much more important, and very soothing. + +Miss Betsey had breakfasted, and being in haste to divulge her +experiences of travel, gaiety, and _beaux_, had walked along the +village street to the post-office in hopes of meeting a gossip. She +now returned with the family letters. + +"Here you are, uncle! Four letters for you, and one of them +registered--that means money. And here is one for you, auntie; +everybody is in luck but me." + +"Did you expect a letter, my dear?" + +"Well--yes, I kind of thought I should have heard;" and her colour +deepened. Two nights before she had striven so hard to impress her +address on the memory of her cavalier of the tobogganing. They had +parted such good friends--on her side at least--that she had been +promising herself a letter from him all the day before. It would come, +however, sooner or later, she told herself, and thereby found strength +to possess her soul in patience. + +"My letter is from Penelope Stanley," said Mrs. Bunce. "Dionysius, can +you drive me out to the Miss Stanley's place, in the cutter[1] to-day? +She asked me to deliver a message to their man, and he should get it +to-day." + +"I was not going in that direction to-day, but it does not matter. I +will take you; but you must arrange either to stay a few minutes only, +or else to wait a few hours, as I have an appointment elsewhere." + +"Here is Bruneau's wife coming down the hill, auntie; carrying a fat +goose and a pair of ducks. Be sure you make a trade with her for the +ducks; I believe in roast duck." + +"A _brace_ of ducks, my dear," + +"A pair of ducks, uncle. They're farmyard ducks. Think I went to +Ellora Female College for nothing?" + +"Call her in, Betsey, and let us take your erudition for granted." + +"She won't come, auntie. Remember we're heretics. She wouldn't let +herself be seen coming into a Protestant parson's house." + +"Oh, yes, she will, if you ask her the price of her ducks. Money can +do anything." + +Annette Bruneau was called in as she passed; and came, looking +distrustfully to light and left. The parson beat a retreat, which +augmented her confidence somewhat, but still she seemed not much at +her ease. A question as to the price of ducks, however, reassured her. +Ducks were food for Christians, and it was the souls of men and the +flesh of little children on which the nameless person she dreaded to +see was believed to subsist. What price for the ducks? Oh, yes, she +was herself at once, and did a very fair stroke of business, too, +extracting some twelve or twenty cents more from the misbelievers than +she would have had the assurance to ask from the storekeeper for whom +they had been destined. + +"I have a letter from Miss Stanley this morning," said Mrs. Bunce. + +"_Ah oui, madame?_ I hope she goes well." + +"She is so pleased with your boy Pierre. Feels really indebted to him, +and says he has behaved so well." + +"But yes, madame? And is it upon the affairs of Mees Stanlee zat he is +not of the return?" + +"He was taken up by the police. He behaved--oh! remarkably well. Miss +Stanley feels under the greatest obligations to him, and will do her +very utmost to have him well defended and brought off." + +"Police, madame? My Pierre _chez_ ze police!--_à la prison?_ But vy? +Is it as he have _cassé la tête de personne?_ Ah! _le pauvre garcon_," +and she wiped her eyes. + +"I feel deeply indebted to him myself--under the very greatest +obligations--which will console you, I hope. Mr. Bunce has many +friends in town, and I shall make him use his influence with them; so +calm yourself, my poor woman. I owe it to your boy and also to myself +to console you. Take comfort. Your son has behaved extremely well. +Indeed, he has shown himself a fine manly youth; you may be proud of +him, you may indeed, Mrs. Bruneau; and who knows but his arrest--the +man he knocked down was still unconscious when Miss Stanley wrote. The +inquiry was adjourned yesterday in case it should involve a charge of +manslaughter. He must have struck a fearful blow!" + +"Manslaughter? Meurtre, _assassinat?_ In_croyable!_--_My_ Pierre?" The +tears ran down her quivering face, and she clasped her hands. "But +perhaps I do not _comprend_, ze English is _dificille_. Say it again." + +"Be comforted, my poor woman?" and Judith wiped her own eyes--she was +sympathetic and even kind, after a sort, notwithstanding her +absurdity. "We must submit, you know, to the dispensations of +Providence; and who knows but, after all, your son's confinement may +prove a precious blessing in disguise. He may have opportunities of +coming in contact with the truth there. The jail chaplain is an +admirable man, and I am sure will do his utmost to bring him to an +appreciation of doctrinal truth, especially if Mr. Bunce were to write +to him, as I shall see that he does. With a blessing that might induce +the sweetest uses of adversity, as the hymn says--though, to be sure, +you cannot be expected to understand that just yet--and when I come to +think of it, the lad will be confined in the police cells at present, +not the jail. However, I shall always feel bound to say a good word +for your son, after his manly assistance to my nephew; and Gerald's +father--Mr. Herkimer, you know--is bound to exert himself, and he has +a great deal of influence. No; there can nothing happen to your son +worse than a short detention. Keep up your heart, my friend," and she +patted her gingerly on the shoulder. + +"But I do not _comprend_, madame; you say Mistaire Herkimaire and M. +Gerald--I know him--vat say you of dem?" + +"Why, you know--but, to be sure, you don't know, I have not had time +to tell you anything yet. These interruptions make it so difficult for +me to tell my story. You must know that two nights ago Mr. Gerald, my +nephew, was attacked by a number of ruffians, and your son came +gallantly to his assistance, and helped him to beat them off." + +"Ah! mon brave. Ze good Pierre!" + +"And one of the roughs seems to have been hurt; he was taken to the +hospital, and is still unconscious. The police interfered, and I +suppose it was necessary to make arrests. The roughs made their +escape; it was proper to take some one into custody, so they took your +son to found a prosecution upon, as I am told the proceedings they +mean to institute are called. They will found their prosecution, and +then the truth will be found out--you see? Ingenious, is it not? and I +have no hesitation in saying your son will he honourably acquitted; +acquitted and, perhaps, even complimented by the bench. Think of that. +What an honour!" + +"Ze bench? I do not know him. He vill not know my poor Pierre. But M. +Gerald? Is he also arrest?" + +"He gave his card, and he promised to appear." + +"All! and my poor Pierre have not ze carte. But he give ze promesse, +and he keep it." + +"It could not be taken, unfortunately. You see the others had run +away, and the law must be vindicated. What else are the police for?" + +"Ah!--_La loi!