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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Richard Carvel, Volume 7, by Winston Churchill
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Richard Carvel, Volume 7
+
+Author: Winston Churchill
+
+Release Date: October 18, 2004 [EBook #5371]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD CARVEL, VOLUME 7 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+RICHARD CARVEL
+
+By Winston Churchill
+
+
+Volume 7.
+
+
+XLII.   My Friends are proven
+XLIII.  Annapolis once more
+XLIV.   Noblesse Oblige
+XLV.    The House of Memories
+XLVI.   Gordon's Pride
+XLVII.  Visitors
+XLVIII. Multum in Parvo
+XLIX.   Liberty loses a Friend
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII
+
+MY FRIENDS ARE PROVEN
+
+At the door of my lodgings I was confronted by Banks, red with
+indignation and fidgety from uneasiness.
+
+"O Lord, Mr. Carvel, what has happened, sir?" he cried. "Your honour's
+agent 'as been here since noon. Must I take orders from the likes o'
+him, sir?"
+
+Mr. Dix was indeed in possession of my rooms, lounging in the chair Dolly
+had chosen, smoking my tobacco. I stared at him from the threshold.
+Something in my appearance, or force of habit, or both brought him to his
+feet, and wiped away the smirk from his face. He put down the pipe
+guiltily. I told him shortly that I had heard the news which he must
+have got by the packet: and that he should have his money, tho' it took
+the rest of my life: and the ten per cent I had promised him provided he
+would not press my Lord Comyn. He hesitated, and drummed on the table.
+He was the man of business again.
+
+"What security am I to have, Mr. Carvel?" he asked.
+
+"My word," I said. "It has never yet been broken, I thank God, nor my
+father's before me. And hark ye, Mr. Dix, you shall not be able to say
+that of Grafton." Truly I thought the principal and agent were now well
+matched.
+
+"Very good, Mr. Carvel," he said; "ten per cent. I shall call with the
+papers on Monday morning."
+
+"I shall not run away before that," I replied.
+
+He got out, with a poor attempt at a swagger, without his customary
+protestations of duty and humble offers of service. And I thanked Heaven
+he had not made a scene, which in my state of mind I could not have
+borne, but must have laid hands upon him. Perhaps he believed Grafton
+not yet secure in his title. I did not wonder then, in the heat of my
+youth, that he should have accepted my honour as security. But since I
+have marvelled not a little at this. The fine gentlemen at Brooks's with
+whom I had been associating were none too scrupulous, and regarded
+money-lenders as legitimate prey. Debts of honour they paid but tardily,
+if at all. A certain nobleman had been owing my Lord Carlisle thirteen
+thousand pounds for a couple of years, that his Lordship had won at
+hazard. And tho' I blush to write it, Mr. Fox himself was notorious in
+such matters, and was in debt to each of the coterie of fashionables of
+which he was the devoted chief.
+
+The faithful Banks vowed, with tears in his eyes, that he would never
+desert me. And in that moment of dejection the poor fellow's devotion
+brought me no little comfort. At such times the heart is bitter. We
+look askance at our friends, and make the task of comfort doubly hard for
+those that remain true. I had a great affection for the man, and had
+become so used to his ways and unwearying service that I had not the
+courage to refuse his prayers to go with me to America. I had not a
+farthing of my own--he would serve me for nothing--nay, work for me.
+"Sure," he said, taking off my coat and bringing me my gown,--"Sure, your
+honour was not made to work." To cheer me he went on with some foolish
+footman's gossip that there lacked not ladies with jointures who would
+marry me, and be thankful. I smiled sadly.
+
+"That was when I was Mr. Carvel's heir, Banks."
+
+"And your face and figure, sir, and masterful ways! Faith, and what more
+would a lady want!" Banks's notions of morality were vague enough, and he
+would have had me sink what I had left at hazard at Almack's. He had
+lived in this atmosphere. Alas! there was little chance of my ever
+regaining the position I had held but yesterday. I thought of the
+sponging-house, and my brow was moist. England was no place, in those
+days, for fallen gentlemen. With us in the Colonies the law offered
+itself. Mr. Swain, and other barristers of Annapolis, came to my mind,
+for God had given me courage. I would try the law. For I had small
+hopes of defeating my Uncle Grafton.
+
+The Sunday morning dawned brightly, and the church bells ringing brought
+me to my feet, and out into Piccadilly, in the forlorn hope that I might
+see my lady on her way to morning service,--see her for the last time in
+life, perhaps. Her locket I wore over my heart. It had lain upon hers.
+To see her was the most exquisite agony in the world. But not to see
+her, and to feel that she was scarce quarter of a mile away, was beyond
+endurance. I stood beside an area at the entrance to Arlington Street,
+and waited for an hour, quite in vain; watching every face that passed,
+townsmen in their ill-fitting Sunday clothes, and fine ladies with the
+footmen carrying velvet prayerbooks. And some that I knew only stared,
+and others gave me distant bows from their coach windows. For those that
+fall from fashion are dead to fashion.
+
+Dorothy did not go to church that day.
+
+It is a pleasure, my dears, when writing of that hour of bitterness, to
+record the moments of sweetness which lightened it. As I climbed up to
+my rooms in Dover Street, I heard merry sounds above, and a cloud of
+smoke blew out of the door when I opened it.
+
+"Here he is," cried Mr. Fox. "You see, Richard, we have not deserted you
+when we can win no more of your money."
+
+"Why, egad! the man looks as if he had had a calamity," said Mr.
+Fitzpatrick.
+
+"And there is not a Jew here," Fox continued. "Tho' it is Sunday,
+the air in my Jerusalem chamber is as bad as in any crimps den in St.
+Giles's. 'Slife, and I live to be forty, I shall have as many
+underground avenues as his Majesty Louis the Eleventh."
+
+"He must have a place," put in my Lord Carlisle.
+
+"We must do something for him," said Fox, "albeit he is an American and a
+Whig, and all the rest of the execrations. Thou wilt have to swallow thy
+golden opinions, my buckskin, when we put thee in office."
+
+I was too overwhelmed even to protest.
+
+"You are not in such a cursed bad way, when all is said, Richard," said
+Fitzpatrick. "Charles, when he loses a fortune, immediately borrows
+another."
+
+"If you stick to whist and quinze," said Charles, solemnly, giving me the
+advice they were forever thrusting upon him, "and play with system, you
+may make as much as four thousand a year, sir."
+
+And this was how I was treated by those heathen and cynical macaronies,
+Mr. Fox's friends. I may not say the same for the whole of Brooks's
+Club, tho' I never darkened its doors afterwards. But I encountered my
+Lord March that afternoon, and got only a blank stare in place of a bow.