_ She take ze poor vich have not ze carte, ze riches +_echappent_. It is not but ze good God who have pity on ze poor," and +she sat down rocking herself in hopeless woe. + +"You must bear up, my good woman. There is really no ground for +despondency. Miss Stanley has engaged the very best lawyers in +Montreal to see that the young man is brought safely through his +difficulty. She feels most grateful to him." + +"Mees Stanley is ver good. I have say so always. But it was to M. +Gerald Pierre bring ze _secours_. Does he notting? Go all his money to +buy _la carte?_"--with a shrug which rather outraged Mrs. Bunce, who +claimed much deference from the lower orders. + +"My nephew will see your son comes to no harm," she said. Just a +little loftily. "Set your mind at rest as to that; but Miss Stanley +insists on bearing all the expense. She looks on your son as having +got into difficulty through defending her niece; and indeed the young +man himself, as he was being led away, said he would have done far +more than that for the sake of Miss Muriel. We talked about him all +through supper, when they got home--I did not go to the tobogganing +myself--and we all said it was so nice of him. Depend on it, he will +be no loser in the end----" + +"For Mees Muriel? Always Mees Muriel! My Pierre shut up for _her!_ +Sainte Vierge! Have pity on a wife and mother _malheureuse!_--ah!--And +was it me who brought her there! _Serpenteau! Que tu m'as broui les +yeux par ta vue! Que tu as niaisé le c[oe]ur de ton frère légitime!_" + +"Speak English, my good woman. What is it you say? You seem to have +some ground of complaint against Miss Stanley's niece." + +"She is not niece of Mees Stanley. She is _enfante trouvée_." + +"What sort of an infant? But why do you say she is not Miss Stanley's +niece? She is the daughter of Miss Stanley's brother. Surely a lady +like Miss Stanley must know who are members of her own family. Why! +Mr. Bunce is her first cousin." + +"_Vous vous trompez, madame. Vous vous l'imaginez la niece_----" + +"Speak English, please." + +"You imagine yourself the niece----" + +"I do nothing of the kind. Betsey! I think this poor soul is losing +her wits with grief for her boy. What shall we do?--Call your uncle." + +"Not a bit of it, auntie. She is as peart as you or I; but she knows +something about Muriel, and we'd better hear it. Designing little +monkey! It is just scandalous the way that girl goes on with Gerald +and all the young fellows who will mind her. I have long suspected +there was something, and Uncle Dionysius always said he never knew +that the Stanleys had had a brother at all, till he was shown this +daughter." + +"Surely that was sufficient." + +"I don't know. Let's hear her, any way," and she drew her chair +forward, smirking and nodding her head by way of introduction to the +French woman. + +"_Vous avez raison, Mademoiselle_." + +"I told you so, auntie. She says I have reason. That means sense, of +course, and I believe her; though some people"--and she sighed--"don't +seem to see it. She is evidently a person of penetration and sagacity, +this--a superior person. We'd better hear what she has to say. Wee, +wee, ma bong fam," turning to the stranger; "but speak English. Parley +Onglay, you know, we haven't much French here." + +Annette knitted her dark brows and coughed determinedly; and then she +stopped, and as another thought seemed to strike her, the frown +cleared itself away before the propitiatory smile which she turned +on her interviewers, as the night police cast the gleam of their +bull's-eye on those who accost them. + +"Since madame and mademoiselle are of ze parents of Mees Stanley, it +is of their right, it is able to be of their advantage to know." + +"Parents? Betsey. Penelope must be every day as old as I am. I told +you the poor creature's wits were unsettled." + +"Tush! auntie. Be quiet. Wee, wee; but speak English, Mrs. Bruneau. To +be sure we wish to hear something to our advantage. Go on." + +"But madame and mademoiselle must promesse not never to say zat the +_connaissance_ have come from me. My man vould lose his _emploi chez_ +Mees Stanley for sure." + +"We'll promise you," cried Betsey, in eager curiosity. "Go ahead." + +"_Cela étant_----" + +"No French now, please. Take your time, but put it all into English." + +Annette settled herself in her chair, clasping her hands in her lap +with a long breath; while her eyes rolled abstractedly in her head in +search, no doubt, of the English words to convey her meaning. "Madame +is _mariée_ as me. She will know _la jalousie_, which carries ze good +vife for _son époux_." + +"Auntie!" cried Betsey in uncontrollable hilarity. "Were you ever so +jealous of Uncle Dionysius that you had to carry him about with you? +It would be more likely to be the other way. It is you, I should say, +would want watching. He! he!" + +"Betsey," said Aunt Judy austerely, for in truth her sense of +propriety was outraged, "you surprise me. No! Mrs. Bruneau, I am not +jealous. I have no occasion." + +"Madame ees _heureuse_; but me--_l'épouse_ who loves as me, vill have +_des doutes_ from time in time. Zere arrive von night--it was a hot +night of summer, ven ze vindow ver leff open, and I do not sleep well, +and zen sound _au dessous de la fenêtre_--" + +"Say window, and go on." + +"I hear ze cry of a _bébé_, I raise myself and go down, and behold! on +ze stoop it were laid. And _la jalousie_ she demand of me '_pour-quoi_ +at ze door of my Jean Bruneau?' And I _réponds qu'oui_, it is too +evident. And I say in myself that no! It shall not be that the +_enfante d'autrui_ shall eat the _croûte_ of _mes enfants_; and for +Jean Bruneau, he shall of it never know. And then I carry to the +_porte_ of Mees Stanley, and I sound, and hide myself till I shall see +it carried in ze house. And now, behold, the reward of my +_bienfaisance!_ Pierre, _à la prison!_ And he has loffe her since long +time. _Peut-être sa s[oe]ur!_ Oh! My boy so innocent, in sin so +mortal, and not to know! But how to hinder?" + +"And the child is no relation to them at all? Well--I call it +_ou_dacious. Auntie, did you ever hear anything like it? A brat like +Muriel, not a drop's blood to them in the world, to be pampered up +there in sealskin and velvet, while I, their own cousin, am glad to +dress myself in a suit of homespun." + +"Yes, my dear, it seems wrong. I wonder at a correct person like +Penelope Stanley compromising herself in a thing so contrary to all +rule. But then, Matilda is flighty; I always thought her flighty. +Beware of flightiness, Betsey, and yielding to the momentary impulses +of an ill-regulated mind. It never answers. In the touching language +of--of--the Psalmist, I suppose--and be sure your impulses will find +you out! No, that isn't just it, but it might be; that is the +intention of it. But, Mrs. Bruneau, I feel for you"--she rose as she +said so, to intimate that the interview was ended--"I feel for you +deeply. Be sure of my kindest consideration. When we hear further +about your son, we will let you know, and all my influence I promise +you to exert on his behalf. Good morning. You may rely on our not +making an improper use of what you have told us." + +"Madame have give her promesse to be silent. I confide;" and she +curtsied herself out, with a confidence which was fast wearing into a +misgiving that she would have done more wisely to hold her tongue. A +secret shared with two others, who have no interest in maintaining it, +has ceased almost to be a secret at all. + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + BLUFF. + + +The mines brought a rush of trade to St. Euphrase. The drowsy little +place, of late years, under the patronage of the railway, had been +growing into a sort of sequestered rustic suburb, or at least a rural +outlet for dust-stifled townspeople during the dog days, where such as +could buy a house might pick their own strawberries, or cut their +melon with the dew still on it, for breakfast. It was now breaking +into the "live-village" stage of growth, raising its own dust in most +respectable clouds, exhaling its own smoke--the villagers had burnt +only wood in their golden age, and their atmosphere had been +pure--with brawling navvies at the lane corners to disturb the night, +and the glare of illuminated saloons, now for the first time able to +outface the disapproval of M. le Curé, who hitherto had been able to +fend off such dangerous allurements from his simple flock. + +As spring advanced things progressed with a rush, and everybody in the +district expected to make his fortune forthwith. The cautious +_habitants_, who would not risk their savings in a bank (remembering +how once upon a time a bank had broke, and a grandfather had lost some +dollars), but hid them away in crannies below the roof or underneath +the oven, took courage now, and bought shares. Were not the mines +there? visible to the naked eye. Did not Baptiste and Jean earn wages +there? paid regularly every Saturday night. The whistle of their steam +engine could be heard for miles around, and clouds of smoke drifted +across the country, dropping flakes of soot on the linen hung out to +dry. It was very real, this--definite and tangible. Had it not raised +even the price of hay, which now could be sold at home, for the mine +teams, at more than could be got for it in Montreal? + +The rustics crowded into town to buy shares, and the price rose higher +and higher, till they became so valuable that no one would sell. +Still, however, shares were to be got, with exertion, and at a good +price, at the offices of the company, which were also those of the +Messrs. Herkimer, whose senior partner was president of the company. + +The board of directors was so composed as to conciliate the local +interests of St. Euphrase--M. Podevin the hotelkeeper, Joseph Webb, +Esquire--Esquire meaning J.P.--Farmer Belmore, and Stinson, Ralph's +favourite clerk. These met periodically to accept five dollars apiece +for their attendance, sanction such proposals as their president might +make, and sign the minutes. None of them had an opinion upon the +matters to be considered, and even if they had had one, they would +have felt it to be indelicate to question the decisions of the city +magnate who was making their fortunes; but that mattered little; it +was pleasant to sit upon a board, and be paid for sitting, especially +when their decision upon the points on which they came to be consulted +was already framed, to save them the trouble of consideration, and +required only a mute assent. They found their consequence vastly +augmented among their neighbours, who all prayed them for advice and +private information; which, not having, they found it difficult to +give, and had to fall back on their habit, learned at the "board," of +looking as wise and saying as little as possible. + +It was delightful, for the time being, thus to play at Lord Burleigh, +and be thought only the wiser the more they held their tongues; but +they little imagined the responsibility they were building up for +themselves, when issues of stock unregistered in the company's books, +funds not accounted for, and other irregularities had to be explained +to infuriated shareholders. The storm was yet in the future, for the +present the heavens were shining. + +That year both Herkimer and Jordan removed their families to St. +Euphrase quite early in the spring, instead of waiting for the +summer heats. It was a demonstration of the importance they attached +to the mining operations, and their desire to be on the spot. +Directly, it was whispered among their acquaintance that fresh +discoveries were being made, and cultured persons, who combined +science with money-making, hastened to bespeak a summer residence in +the favoured village, whence they might scour the neighbourhood on +holidays, hammer in hand, rummaging for minerals, and picking up +information about the remarkable find already made at La Hache. Every +house, and even every shanty, to be let, was secured for the hot +months, and some impatient prospectors, unwilling to wait so long, +arrived at once, and established themselves with the Père Podevin, +whose house had never been so full before, and who, feeling that his +fortune was as good as made, began to prepare his family to adorn the +great position they were about to fill, withdrew his eldest daughter +from the kitchen, where she had been wont to assist, and sent her off +to the celebrated convent of St. Cecilia, at Quebec, that she might +learn to play the piano, and be turned into a lady. + +The influx of city men had scarcely become apparent--it was the middle +of May now--when a new phenomenon met the explorer's eye. A board +fence was of a sudden run up around the property of the mining +company, and watchers were stationed at intervals to see that no +inquisitive stranger should scale the barrier. Excitement among the +speculators grew intense. It was immediately inferred that silver, or +perhaps even gold, had been found, else why this jealousy? and the +crowds who came from town to scour the adjacent lands were so great +that the Père Podevin had to use his stable and poultry house as +sleeping quarters, and sold permission to two gentlemen to sleep on +the floor under his billiard table on the same terms as he had been +wont to charge for an entire chamber. + +There was constant hurry in the offices in the Rue des Borgnes, by +gaslight as well as by day. The jaded clerks seemed always at work, +save when they crept home at night to sum up the endless figure +columns over again in their sleep, and hurry back to business next +morning. The president seemed as hardly driven as his servants. The +street--where hitherto he had been a prominent figure, notebook in +hand, making bargains, picking up information, and distributing it in +passing, because it could be done so much more quickly than on +'Change, where some contrive to make a little business go so far in +the way of talk and time-killing--the street knew him no more, and he +was beset by people all day long, in his office, on every imaginable +errand. + +Hitherto he had been so cool, and so quick, and so strong--a very +steam engine for doing business--so confident