+
+Charles had collected (Heaven knows how!) the thousand pounds which he
+stood in my debt, and Mr. Storer and Lord Carlisle offered to lend me as
+much as I chose. I had some difficulty in refusing, and more still in
+denying Charles when he pressed me to go with them to Richmond, where he
+had rooms for play over Sunday.
+
+Banks brought me the news that Lord Comyn was sitting up, and had been
+asking for me that day; that he was recovering beyond belief. But I was
+resolved not to go to Brook Street until the money affairs were settled
+on Monday with Mr. Dix, for I knew well that his Lordship would insist
+upon carrying out with the agent the contract he had so generously and
+hastily made, rather than let me pay an abnormal interest.
+
+On Monday I rose early, and went out for a bit of air before the scene
+with Mr. Dix. Returning, I saw a coach with his Lordship's arms on the
+panels, and there was Comyn himself in my great chair at the window,
+where he had been deposited by Banks and his footman. I stared as on one
+risen from the dead.
+
+"Why, Jack, what are you doing here?" I cried.
+
+He replied very offhand, as was his manner at such times:
+
+"Blicke vows that Chartersea and Lewis have qualified for the College of
+Surgeons," says he. "They are both born anatomists. Your job under the
+arm was the worst bungle of the two, egad, for Lewis put his sword, pat
+as you please, between two of my organs (cursed if I know their names),
+and not so much as scratched one."
+
+"Look you, Jack," said I, "I am not deceived. You have no right to be
+here, and you know it."
+
+"Tush!" answered his Lordship; "I am as well as you." And he took snuff
+to prove the assertion. "Why the devil was you not in Brook Street
+yesterday to tell me that your uncle had swindled you? I thought I was
+your friend," says he, "and I learn of your misfortune through others."
+
+"It is because you are my friend, and my best friend, that I would not
+worry you when you lay next door to death on my account," I said, with
+emotion.
+
+And just then Banks announced Mr. Dix.
+
+"Let him wait," said I, greatly disturbed.
+
+"Show him up!" said my Lord, peremptorily.
+
+"No, no!" I protested; "he can wait. We shall have no business now."
+
+But Banks was gone. And I found out, long afterward, that it was put up
+between them.
+
+The agent swaggered in with that easy assurance he assumed whenever he
+got the upper hand. He was the would-be squire once again, in top-boots
+and a frock. I have rarely seen a man put out of countenance so easily
+as was Mr. Dix that morning when he met his Lordship's fixed gaze from
+the arm-chair.
+
+"And so you are turned Jew?" says he, tapping his snuffbox. "Before
+you go ahead so fast again, you will please to remember, d--n you, that
+Mr. Carvel is the kind that does not lose his friends with his fortune."
+
+Mr. Dix made a salaam, which was so ludicrous in a squire that my Lord
+roared with laughter, and I feared for his wound.
+
+"A man must live, my Lord," sputtered the agent. His discomfiture was
+painful.
+
+"At the expense of another," says Comyn, dryly. "That is your motto in
+Change Alley."
+
+"If you will permit, Jack, I must have a few words in private with Mr.
+Dix," I cut in uneasily.
+
+His Lordship would be damned first. "I am not accustomed to be thwarted,
+Richard, I tell you. Ask the dowager if I have not always had my way.
+I am not going to stand by and see a man who saved my life fall into the
+clutches of an usurer. Yes, I said usurer, Mr. Dix. My attorney, Mr.
+Kennett, of Lincoln's Inn, has instructions to settle with you."
+
+And, despite all I could say, he would not budge an inch. At last I
+submitted under the threat that he would never after have a word to say
+to me. By good luck, when I had paid into Mr. Dix's hand the thousand
+pounds I had received from Charles Fox, and cleared my outstanding bills,
+the sum I remained in Comyn's debt was not greatly above seven hundred
+pounds. And that was the end of Mr. Dix for me; when he had backed
+himself out in chagrin at having lost his ten per centum, my feelings got
+the better of me. The water rushed to my eyes, and I turned my back upon
+his Lordship. To conceal his own emotions he fell to swearing like mad.
+
+"Fox will get you something," he said at length, when he was a little
+calmed.
+
+I told him, sadly, that my duty took me to America.
+
+"And Dorothy?" he said; "you will leave her?"
+
+I related the whole miserable story (all save the part of the locket),
+for I felt that I owed it him. His excitement grew as he listened, until
+I had to threaten to stop to keep him quiet. But when I had done, he saw
+nothing but good to come of it.
+
+"'Od's life! Richard, lad, come here!" he cried. "Give me your hand.
+Why, you ass, you have won a thousand times over what you lost. She
+loves you! Did I not say so? And as for that intriguing little puppy,
+her father, you have pulled his teeth, egad. She heard what you said to
+him, you tell me. Then he will never deceive her again, my word on't.
+And Chartersea may come back to London, and be damned."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII
+
+ANNAPOLIS ONCE MORE
+
+Three days after that I was at sea, in the Norfolk packet, with the
+farewells of my loyal English friends ringing in my ears. Captain
+Graham, the master of the packet, and his passengers found me but a poor
+companion. But they had heard of my misfortune, and vied with each other
+in heaping kindnesses upon me. Nor did they intrude on my walks in the
+night watches, to see me slipping a locket from under my waistcoat--ay,
+and raising it to my lips. 'Twas no doubt a blessing that I had lesser
+misfortunes to share my attention. God had put me in the way of looking
+forward rather than behind, and I was sure that my friends in Annapolis
+would help me to an honest living, and fight my cause against Grafton.
+
+Banks was with me. The devoted soul did his best to cheer me, tho'
+downcast himself at leaving England. To know what to do with him gave
+me many an anxious moment. I doubted not that I could get him into a
+service, but when I spoke of such a thing he burst into tears, and
+demanded whether I meant to throw him off. Nor was any argument of mine
+of use.
+
+After a fair and uneventful voyage of six weeks, I beheld again my native
+shores in the low spits of the Virginia capes. The sand was very hot and
+white, and the waters of the Chesapeake rolled like oil under the July
+sun. We were all day getting over to Yorktown, the ship's destination.
+A schooner was sailing for Annapolis early the next morning, and I barely
+had time to get off my baggage and catch her. We went up the bay with a
+fresh wind astern, which died down at night.
+
+The heat was terrific after England and the sea-voyage, and we slept on
+the deck. And Banks sat, most of the day, exclaiming at the vast scale
+on which this new country was laid out, and wondering at the myriad
+islands we passed, some of them fair with grain and tobacco; and at the
+low-lying shores clothed with forests, and broken by the salt marshes,
+with now and then the manor-house of some gentleman-planter visible on
+either side. Late on the second day I beheld again the cliffs that mark
+the mouth of the Severn, then the sail-dotted roads and the roofs of
+Annapolis.