and so clear, perceiving +all the bearings of a question at once--deciding on his course and +completing an agreement in a few incisive sentences, while another man +would still be figuring up with pencil and paper the preliminary +calculations. Now there were signs of fatigue in the robust figure, a +stoop of the shoulders, a flush about the temples. His temper, too--in +time past he had had no temper, or at least it had been impossible to +ruffle it, except where anger was made to serve a business end--his +temper had grown irritable, as the luckless clerks too frequently +found out, and he suffered from sensations of faintness which led to +his withdrawing momentarily into his dressing-room, where there now +stood a decanter of sherry, a thing which theretofore he would have +scorned to permit on his premises. His habit till then had been to +drink a couple of glasses of sherry at the club by way of luncheon, +but the idea of keeping a "pick-me-up" at his elbow, to be referred to +at uncertain intervals, had never occurred to him, because, till then, +he had found his own strength sufficient for the day's work. + +That may have been because things had gone well always, and there is +no tonic in the pharmacop[oe]ia like a habit of succeeding; but now +there were so many things, mines of copper, plumbago, phosphate, a +railway, a suburb, and a bank, besides--besides everything else; for +Ralph's greed grew with his success, the more he secured the more he +still desired, and he could not see an opportunity go by without +wishing to have a fling at it. A few months before, when money was +flowing in for copper shares, there had seemed to be an opportunity in +railways on New York market, and Ralph went in. It fretted him to see +money lie idle when work could be found for it. He went in, but the +unforeseen had happened, as it always will some time, and h found he +could not come out again without loss, such as was not to be thought +of, and therefore he must go in deeper still. + +His own railway, too, the St. Lawrence, Gattineau, and Hudson's Bay +had been suffering a check in the shape of a swamp it had to cross, in +which it went on burying itself as fast as it could be built above the +morass. A contractor had already failed. No other would undertake the +work. The company was compelled to do it itself, under pain of being +cut in two, with sections built to the south and north, and this gap +in the middle, which made both ends useless. Ralph was largely +interested in the road, which indeed he had both projected and +promoted, to connect his plumbago mines and his phosphate lands with +"the front," _i.e_., with civilization and a market. + +The plumbago mines were at work, gangs of men digging into the ground +and dragging out riches which were barrelled up to await transport; +but, until that swamp could be bridged over, of no more present value +to the owners than so many tons of gravel. The workmen could not eat +it, and would not accept it in payment of their wages; and to haul it +to market over distances of corduroy road was to end by disposing of +it for something less than it had cost to bring it there. + +The public were aware of the trouble, and the shares would not sell. +The bank, of course, could be brought to the rescue up to a certain +point, but that, he began to realize, was nearly reached. There were +signs of failing confidence at the board meetings, whisperings, and +averted glances betokening incipient opposition, though mistrustful as +yet of strength to declare itself, which in time past, when he could +defy it, he would easily have browbeaten into submission; but now he +dared not attempt to browbeat, the consequences of unsuccess would +have been too serious. He tried to conciliate and persuade, where he +had been wont to command, and when the master tries to conciliate the +pupil, it is a sign the whip has gone from him, and the subject +divines that he has a master no longer than he cares to accept one. + +Again, the success of St. Hypolite Suburb was hanging fire. The suburb +had been a tract of waste ground some years before, when Ralph picked +it up on easy terms, as being unfit for agriculture and useless for +anything else, and his scheme was to build on it a new and improved +quarter of the town. He had sunk great sums in draining, levelling, +and filling up. He had laid out a park, with a fountain, overlooked by +semi-detached villas, and approached by residence streets of a +superior kind. A few houses had become tenanted the year before, and a +great sale of houses in June of the current year had been written up +in a series of ingenious paragraphs in the local newspapers; when, on +the arrival of warm weather, a visitation of ague and typhoid fever +fell upon the pioneer settlers in the district, and frightened the +public out of all the interest which it had cost so much money and +pains to instil into its mind. The sale came off as advertised, but +the half-dozen dwellings first offered--"replete with every modern +improvement and convenience"--fetching barely enough to pay the +advances of the Proletarian Loan and Mortgage Company, the rest were +withdrawn for the present. + +In a house of cards, though one card may be in doubtful equilibrium, +if those other cards it leans against are moderately steady, it may +stand. Nay, it may even contribute a measure of support to its +supporters; but if all are shakey at the same time, it is a task of +infinite dexterity to balance the several weaknesses each upon each. +Even then the balance is but temporary; a flutter in the surrounding +air will disturb the equipoise, and, when that befalls, the structure +holding together only by weaknesses which balance each other will +tumble to the ground a heap of ruin. And this was the fate Ralph saw +impending. He was in so many ventures, and up to his full strength in +each. If only one of them had weakened he could have propped it with +the others in such wise as he had done before, but when everything +grew shakey at the same time, it seemed as if the pillars of the +universe itself were giving way; and worse, he felt the giving way +within himself, a nodding to that frightful fall which was +approaching, a yielding such as he had never known before. Hitherto +each difficulty had called out latent strength to overcome it, but now +there seemed a torpor in himself which would not be thrown off. His +mind would, not, as hitherto, answer to his call with new expedients +to circumvent each new check; he felt benumbed, and sought to that +decanter--in his dressing-room for the strength, ingenuity, and +courage he had theretofore found within himself. + +It was a morning in the beginning of July--Ralph had remained in town +overnight, not so much for the sake of doing anything as merely to be +beside his business. In time past, when his affairs flourished, he had +rather prided himself on the determination with which he could dismiss +"shop" from his mind at five minutes past four, when he walked out of +his office, and his promptitude in resuming it, exactly where he had +left off, at a quarter before ten next morning. But now, when it +would have been a relief to his jaded mind to lay cares by for a time, +they clung to him all the while, disturbing sleep, even, with confused +and harassing visions. To be away from business aggravated his +anxiety--filled him with doubts as to what might occur in his absence, +and he found his mind easier in the office than anywhere else. Even so +the mother of a sick child will sit by the bed for hours, though the +child be in sleep the most undisturbed, and she can do nothing more. +There is assurance in being present, if she were away she would +imagine things were happening, and be miserable. + +After the hot night in town, with its unrefreshing sleep, and the +untasted breakfast which followed, Ralph sat in his office listless +and limp, with nothing to brace him but that hateful sherry in the +dressing-room. It was ten o'clock. The train from St. Euphrase must +have arrived, but his son had not yet appeared, when Jordan hurried +in, closing the door behind him, and fastening it. + +"You were not on the train this morning, Herkimer. Were you trying to +give a man the slip?--and unload before any one else knew?" + +"Unload? Slip? I remained in town last night. What do you mean? Is +anything wrong?" + +"Podevin tells me he heard some of the men, who were drinking in his +bar, talking. They were telling each other that our lode was no true +vein, that every bit of metal would be out in three months' time, and +they would all be thrown idle. They were the only people in the place +at the time; Podevin took them in hand, and made them promise to hold +their tongues; but it's all coming out, can only be a question of a +day or two. He came to me in a d--l of a funk--says he will be ruined, +as everything he has is in it. To tell you the truth, I shall be hard +hit myself--have never sold a share, and I have been buying. I do +think you might have given me a hint." + +"My dear sir, I am a heavier holder than you and Podevin both put +together. The price has been going up so steadily I did not care to +sell; it might have injured the property for the rest of you; and this +is the first I have heard of a threatening collapse. We must sell at +once, that is all." + +"Too late, I fear, though I am now on my way to my broker. You will be +selling, too? Wish I had known enough to hold my tongue till after I +had unloaded," he added with a nervous pretence of hilarity. "Well! +I'm off." + +"Don't be a fool, Jordan. Of course I don't blame you for wishing to +save yourself, I do the same; but perhaps it is just as well you came +in and told me first. I mean those shares to go higher yet before I +sell. I have all along known there was a possibility of what you tell +me coming to pass, though I had hoped to get shut of the thing before +it took place, and I would have preferred to slip out quietly. There +will be a row, now, perhaps; but what of that? If it must be, we can +weather it, so long as we save our money. It was to provide against +such a contingency that I had that fence built round the operations, +to keep prying fools on the outside; and you know how well that has +answered. I see by the _Journal_ they have been finding indications of +silver; if we inclose another hundred acres it will be taken to +indicate gold and diamonds. But no, that would be too slow, and some +one would blab in the meantime. I must telegraph the superintendent to +work over-time, and contrive that the men do not go into the village. +I shall telegraph to the directors, too, and hold a board meeting. It +is handy having men so easily within call, and yet so innocent of +business. You had better be present as solicitor, and convince +yourself that we are not stealing a march. _And then_----" + +"You wish me, then, not to offer my stock to-day?" said Jordan +dubiously. The saw tells us there is honour among thieves, and +perhaps there sometimes is, but there is seldom confidence among the +over-sharp. + +"As to that," cried Ralph scornfully, "you can please yourself. Go to +your brokers, by all means, if you think well. Or, if you would like +to save brokerage, you can just speak to Stinson as you go out. Tell +him what you want to sell, and I shall buy at yesterday's quotation;" +and he lay back in his chair with a cheerful smile, and twiddled his +gold chain exactly like the prosperous millionaire his neighbours +thought him. + +Jordan looked and hesitated, and bit his nails, and then his brow +cleared, and he drew a long sigh of supreme relief. "Well!" he said, +smiling effusively, "you know more about it than I do. I'll trust your +advice, and hold on till to-morrow." + +"I gave you no advice whatever, sir. Please to remember that;" and he +sat up in his chair with a suggestion of dignified offence on his +features which made Jordan feel contrite and ashamed, and thoroughly +satisfied that he had better not disturb his shares for the next +twenty-four hours at any rate. "You can tell Stinson about your shares +if you have a mind to; but whatever you do, I must beg that you will +not only not circulate, but that you will put down any foolish report +such as that you have just mentioned." + +"You may depend on me for that, old fellow," cried Jordan, nodding +adieu, and walking out with a sense of disburdenment from the cares he +had been carrying, which made his middle-aged gait positively elastic. + +Ralph rose, and watched through a convenient chink his retreating +figure off the premises, and then he drew a breath, and stretched +himself with a sardonic twitch of the eyebrows. "There's nothing like +bluff after all! Yet where should I have been if he had concluded to +take my offer? A fine rumpus those white-livered directors next door +would have raised over the cheque. However, _that's_ weathered. Now +for the mines," and he sat down and wrote his telegrams. He felt +better and stronger than he had done for weeks. There was something to +do now, action, work, combat with circumstances. He was a man once +more with a fund of strength within, which needed only to be drawn on +to come forth. The sherry decanter diffused its topaz radiance in vain +all that day, for never once came Ralph within sight of the seductive +lustre. He had something to do and think of, and in doing he found the +best tonic for his system. It is waiting and looking forward to +uncertain evil, distant as yet, and impossible to be struggled with, +which racks the nerves to pieces with its strain, and drives the +victim to artificial supports, which they from whose coarser +construction a nervous system seems to have been omitted, and who +cannot comprehend such needs, brand as intemperance and dissipation. + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + A BOARD MEETING. + + +It was not yet eight o'clock on a summer morning at the little railway +station of St. Euphrase. The sweetness from the dew on the ripening +hay fields still hung on the drowsy breezes which came laggingly +athwart the dusty platform, growing fainter each