+
+We landed, Banks and I, in a pinnace from the schooner, and so full was
+my heart at the sight of the old objects that I could only gulp now and
+then, and utter never a word. There was the dock where I had paced up
+and down near the whole night, when Dolly had sailed away; and Pryse the
+coachmaker's shop, and the little balcony upon which I had stood with my
+grandfather, and railed in a boyish tenor at Mr. Hood. The sun cast
+sharp, black shadows. And it being the middle of the dull season, when
+the quality were at their seats, and the dinner-hour besides, the town
+might have been a deserted one for its stillness, as tho' the inhabitants
+had walked out of it, and left it so. I made my way, Banks behind me,
+into Church Street, past the "Ship" tavern, which brought memories of
+the brawl there, and of Captain Clapsaddle forcing the mob, like chaff,
+before his sword. The bees were humming idly over the sweet-scented
+gardens, and Farris, the clock-maker, sat at his door, and nodded. He
+jerked his head as I went by with a cry of "Lord, it is Mr. Richard
+back!" and I must needs pause, to let him bow over my hand. Farther up
+the street I came to mine host of the Coffee House standing on his steps,
+with his hands behind his back.
+
+"Mr. Claude," I said.
+
+He looked at me as tho' I had risen from the dead.
+
+"God save us!" he shouted, in a voice that echoed through the narrow
+street. "God save us!"
+
+He seemed to go all to pieces. To my bated questions he replied at
+length, when he had got his breath, that Captain Clapsaddle had come to
+town but the day before, and was even then in the coffee-room at his
+dinner. Alone? Yes, alone. Almost tottering, I mounted the steps, and
+turned in at the coffee-room door, and stopped. There sat the captain at
+a table, the roast and wine untouched before him, his waistcoat thrown
+open. He was staring out of the open window into the inn garden beyond,
+with its shade of cherry trees. Mr. Claude's cry had not disturbed his
+reveries, nor our talk after it. I went forward. I touched him on the
+shoulder, and he sprang up, and looked once into my face, and by some
+trick of the mind uttered the very words Mr. Claude had used.
+
+"God save us! Richard!" And he opened his arms and strained me to his
+great chest, calling my name again and again, while the tears coursed
+down the furrows of his cheeks. For I marked the furrows for the first
+time, and the wrinkles settling in his forehead and around his eyes.
+What he said when he released me, nor my replies, can I remember now,
+but at last he called, in his ringing voice, to mine host:
+
+"A bottle from your choicest bin, Claude! Some of Mr. Bordley's.
+For he that was lost is found."
+
+The hundred questions I had longed to ask were forgotten. A peace stole
+upon me that I had not felt since I had looked upon his face before. The
+wine was brought by Mr. Claude, and opened, and it was mine host who
+broke the silence, and the spell.
+
+"Your very good health, Mr. Richard," he said; "and may you come to your
+own again!"
+
+"I drink it with all my heart, Richard," replied Captain Daniel. But he
+glanced at me sadly, and his honest nature could put no hope into his
+tone. "We have got him back again, Mr. Claude. And God has answered our
+prayers. So let us be thankful." And he sat down in silence, gazing at
+me in pity and tenderness, while Mr. Claude withdrew. "I can give you
+but a sad welcome home, my lad," he said presently, with a hesitation
+strange to him. "'Tis not the first bad news I have had to break in my
+life to your family, but I pray it may be the last." He paused. I knew
+he was thinking of the black tidings he had once brought my mother.
+"Richard, your grandfather is dead," he ended abruptly.
+
+I nodded wonderingly.
+
+"What!" he exclaimed; "you have heard already?"
+
+"Mr. Manners told me, in London," I said, completely mystified.
+
+"London!" he cried, starting forward. "London and Mr. Manners! Have you
+been to London?"
+
+"You had my letters to Mr. Carvel?" I demanded, turning suddenly sick.
+
+His eye flashed.
+
+"Never a letter. We mourned you for dead, Richard. This is Grafton's
+work!" he cried, springing to his feet and striking the table with his
+great fist, so that the dishes jumped. "Grafton Carvel, the prettiest
+villain in these thirteen colonies! Oh, we shall hang him some day."
+
+"Then Mr. Carvel died without knowing that I was safe?" I interrupted.
+
+"On that I'll lay all my worldly goods," replied Captain Daniel,
+emphatically. "If any letters came to Marlboro' Street from you, Mr.
+Carvel never dropped eyes on 'em."
+
+"What a fool was I not to have written you!" I groaned.
+
+He drew his chair around the table, and close to mine.
+
+"Had the news that you escaped death been cried aloud in the streets, my
+lad, 'twould never have got to your grandfather's ear," he said, in lower
+tones. "I will tell you what happened, tho' I have it at second hand,
+being in the North, as you may remember. Grafton came in from Kent and
+invested Marlboro' Street. He himself broke the news to Mr. Carvel, who
+took to his bed. Leiden was not in attendance, you may be sure, but that
+quack-doctor Drake. Swain sent me a message, and I killed a horse
+getting here from New York. But I could no more gain admittance to your
+grandfather, Richard, than to King George the Third. I was met in the
+hall by that crocodile, who told me with too many fair words that I
+could not see my old friend; that for the present Dr. Drake denied him
+everybody. Then I damned Dr. Drake, and Grafton too. And I let him know
+my suspicions. He ordered me off, Richard--from that house which has
+been my only home for these twenty years." His voice broke.
+
+"Mr. Carvel thought me dead, then."
+
+"And most mercifully. Your black Hugo, when he was somewhat recovered,
+swore he had seen you killed and carried off. Sooth, they say there was
+blood enough on the place. But we spared no pains to obtain a clew of
+you. I went north to Boston, and Lloyd's factor south to Charleston.
+But no trace of the messenger who came to the Coffee House after you
+could we find. Hell had opened and swallowed him. And mark this for
+consummate villany: Grafton himself spent no less than five hundred
+pounds in advertising and the like."
+
+"And he is not suspected?" I asked. This was the same question I had put
+to Mrs. Manners. It caused the captain to flare up again.
+
+"'Tis incredible how a rogue may impose upon men of worth and integrity
+if he but know how to smirk piously, and never miss a service. And then
+he is an exceeding rich man. Riches cover a multitude of sins in the
+most virtuous community in the world. Your Aunt Caroline brought him a
+pretty fortune, you know. We had ominous times this spring, with the
+associations forming, and the 'Good Intent' and the rest being sent back
+to England. His Excellency was at his wits' end for support. It was
+Grafton Carvel who helped him most, and spent money like tobacco for the
+King's cause, which, being interpreted, was for his own advancement. But
+I believe Colonel Lloyd suspects him, tho' he has never said as much to
+me. I have told Mr. Swain, under secrecy, what I think. He is one of
+the ablest lawyers that the colony owns, Richard, and a stanch friend of
+yours. He took your case of his own accord. But he says we have no
+foothold as yet."