moment in the waxing +heat. + +Farmer Belmore was the earliest intending passenger to appear on the +platform. The ticket office was not yet open, and he flopped about +impatiently in his clean linen coat, mopping his brow with a vast +handkerchief drawn from the crown of his broad-leafed Panama hat. His +grand-daughter had arranged a poppy and a branch of southern-wood in +his button-hole by way of embellishment, his cravat was of the +fiercest blue, fastened with a gold horse-shoe of the largest size. He +felt himself, as director in a great company, to be a man of mark, +appropriately and becomingly arrayed on the present occasion, and it +disappointed him that none of the general public should be there to +see him. + +Joe Webb appeared ere long; compact, well knit, athletic; an example +of the very satisfactory result to be looked for by-and-by, when the +Teutonic and Gallic stocks shall have joined and blended to form the +specialized type of a new nationality; swarthy and black-eyed, with +the nose short, but prominent and aquiline, marking affinity to the +high-spirited and vivacious French, while the level eyebrows and +forward balancing of the head showed equal kinship with the reflective +Saxon. + +"Ha!" cried both men simultaneously. "For town? Board meeting?" +Simultaneously, too, they answered, as if there could be any doubt. +"Yes. Thought I might as well go this morning as another, and be +present at the meeting. And draw my five dollars," added Belmore. +"This special meeting will be just so much pure gain, if we do +not do too much business, as I hope we shall not, and make the next +regular meeting unnecessary. But to be sure the monthly meetings are +obliged to be held, according to the bye-laws, or the charter, or +something--so Mr. Stinson tells me--therefore, this is quite an extry +five dollars to the good, and better than a poke in the eye with a +burnt stick. You think so, too, squire, I guess." + +The distant whistle of the approaching train was now heard, and the +opening of the ticket office with a bang. There were only three or +four other intending passengers, and all had soon bought their +tickets, and stood awaiting the train. + +"What can have come to old Podevin?" said Webb. "If he waits for the +train at 9.30 he may miss the meeting altogether, and his fee. He will +have been watching to see the president go by before starting himself +for the station, and the president stayed in Montreal last night. I +happen to know that. Podevin will miss his train." + +"So much the better for us. There will be the more for you and me. I'd +love to finger a dollar that should have been coming to Podevin more'n +fifty of my own. He's that near, it's like drawing teeth to get a +_sou_ out of him. He hain't paid me yet for the cord-wood that kept +him warm last winter, and now he wants me to take out the price in +white Yankee beans. 'No, sir,' says I; but I let him show me the +truck, and, squire, if you'll believe me, the weevils were that thick, +you could see them quarrelling together who was to get the next sound +bean, and they were that big you could see them looking out of their +holes at the buyer, and warning him like, against the trade." + +The brother directors, however, were mistaken in supposing Podevin was +minded to forego or endanger the emoluments of his directorship. He +was in waiting, though they did not see him, behind a convenient +cattle-car on the siding, anxious only to avoid speech with them till +all were in presence of the president, that his own misgivings might +be resolved without prejudice; for he dreaded that his _confrères_ +might elicit something from him before he had learned the right way to +view or state it himself, and so his undigested words might get abroad +and do him harm. Wherefore he waited till he saw the couple step on +the train, and then clambered quietly into the carriage behind, +avoiding the platform and the ticket office, and paying his fare to +the conductor on the train, who charged him ten cents extra, wringing +his heart with the thought that two per cent of his director's fee was +thereby lost to himself and his heirs for ever. + +The board of directors of the Mining Association of St. Euphrase +assembled at the appointed place and time. The president was in the +chair, and Jordan, the company's solicitor, sat by his side. Podevin +sat beside Stinson, whispering anxiously, and striving to draw support +and encouragement from the involuntary exclamations of the man he was +alarming with his tales and forebodings, while Belmore and Webb +awaited the opening of the proceedings in the placid tranquillity of +perfect ignorance. Nothing disturbing had as yet come into their +knowledge, or even their dreams, and they sat by the leather-covered +table contemplating the minute book and the inkstand, and wondering +how long it would be before they should sign their names, draw their +fee, and take their departure. + +The president tapped the table with his ruler. Stinson read the +minutes of the previous meeting, and the board was in session and +ready to proceed to business. The president stated that he had been +made the recipient of singular information affecting the value and +prospects of their property only the day before, and he had lost no +time in calling them together, that the matter might be inquired into. +"And our worthy solicitor, Mr. Jordan, will now kindly repeat to the +board the statements he has already made to me in private." + +"I know nothing, gentlemen," said Jordan, "but what was mentioned to +me by one of your own number, here present. He is now, I doubt not, +ready to repeat his statements at length for your united +consideration. I allude to my respected friend, Mr. Podevin." + +The Père Podevin coughed behind his hand, looking disgust from under +his eyelids for a solicitor who could thus betray a confidential +conversation. "Was the man a fool or a rogue?" he asked himself. If he +had not actually paid him a fee on addressing him, had he not given +information worth thousands, if properly used?--given it freely for +the sake of consulting him--and Jordan had promised advice in the +morning--the morning now come--and here, instead of a friendly hint +how he might save himself, the treacherous adviser, having already had +twenty-four hours' exclusive use of the news, was calling on him to +divulge everything before the whole board, giving an equal start to +the others with himself in the race to save something, or rather +letting himself be ruined with the rest. However, all eyes were on him +now, and there was no escape. + +"It was on yesterday," he said, "zat I hear of ze men to say, ver +_secrètement_ to ze ozers, as they have dig out all ze _cuivre_ of ze +mine. I £five zose men to drink in retirement from ze rest, and I ask, +and zey confirm zat of ze _cuivre_ is no more. _Mon Dieu!_ Misterre +Herkimair--to tink of ze moneys to nourish my _vieillesse_, and ze +_dots_ of my daughtairs _innocentes!_ All sunk in ze mines----" + +"Well?" asked Ralph a little testily; "and pray who did it? Who sunk +your money? You are of lawful age, Mr. Podevin, and believed to be of +sound mind. You are privileged to act for yourself, and you must bear +the consequences of your own acts. If your shares had risen to double +the price you paid for them, you would have taken the profit as the +reward of your own smartness; if it turns out the other way, why +should you come grumbling to me? _I_ did not make you risk your money +or throw it away." + +"You say, Misterre Herkimair, zere were fortunes in ze rocks of La +Hache svamp, and I believe ze _riche_ Misterre Herkimair, and I give +ze little _bourse_ made up _sou_ by _sou_ in all zese year vit so much +of care----" + +"Yes, and thought to make your fortune, Mr. Podevin? and now you think +you are going to lose it--the chance every man is liable to who +speculates or plays poker. You throw a sprat expecting to catch a +herring, and at times the herring is _not_ caught, and the sprat is +thrown away. You must accept the chances of the game, or else you +should not play. Look at me! Think of the thousands I stand to lose if +our enterprise miscarries! What are your few hundreds compared to +that? Yet I make no lament." + +"M'sieur ees so _riche_ and _distingué!_ He vill not see a poor man +lose ze sparings of his life," and he bowed cringingly to the chair. + +Farmer Belmore vied with him in a gaze of pathetic sweetness and +tremulous hungry adoration before the great man who had brought his +savings into jeopardy and who yet, if any one could, could bring them +safely out. The disclosure made by Podevin had been as unexpected by +him as it was sudden. He had fancied himself growing rich, and now to +be told that he was stripped of his savings! He would have been +furious had he dared--talked of fraud, trickery, and the law; but when +he saw Podevin prostrate himself in spirit before the chair, and cry +for succour from the hand which had inaugurated the ill, he controlled +himself and lay back in his chair, constraining his lips into +sugar-coated smiles which the doubtful and hungry gleaning of his eyes +deprived of any seductiveness they might otherwise have carried. + +"This is simply, gentlemen," said the president, coughing and +raising his voice, "one of those circumstances to which every +enterprise--especially every enterprise dealing with minerals--is +liable. As business men you calculated the risks and counted the cost +before you embarked your money. The likelihood of profit appeared +sufficient to us all to warrant our running the risk." + +"M'sieur did not mention risks ven he so kindly undertook to improve +my fortunes. I confide my case to ze generous _souvenirs_ of m'sieur. +He vill not permit to suffer ze man who place _confiance_ and dollars +in his _recommande_." + +Ralph snorted. "Let us talk business, gentlemen," he cried. "We are +not here to scold like old women, or to lament like children. You are +men of understanding, who would not have dropped your money but where +you saw good promise of a large return. Whether you gain or lose, +therefore, you have only yourselves to thank. You know as well as I do +that where money is to be made it is also to be lost. If it were not +so, all the world would crowd in to make its fortune every time, and +there would be nothing for anybody. Therefore, I object to expressions +such as have fallen from my friend, Podevin. He regrets them already +himself, I am sure, now I mention it, and he brings his clear good +sense to bear on the point. Gentlemen! we went in to win. Of course we +did! It goes without saying. But, if we have to lose, let us behave +like men of business and common sense; let us not cry over spilt milk, +but let us make the best of it. And first, let us look the matter in +the face. What is it that has happened to us?----" + +"Ze _cuivre_ is not zere!" cried Podevin, eager to rally his +self-respect and preen the rumpled plumage on which Ralph had sat down +so unceremoniously. If his plea for help and relief must be set aside, +at least a partial satisfaction might be taken out in scolding, and +there seemed an opening here. + +"To put it shortly, gentlemen," said Ralph with a shrug, "that would +appear to be about the state of the case just at this moment; but I +would recommend you not to say it that way out of doors, unless you +want to write off every cent you have invested in the undertaking as +dead loss. That would not be all either, gentlemen. You, the +directors, conjointly and severally, would be liable to suit by each +individual stockholder for misrepresenting the value of the property. +Is that not so, Jordan?" + +"Clearly, they might claim to have their subscribed stock made good. +Whether they would secure a verdict, would depend a good deal, of +course, on the management of the case on both sides. But that is not +all. It is possible that a criminal information might be laid for +obtaining money under false pretences, and when commercial +miscarriages are fresh in the public mind, there is a proneness in +juries to find against the defendants. It is really a serious +consideration--a penetentiary offence." + +"_Mon Dieu!_" gasped Podevin with folded hands, gazing at the ceiling +with eyes whose watery sorrow threatened momentarily to overflow. +Belmore pulled the posy from his button-hole and flung it on the +ground, its festive hue and fragrance irritated his senses in the +gloom which had fallen on him. If he could but have cast his +speculation from him as easily, or hurled the man before him, who had +led him into it, to the ground in like fashion, how good it would have +been! + +"But, gentlemen," cried Ralph, pleased at the impression which his +words had made, "things have not come to that pass yet, nor will they, +if I can help it. There is always life for a living man; that is, if +he is willing and able to use it sensibly for his own preservation. +What is this which has fallen on us after all? It may prove to be +nothing but a fault in the lode. Such things occur frequently, and the +recovered vein, when it is found again deeper down, is generally +richer than it was before. It is true that what we have been working +on may prove to be mere pockets of the metal, unconnected with other +deposits, but we cannot say for certain until we have carefully +examined, and that will require time. Meanwhile, idle tales may get +abroad, which would shake public confidence, injure and discredit the +property, and destroy the value of the stock. We must forestall +mischievous rumours, gentlemen, and I now propose--Stinson! enter on +the minutes, 'proposed and carried _nem. con_. that this board now +declare a dividend of one dollar per share.'" + +"That will be five per cent on the paid-up capital?" said Joe Webb. +"All the earnings, so far, have gone in working expenses. It seems a +big dividend to declare out of nothing." + +"--sh!" muttered Belmore, pulling his sleeve. "--sh, man! It will be +so much saved out of all that has gone to the dogs." + +"But, Mr. President," Webb continued, "where is the money to come from +to pay the