+
+When I asked if there was a will the captain rapped out an oath.
+
+"'Sdeath! yes," he cried, "a will in favour of Grafton and his heirs,
+witnessed by Dr. Drake, they say, and another scoundrel. Your name does
+not occur throughout the length and breadth of it. You were dead. But
+you will have to ask Mr. Swain for those particulars. My dear old friend
+was sadly gone when he wrote it, I fear. For he never lacked shrewdness
+in his best days. Nor," added Captain Daniel, with force, "nor did he
+want for a proper estimation of Grafton."
+
+"He has never been the same since that first sickness," I answered sadly.
+
+When the captain came to speak of Mr. Carvel's death, the son and
+daughter he loved, and the child of his old age in the grave before him,
+he proceeded brokenly, and the tears blinded him. Mr. Carvel's last
+words will never be known, my dears. They sounded in the unfeeling ears
+of the serpent Grafton. 'Twas said that he was seen coming out of his
+father's house an hour after the demise, a smile on his face which he
+strove to hide with a pucker of sorrow. But by God's grace Mr. Allen had
+not read the prayers. The rector was at last removed from Annapolis, and
+had obtained the fat living of Frederick which he coveted.
+
+"As I hope for salvation," the captain concluded, "I will swear there is
+not such another villain in the world as Grafton. The imagination of a
+fiend alone could have conceived and brought to execution the crime he
+has committed. And the Borgias were children to him. 'Twas not only the
+love of money that urged him, but hatred of you and of your father. That
+was his strongest motive, I believe. However, the days are coming, lad,
+when he shall have his reward, unless all signs fail. And we have had
+enough of sober talk," said he, pressing me to eat. "Faith, but just
+now, when you came in, I was thinking of you, Richard. And--God forgive
+me! complaining against the lot of my life. And thinking, now that you
+were taken out of it, and your father and mother and grandfather gone,
+how little I had to live for. Now you are home again," says he, his eyes
+lighting on me with affection, "I count the gray hairs as nothing. Let
+us have your story, and be merry. Nay, I might have guessed you had been
+in London, with your fine clothes and your English servant."
+
+'Twas a long story, as you know, my dears. He lighted his pipe and laid
+his big hand over mine, and filled my glass, and I told him most of that
+which had happened to me. But I left out the whole of that concerning
+Mr. Manners and the Duke of Chartersea, nor did I speak of the
+sponging-house. I believe my only motive for this omittance was a
+reluctance to dwell upon Dorothy, and a desire to shield her father for
+her sake. He dropped many a vigorous exclamation into my pauses, but
+when I came to speak of my friendship with Mr. Fox, his brow clouded
+over.
+
+"'Ad's heart!" he cried, "'Ad's heart! And so you are turned Tory, and
+have at last been perverted from those principles for which I loved you
+most. In the old days my conscience would not allow me to advise you,
+Richard, and now that I am free to speak, you are past advice."
+
+I laughed aloud.
+
+"And what if I tell you that I made friends with his Grace of Grafton,
+and Lord Sandwich, and was invited to Hichinbroke, his Lordship's seat?"
+said I.
+
+His honest face was a picture of consternation.
+
+"Now the good Lord deliver us!" he exclaimed fervently. "Sandwich!
+Grafton! The devil!"
+
+I gave myself over to the first real merriment I had had since I had
+heard of Mr. Carvel's death.
+
+"And when Mr. Fox learned that I had lost my fortune," I went on, "he
+offered me a position under Government."
+
+"Have you not friends enough at home to care for you, sir?" he said,
+his face getting purple. "Are you Jack Carvel's son, or are you an
+impostor?"
+
+"I am Jack Carvel's son, dear Captain Daniel, and that is why I am here,"
+I replied. "I am a stouter Whig than ever, and I believe I might have
+converted Mr. Fox himself had I remained at home sufficiently long,"
+I added, with a solemn face. And, for my own edification, I related how
+I had bearded his Majesty's friends at Brooks's, whereat he gave a great,
+joyful laugh, and thumped me on the back.
+
+"You dog, Richard! You sly rogue!" And he called to Mr. Claude for
+another bottle on the strength of that, and we pledged the Association.
+He peppered me with questions concerning Junius, and Mr. Wilkes, and Mr.
+Franklin of Philadelphia. Had I seen him in London? "I would not doubt
+a Carvel's word," says the captain, "(always excepting Grafton and his
+line, as usual), but you may duck me on the stool and I comprehend why
+Mr. Fox and his friends took up with such a young rebel rapscallion as
+you--and after the speech you made 'em."
+
+I astonished him vastly by pointing out that Mr. Fox and his friends
+cared a deal for place, and not a fig for principle; that my frankness
+had entertained rather than offended them; and that, having a taste for
+a bit of wild life and the money to gratify it, and being of a tolerant,
+easy nature withal, I had contrived to make many friends in that set,
+without aiming at influence. Whereat he gave me another lick between the
+shoulders.
+
+"It was so with Jack," he cried; "thou art a replica. He would have made
+friends with the devil himself. In the French war, when all the rest of
+us Royal Americans were squabbling with his Majesty's officers out of
+England, and cursing them at mess, they could never be got to fight with
+Jack, tho' he gave them ample provocation. There was Tetherington, of
+the 22d foot,--who jeered us for damned provincials, and swaggered
+through three duels in a week,--would enter no quarrel with him. I can
+hear him say: 'Damn you, Carvel, you may slap my face and you will, or
+walk in ahead of me at the general's dinner and you will, but I like you
+too well to draw at you. I would not miss your company at table for all
+the world.' And when he was killed," Captain Daniel continued, lowering
+his voice, "some of them cried like women, Tetherington among 'em,--and
+swore they would rather have lost their commissions at high play."
+
+We sat talking until the summer's dusk grew on apace, and one thing this
+devoted lover of my family told me, which lightened my spirits of the
+greatest burden that had rested upon them since my calamity befell me.
+I had dwelt at length upon my Lord Comyn, and upon the weight of his
+services to me, and touched upon the sum which I stood in his debt. The
+captain interrupted me.
+
+"One day, before your mother died, she sent for me," said he, "and I came
+to Carvel Hall. You were too young to remember. It was in September,
+and she was sitting on the seat under the oak she loved so well,--by Dr.
+Hilliard's study.
+
+"The lace shawl your father had given her was around her shoulders, and
+upon her face was the smile that gave me a pang to see. For it had
+something of heaven in it, Richard. She called me 'Daniel' then for the
+second time in her life. She bade me be seated beside her. 'Daniel,'
+she said, 'when I am gone, and father is gone, it is you who will take
+care of Richard. I sometimes believe all may not be well then, and that
+he will need you.' I knew she was thinking of Grafton," said the
+captain. "'I have a little money of my own, Daniel, which I have saved
+lately with this in view. I give it into your charge, and if trouble
+comes to him, my old friend, you will use it as you see fit.'
+
+"It was a bit under a thousand pounds, Richard. And when she died I put
+it out under Mr. Carroll's direction at safe interest. So that you have
+enough to discharge your debt, and something saved against another
+emergency."
+
+He fell silent, sunk into one of those reveries which the memory of my
+mother awoke in him. My own thoughts drifted across the sea. I was
+again at the top of the stairs in Arlington Street, and feeling the
+dearest presence in the world. The pale oval of Dorothy's face rose
+before me and the troubled depths of her blue eyes. And I heard once
+more the tremble in her voice as she confessed, in words of which she
+took no heed, that love for which I had sought in vain.
+
+The summer dusk was gathering. Outside, under the cherry trees, I saw
+Banks holding forth to an admiring circle of negro 'ostlers. And
+presently Mr. Claude came in to say that Shaw, the town carpenter, and
+Sol Mogg, the ancient sexton of St. Anne's, and several more of my old
+acquaintances were without, and begged the honour of greeting me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV
+
+NOBLESSE OBLIGE
+
+I lay that night in Captain Clapsaddle's lodgings opposite, and slept
+soundly. Banks was on hand in the morning to assist at my toilet, and
+was greatly downcast when I refused him this privilege, for the first
+time. Captain Daniel was highly pleased with the honest fellow's
+devotion in following me to America. To cheer him he began to question
+him as to my doings in London, and the first thing of which Banks must
+tell was of the riding-contest in Hyde Park, which I had omitted. It is
+easy to imagine how this should have tickled the captain, who always had
+my horsemanship at heart; and when it came to Chartersea's descent into
+the Serpentine, I thought he would go into apoplexy. For he had put on
+flesh with the years.
+
+The news of my return had spread all over town, so that I had a deal more
+handshaking to do when we went to the Coffee House for breakfast. All
+the quality were in the country, of course, save only four gentlemen of
+the local Patriots' committee, of which Captain Daniel was a member, and
+with whom he had an appointment at ten. It was Mr. Swain who arrived
+first of the four.
+
+This old friend of my childhood was a quiet man (I may not have
+specified), thin, and a little under stature, with a receding but
+thoughtful forehead. But he could express as much of joy and welcome in
+his face and manner as could Captain Daniel with his heartier ways.
+
+"It does me good to see you, lad," he said, pressing my hand. "I heard
+you were home, and sent off an express to Patty and the mother last
+night."
+
+"And are they not here?" I asked, with disappointment.
+
+Mr. Swain smiled.
+
+"I have done a rash thing since I saw you, Richard, and bought a little
+plantation in Talbot, next to Singleton's. It will be my ruin," he
+added. "A lawyer has no business with landed ambitions."
+
+"A little plantation!" echoed the captain. "'Od's life, he has bought
+one of his Lordship's own manors--as good an estate as there is in the
+province."
+
+"You overdo it, Daniel," said he, reprovingly.
+
+At that moment there was a stir in the doorway, and in came Mr. Carroll,
+the barrister, and Mr. Bordley and Colonel Lloyd. These gentlemen gave
+me such a welcome as those warm-hearted planters and lawyers knew how to
+bestow.
+
+"What, he!" cried Mr. Lloyd, "I'm stamped and taxed if it isn't young
+Richard Carvel himself. Well," says he, "I know one who will sleep
+easier o' nights now,--one Clapsaddle. The gray hairs are forgot,
+Daniel. We had more to-do over your disappearance than when Mr.
+Worthington lost his musical nigger. Where a deuce have you been, sir?"
+
+"He shall tell us when we come back," said Mr. Bordley. "He has brought
+our worthy association to a standstill once, and now we must proceed
+about our business. Will you come, Richard? I believe you have proved
+yourself a sufficiently good patriot, and in this very house."
+
+We went down Church Street, I walking behind with Colonel Lloyd, and so
+proud to be in such company that I cared not a groat whether Grafton had
+my acres or not. I remembered that the committee all wore plain and
+sober clothes, and carried no swords. Mr. Swain alone had a wig. I had
+been away but seven months, and yet here was a perceptible change. In
+these dignified and determined gentlemen England had more to fear than in
+all the mobs at Mr. Wilkes's back. How I wished that Charles Fox might
+have been with me.
+
+The sun beat down upon the street. The shopkeepers were gathered at
+their doors, but their chattering was hushed as the dreaded committee
+passed. More than one, apparently, had tasted of its discipline.
+Colonel Lloyd whispered to me to keep my countenance, that they were
+not after very large game that morning,--only Chipchase, the butcher.
+And presently we came upon the rascal putting up his shutters in much
+precipitation, although it was noon. He had shed his blood-stained smock
+and breeches, and donned his Sunday best,--a white, thick-set coat,
+country cloth jacket, blue broadcloth breeches, and white shirt. A
+grizzled cut wig sat somewhat awry under his bearskin hat. When he
+perceived Mr. Carroll at his shoulder, he dropped his shutter against the
+wall, and began bowing frantically.
+
+"You keep good hours, Master Chipchase," remarked Colonel Lloyd.
+
+"And lose good customers," Mr. Swain added laconically.
+
+The butcher wriggled.
+
+"Your honours must know there be little selling when the gentry be out of
+town. And I was to take a holiday to-day, to see my daughter married."
+
+"You will have a feast, my good man?" Captain Daniel asked.
+
+"To be sure, your honour, a feast."
+
+"And any little ewe-lambs?" says Mr. Bordley, very innocent.
+
+Master Chipchase turned the colour of his meat, and his wit failed him.
+
+"'Fourthly,'" recited Mr. Carroll, with an exceeding sober face,
+"'Fourthly, that we will not kill, or suffer to be killed, or sell, or
+dispose to any person whom we have reason to believe intends to kill, any
+ewe-lamb that shall be weaned before the first day of May, in any year
+during the time aforesaid.' Have you ever heard anything of that sound,
+Mr. Chipchase?"