dividend?" + +"Never fear for that, squire. Declare your dividend, and up go your +shares. We have still stock which has not been issued yet. We can sell +it then at the advanced price, and shall be in plenty of funds to pay +anything." + +"But is that right? Mr. Herkimer. Is it honest?" + +"Right? Honest? Sir! What do you mean? Your words require +explanation," and Ralph pushed out his chest, making the diamond studs +flash scornful fire on the farmer's inexpensive raiment, while his +brow gloomed and his cheeks grew purple like an angry gobbler. + +"Mr. Webb is more familiar with the procedure at quarter sessions, and +the operations of agriculture, I suspect, than with the practice of +the financial world," observed Jordan soothingly. He loved to lift his +placid head, like Neptune, above the troubled waves, and still a +rising storm. He used his smoothest, oil-pouring tones, enjoying them +himself, and calming those who heard him. "I feel confident he had no +intention of reflecting on our worthy president, who, on my thus +explaining--with Mr. Webb's manifest concurrence--will refrain from +viewing as unfriendly any unadvised expression he may have used. And, +my dear Mr. Webb, you will permit me to say that the impulse which +unadvisedly prompted still does you infinite honour. It would be well +for our commercial community if the noble sentiments which flourish in +the rural districts were to obtain in the busy marts of trade. In the +present instance, however, my young friend will perhaps permit me to +say that his scruples appear to be--well, to be just, a little +over-strained. As Mr. Webb states the case, it may indeed be said that +there is a seeming impropriety in the time chosen for declaring this +dividend." + +"It is not the time, it is the dividend I object to. It has not been +earned, and it is to be paid out of the subscriptions of the new +shareholders." + +"My good man," cried Ralph, "can you make a better of it? You would +not throw up the sponge--stop the workings--before it has been proved +whether it is not merely a temporary check we are suffering. You do +not want to lose all the money you have put in, and perhaps be sued by +disappointed shareholders besides, till you are stripped bare of every +cent you have in the world?" + +"I do not want to take the money of misled subscribers, and divide it +among ourselves on pretence of a dividend which we have not earned." + +"That is a question of book-keeping, sir, allow me to tell you. +Certain debit entries are merely deferred, to be charged later on, +leaving a present surplus. It is easily done. Besides, you must admit +that we--that the present shareholders--actually _have_ earned the +premiums at which the stock stands, or may stand hereafter. That is a +profit which the company and the older proprietors have fairly earned +by holding the stock in time past, before it grew popular, and the +price rose. Trust the management, Mr. Webb. The rest of us are more +deeply interested even than you are in things going right." + +"I don't like it. It does not seem to be the honest thing to do." + +"Mr. Webb, Mr. Webb, you are letting yourself grow warm again, are you +not?" said Jordan. "What other method would you propose? This one will +give time for examining the property and striking the vein again, and, +if we cannot do that, we shall have time to sell out and wash our +hands of the whole operation without loss, or even at a small profit." + +"But how, as honest men, could we sell property, knowing it to be +worthless, at the same price as if it were of real value?" + +"_Caveat emptor_, my dear sir, to quote a legal maxim. The buyers are +business men, well able to take care of themselves, and they will do +it, you may rest assured. They will satisfy themselves that they are +not paying too dear. Your scruples are honourable, no doubt, but do +you not think they must be over-strained, seeing they run counter to +the general practice? I can assure you it is nothing unusual which has +been proposed--nothing but what has frequently taken place in most +respectably managed concerns. There was the Porpoise and Dolphin Oil +Company, Limited, for instance--since gone into liquidation, but that +is neither here nor there--its management was in the hands of a body +of directors, than whom no gentlemen in the community stand higher, +among others the Rev. Mr. Demas, of Little Bethel, in the Rue des +Borgnes--you will have heard him preach, no doubt--a most evangelical +man, and surely you will not take upon you to find fault with +proceedings such as _he_ has sanctioned by participating in." + +"I really could not bring myself to declare a dividend, that is, as I +understand it, to profess that we have earned money when I know for a +fact that we have not earned it at all." + +"Tush, man!" whispered Belmore; "sit down. Let's get through, sign the +minutes, and draw our pay. I have coal oil to buy, and nails, and I +shall miss my train if you do not sit down and let us finish up." + +"Proposed," cried Ralph, "that the board declare a dividend of one +dollar per share, payable on the first of next month. Gentlemen in +favour of the motion will hold up their hands. Carried! _nem. con_." + +"Gentlemen!" began Webb, in a faltering voice, which was overborne and +drowned in the rush and stream of the president's words, which grew +loud and rapid at this point, and who went on as though unconscious of +interruption. "Any other business to bring forward, Stinson? No? Then +this meeting stands adjourned to the second Monday of next month. Sign +the minutes, gentlemen, and draw your honorarium." + +Webb requested Stinson to record his dissent from the vote in the +minutes, but was informed that the meeting was closed, and nothing +could be added to its proceedings. He then demurred to signing, but +Belmore, heated up to the point of speaking out in meeting for once, +declared that he must, or he should not have his dollars--that himself +and Podevin earned them by signing their names, and Webb must do +likewise. + +"The dollars may slide!" cried Joe, growing indignant, and tossing on +his hat. + +"But, Mr. Webb," said Stinson, speaking most respectfully, "will you +sign the minutes to show that I have done my duty, and they are +correct. You have been present, and the law says so;" and poor Joe +Webb, unable to bear up against a city man's polite address, though he +would have maintained his point against all the blustering farmers in +his township, yielded, and placed himself under the same moral +condemnation with the rest, as sanctioning for stock-jobbing purposes +a fraudulent dividend to be paid out of capital. + + + + FOOTNOTE: + +[Footnote 1: A one-seated sleigh, intended to carry two persons.] + + + + END OF VOL. II. + + + + PRINTED BY + KELLY AND CO., GATE STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS; + AND MIDDLE MILL KINGSTON-ON-THAMES. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Rich Man's Relatives (Vol. 2 of 3), by +Robert Cleland + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40332 *** |