+
+Mr. Chipchase had. And if their honours pleased, he had a defence to
+make, if their honours would but listen. And if their honours but knew,
+he was as good a patriot as any in the province, and sold his wool to
+Peter Psalter, and he wore the homespun in winter. Then Mr. Carroll drew
+a paper from his pocket, and began to read: "Mr. Thomas Hincks,
+personally known to me, deposeth and saith,--"
+
+Master Chipchase's knees gave from under him.
+
+"And your honours please," he cried piteously, "I killed the lamb, but
+'twas at Mr. Grafton Carvel's order, who was in town with his
+Excellency." (Here Mr. Swain and the captain glanced significantly at
+me.) "And I lose Mr. Carvel's custom, there is twelve pounds odd gone
+a year, your honours. And I am a poor man, sirs."
+
+"Who is it owns your shop, my man?" asks Mr. Bordley, very sternly.
+
+"Oh, I beg your honours will not have me put out--"
+
+The wailing of his voice had drawn a crowd of idlers and brother
+shopkeepers, who seemed vastly to enjoy the knave's discomfiture.
+Amongst them I recognized my old acquaintance, Weld, now a rival
+butcher. He pushed forward boldly.
+
+"And your honours please," said he, "he has sold lamb to half the Tory
+gentry in Annapolis."
+
+"A lie!" cried Chipchase; "a lie, as God hears me!"
+
+Now Captain Clapsaddle was one who carried his loves and his hatreds to
+the grave, and he had never liked Weld since the day, six years gone by,
+he had sent me into the Ship tavern. And when Weld heard the captain's
+voice he slunk away without a word.
+
+"Have a care, Master Weld," says he, in a quiet tone that boded no good;
+"there is more evidence against you than you will like."
+
+Master Chipchase, after being frightened almost out of his senses, was
+pardoned this once by Captain Daniel's influence. We went thence to Mr.
+Hildreth's shop; he was suspected of having got tea out of a South River
+snow; then to Mr. Jackson's; and so on. 'Twas after two when we got back
+to the Coffee House, and sat down to as good a dinner as Mr. Claude could
+prepare. "And now," cried Colonel Lloyd, "we shall have your adventures,
+Richard. I would that your uncle were here to listen to them," he added
+dryly.
+
+I recited them very much as I had done the night before, and I warrant
+you, my dears, that they listened with more zest and eagerness than did
+Mr. Walpole. But they were all shrewd men, and kept their suspicions,
+if they had any, to themselves. Captain Daniel would have me omit
+nothing,--my intimacy with Mr. Fox, the speech at Brooks's Club,
+and the riding-match at Hyde Park.
+
+"What say you to that, gentlemen?" he cried. "Egad, I'll be sworn he
+deserves credit,--an arrant young spark out of the Colonies, scarce
+turned nineteen, defeating a duke of the realm on horseback, and
+preaching the gospel of 'no taxation' at Brooks's Club! Nor the favour
+of Sandwich or March could turn him from his principles."
+
+Modesty, my dears, does not permit me to picture the enthusiasm of these
+good gentlemen, who bore the responsibility of the colony of Maryland
+upon their shoulders. They made more of me than I deserved. In vain did
+I seek to explain that if a young man was but well-born, and had a full
+purse and a turn for high play, his principles might go hang, for all
+Mr. Fox cared. Colonel Lloyd commanded that the famous rose punch-bowl
+be filled to the brim with Mr. Claude's best summer brew, and they drank
+my health and my grandfather's memory. It mattered little to them that
+I was poor. They vowed I should not lose by my choice. Mr. Bordley
+offered me a home, and added that I should have employment enough in the
+days to come. Mr. Carroll pressed me likewise. And big-hearted Colonel
+Lloyd desired to send me to King's College, as was my grandfather's wish,
+where Will Fotheringay and my cousin Philip had been for a term. I might
+make a barrister of myself. Mr. Swain alone was silent and thoughtful,
+but I did not for an instant doubt that he would have done as much for
+me.
+
+Before we broke up for the evening the gentlemen plied me with questions
+concerning the state of affairs in England, and the temper of his Majesty
+and Parliament. I say without vanity that I was able to enlighten them
+not a little, for I had learned a deeper lesson from the set into which
+I had fallen in London than if I had become the confidant of Rockingham
+himself. America was a long way from England in those days. I regretted
+that I had not arrived in London in time to witness Lord Chatham's
+dramatic return to politics in January, when he had completed the work
+of Junius, and broken up the Grafton ministry. But I told them of the
+debate I had heard in St. Stephen's, and made them laugh over Mr. Fox's
+rescue of the King's friends, and the hustling of Mr. Burke from the
+Lords.
+
+They were very curious, too, about Mr. Manners; and I was put to much
+ingenuity to answer their queries and not reveal my own connection with
+him. They wished to know if it were true that some nobleman had flung a
+bottle at his head in a rage because Dorothy would not marry him, as Dr.
+Courtenay's letter had stated. I replied that it was so. I did not add
+that it was the same nobleman who had been pitched into the Serpentine.
+Nor did I mention the fight at Vauxhall. I made no doubt these things
+would come to their ears, but I did not choose to be the one to tell
+them. Mr. Swain remained after the other gentlemen, and asked me if I
+would come with him to Gloucester Street; that he had something to say to
+me. We went the long way thither, and I was very grateful to him for
+avoiding Marlboro' Street, which must needs bring me painful
+recollections. He said little on the way.
+
+I almost expected to see Patty come tripping down from the vine-covered
+porch with her needlework in her hand, and the house seemed strangely
+empty without her. Mr. Swain had his negro, Romney, place chairs for us
+under the apple tree, and bring out pipes and sangaree. The air was
+still, and heavy with the flowers' scent, and the sun was dipping behind
+the low eaves of the house. It was so natural to be there that I scarce
+realized all that had happened since last I saw the back gate in the
+picket fence. Alas! little Patty would never more be smuggled through it
+and over the wall to Marlboro' Street. Mr. Swain recalled my thoughts.
+
+"Captain Clapsaddle has asked me to look into this matter of the will,
+Richard," he began abruptly. "Altho' we thought never to see you again,
+we have hoped against hope. I fear you have little chance for your
+property, my lad."
+
+I replied that Captain Daniel had so led me to believe, and thanked him
+for his kindness and his trouble.
+
+"'Twas no trouble," he replied quickly. "Indeed, I wish it might have
+been. I shall always think of your grandfather with reverence and with
+sorrow. He was a noble man, and was a friend to me, in spite of my
+politics, when other gentlemen of position would not invite me to their
+houses. It would be the greatest happiness of my life if I could restore
+his property to you, where he would have had it go, and deprive that
+villain, your uncle, of the fruits of his crime."
+
+"Then there is nothing to be got by contesting the will?" I asked.
+
+He shook his head soberly.
+
+"I fear not at present," said he, "nor can I with honesty hold out any
+hope to you, Richard. Your uncle, by reason of his wealth, is a man of
+undue influence with the powers of the colony. Even if he were not so, I
+doubt greatly whether we should be the gainers. The will is undoubtedly
+genuine. Mr. Carvel thought you dead, and we cannot prove undue
+influence by Grafton unless we also prove that it was he who caused
+your abduction. Do you think you can prove that?"
+
+"There is one witness," I exclaimed, "who overheard my uncle and Mr.
+Allen talking of South River and Griggs, the master of the slaver,
+in the stables at Carvel Hall."
+
+"And who is that?" demanded Mr. Swain, with more excitement than I
+believed him capable of.
+
+"Old Harvey."
+
+Your grandfather's coachman? Alas, he died the day after Mr. Carvel, and
+was buried the same afternoon. Have you spoken of this?"
+
+"Not to a soul," said I.
+
+"Then I would not. You will have to be very careful and say nothing,
+Richard. Let me hear what other reasons you have for believing that your
+uncle tried to do away with you."
+
+I told him, lucidly as possible, everything I have related in these
+pages, and the admission of Griggs. He listened intently, shaking his
+head now and then, but not a word out of him.
+
+"No," he said at length, "nothing is there which will be admitted, but
+enough to damn him if you yourself might be a witness. I will give you
+the law, briefly: descendible estates among us are of two kinds, estates
+in fee simple and estates in fee tail. Had your grandfather died without
+a will, his estate, which we suppose to be in fee simple, would have
+descended to you as the son of his eldest son, according to the fourth of
+the canons of descent in Blackstone. But with us fee simple estates are
+devisable, and Mr. Carvel was wholly within his right in cutting off the
+line of his eldest son. Do you follow me?"
+
+I nodded.
+
+"There is one chance," he continued, "and that is a very slim one.
+I said that Mr. Carvel's estate was supposed to be in fee simple.
+Estates tail are not devisable. Our system of registration is far from
+infallible, and sometimes an old family settlement turns up to prove that
+a property which has been willed out of the direct line, as in fee
+simple, is in reality entailed. Is there a possibility of any such
+document?"
+
+I replied that I did not know. My grandfather had never brought up the
+subject.
+
+"We must bend our efforts in that direction," said the barrister.
+"I shall have my clerks make a systematic search."
+
+He ceased talking, and sat sipping his sangaree in the abstracted manner
+common to him. I took the opportunity to ask about his family, thinking
+about what Dolly had said of Patty's illness.
+
+"The mother is as well as can be expected, Richard, and Patty very rosy
+with the country air. Your disappearance was a great shock to them
+both."
+
+"And Tom?"
+
+He went behind his reserve. "Tom is a d--d rake," he exclaimed, with
+some vehemence. "I have given him over. He has taken up with that
+macaroni Courtenay, who wins his money,--or rather my money,--and your
+cousin Philip, when he is home from King's College. How Tom can be son
+of mine is beyond me, in faith. I see him about once in two months, when
+he comes here with a bill for his satins and his ruffles, and along face
+of repentance, and a lot of gaming debts to involve my honour. And that
+reminds me, Richard," said he, looking straight at me with his clear,
+dark eyes: "have you made any plans for your future?"
+
+I ventured to ask his advice as to entering the law.
+
+"As the only profession open to a gentleman," he replied, smiling a
+little. "No, you were no more cut out for an attorney, or a barrister,
+or a judge, than was I for a macaroni doctor. The time is not far away,
+my lad," he went on, seeing my shame and confusion, "when an American may
+amass money in any way he chooses, and still be a gentleman, behind a
+counter, if he will."
+
+"I do not fear work, Mr. Swain," I remarked, with some pride.
+
+"That is what I have been thinking," he said shortly. "And I am not a
+man to make up my mind while you count three, Richard. I have the place
+in Talbot, and no one to look after it. And--and in short I think you
+are the man."
+
+He paused to watch the effect of this upon me. But I was so taken aback
+by this new act of kindness that I could not say a word.
+
+"Tom is fast going to the devil, as I told you," he continued. "He
+cannot be trusted. If I die, that estate shall be Patty's, and he may
+never squander it. Captain Daniel tells me, and Mr. Bordley also, that
+you managed at Carvel Hall with sense and ability. I know you are very
+young, but I think I may rely upon you."
+
+Again he hesitated, eying me fixedly.
+
+"Ah," said he, with his quiet smile, "it is the old noblesse oblige. How
+many careers has it ruined since the world began!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV
+
+THE HOUSE OF MEMORIES
+
+I was greatly touched, and made Mr. Swain many awkward acknowledgments,
+which he mercifully cut short. I asked him for a while to think over his
+offer. This seemed to please rather than displease him. And my first
+impulse on reaching the inn was to ask the captain's advice. I thought
+better of it however, and at length resolved to thrash out the matter for
+myself.
+
+The next morning, as I sat reflecting, an overwhelming desire seized me
+to go to Marlboro' Street. Hitherto I could not have borne the sight of
+the old place. I gulped down my emotion as the gate creaked behind me,
+and made my way slowly to the white seat under the big chestnut behind
+the house, where my grandfather had been wont to sit reading his prints,
+in the warm weather. The flowers and the hedges had grown to a certain
+wildness; and the smell of the American roses carried me back-as odours
+will-to long-forgotten and trivial scenes. Here I had been caned many a
+day for Mr. Daaken's reports, and for earlier offences. And I recalled
+my mother as she once ran out at the sound of my cries to beg me off. So
+vivid was that picture that I could hear Mr. Carvel say: "He is yours,
+madam, not mine. Take him!"
+
+I started up. The house was still, the sun blistering the green paint of
+the shutters. My eye was caught by those on the room that had been hers,
+and which, by my grandfather's decree, had lain closed since she left it.
+The image of it grew in my mind: the mahogany bed with its poppy
+counterpane and creamy curtains, and the steps at the side by which she
+was wont to enter it; and the 'prie-dieu', whence her soul had been
+lifted up to God. And the dresser with her china and silver upon it,
+covered by years of dust. For I had once stolen the key from Willis's
+bunch, crept in, and crept out again, awed. That chamber would be
+profaned, now, and those dear ornaments, which were mine, violated.
+The imagination choked me.
+
+I would have them. I must. Nothing easier than to pry open a door or
+window in the north wing, by the ball-room. When I saw Grafton I would
+tell him. Nay, I would write him that day. I was even casting about me
+for an implement, when I heard a step on the gravel beside me.
+
+I swung around, and came face to face with my uncle.
+
+He must have perceived me. And after the first shock of my surprise had
+passed, I remarked a bearing on him that I had not seen before. He was
+master of the situation at last,--so it read. The realization gave him
+an easier speech than ever.
+
+"I thought I might find you here, Richard," he said, "since you were not
+at the Coffee House."
+
+He did not offer me his hand. I could only stare at him, for I had
+expected anything but this.
+
+"I came from Carvel Hall to get you," he proceeded smoothly enough.
+"I heard but yesterday of your return, and some of your miraculous
+adventures. Your recklessness has caused us many a trying day, Richard,
+and I believe killed your grandfather. You have paid dearly, and have
+made us pay dearly, for your mad frolic of fighting cut-throats on the
+highroad."
+
+The wonder was that I did not kill him on the spot. I cannot think what
+possessed the man,--he must have known me better.
+
+"My recklessness!" I shouted, fairly hoarse with anger. I paid no heed
+to Mr. Swain's warning. "You d--d scoundrel!" I cried, "it was you
+killed him, and you know it. When you had put me out of the way and he
+was in your power, you tortured him to death. You forced him to die
+alone with your sneering face, while your shrew of a wife counted cards
+downstairs. Grafton Carvel, God knows you better than I, who know you
+two well. And He will punish you as sure as the crack of doom."
+
+He heard me through, giving back as I came forward, his face blanching
+only a little, and wearing all the time that yellow smile which so fitted
+it.
+
+"You have finished?" says he.
+
+"Ay, I have finished. And now you may order me from this ground you have
+robbed me of. But there are some things in that house you shall not
+steal, for they are mine despite you."
+
+"Name them, Richard," he said, very sorrowful.
+
+"The articles in my mother's room, which were hers."
+
+"You shall have them this day," he answered.
+
+It was his way never to lose his temper, tho' he were called by the
+vilest name in the language. He must always assume this pious grief
+which made me long to throttle him. He had the best of me, even now,
+as he took the great key from his pocket.
+
+"Will you look at them before you go?" he asked.
+
+At first I was for refusing. Then I nodded. He led the way silently
+around by the front; and after he had turned the lock he stepped aside
+with a bow to let me pass in ahead of him. Once more I was in the
+familiar hall with the stairs dividing at the back. It was cool after
+the heat, and musty, and a touch of death hung in the prisoned air. We
+paused for a moment on the landing, beside the high, triple-arched window
+which the branches tapped on windy winter days, while Grafton took down
+the bunch of keys from beside the clock. I thought of my dear
+grandfather winding it every Sunday, and his ruddy face and large figure
+as he stood glancing sidewise down at me. Then the sound of Grafton's
+feet upon the bare steps recalled the present.
+
+We passed Mr. Carvel's room and went down the little corridor over the
+ball-room, until we came to the full-storied wing. My uncle flung open
+the window and shutters opposite and gave me the key. A delicacy not
+foreign to him held him where he was. Time had sealed the door, and when
+at last it gave before my strength, a shower of dust quivered in the ray
+of sunlight from the window. I entered reverently. I took only the
+silverbound prayer-book, cast a lingering look at the old familiar
+objects dimly defined, and came out and locked the door again. I said
+very quietly that I would send for the things that afternoon, for my
+anger was hushed by what I had seen.
+
+We halted together on the uncovered porch in front of the house, that had
+a seat set on each side of it. Marlboro' Street was still, the wide
+trees which flanked it spreading their shade over walk and roadway. Not
+a soul was abroad in the midday heat, and the windows of the long house
+opposite were sightless.
+
+"Richard," said my uncle, staring ahead of him, "I came to offer you a
+home, and you insult me brutally, as you have done unreproved all your
+life. And yet no one shall say of me that I shirk my duty. But first
+I must ask you if there is aught else you desire of me."
+
+"The black boy, Hugo, is mine," I said. I had no great love for Hugo,
+save for association's sake, and I had one too many servants as it was;
+but to rescue one slave from Grafton's clutches was charity.
+
+"You shall have him," he replied, "and your chaise, and your wardrobe,
+and your horses, and whatever else I have that belongs to you. As I was
+saying, I will not shirk my duty. The memory of my dear father, and of
+what he would have wished, will not permit me to let you go a-begging.
+You shall be provided for out of the estate, despite what you have said
+and done."
+
+This was surely the quintessence of a rogue's imagination. Instinctively
+I shrank from him. With a show of piety that 'turned me sick he
+continued:
+
+"Let God witness that I carry out my father's will!"
+
+"Stop there, Grafton Carvel!" I cried; "you shall not take His name in
+vain. Under this guise of holiness you and your accomplice have done the
+devil's own work, and the devil will reward you."
+
+This reference to Mr. Allen, I believe, frightened him. For a second
+only did he show it.
+
+"My--my accomplice, sir!" he stammered. And then righting himself:
+"You will have to explain this, by Heaven."
+
+"In ample time your plot shall be laid bare, and you and his Reverence
+shall hang, or lie in chains."
+
+"You threaten, Mr. Carvel?" he shouted, nearly stepping off the porch in
+his excitement.
+
+"Nay, I predict," I replied calmly. And I went down the steps and out of
+the gate, he looking after me. Before I had turned the corner of
+Freshwater Lane, he was in the seat, and fanning himself with his hat.
+
+I went straight to Mr. Swain's chambers in the Circle, where I found the
+good barrister and Captain Daniel in their shirt-sleeves, seated between
+the windows in the back room. Mr. Swain was grave enough when he heard
+of my talk with Grafton, but the captain swore I was my father's son (for
+the fiftieth time since I had come back), and that a man could no more
+help flying at Grafton's face than Knipe could resist his legs; or
+Cynthia his back, if he went into her stall. I had scarce finished my
+recital, when Mr. Renwick, the barrister's clerk, announced Mr. Tucker,
+which caused Mr. Swain to let out a whistle of surprise.
+
+"So the wind blows from that quarter, Daniel," said he. "I thought so."
+
+Mr. Tucker proved to be the pettifogger into whose hands Grafton had put
+his affairs, taking them from Mr. Dulany at Mr. Carvel's death. The man
+was all in a sweat, and had hardly got in the door before he began to
+talk. He had no less astonishing a proposition to make than this, which
+he enunciated with much mouthing of the honour and sense of duty of Mr.
+Grafton Carvel. His client offered to Mr. Richard Carvel the estate
+lying in Kent County, embracing thirty-three hundred acres more or less
+of arable land and woodland, with a fine new house, together with the
+indented servants and negroes and other chattels thereon. Mr. Richard
+Carvel would observe that in making this generous offer for the welfare
+of his nephew, Mr. Tucker's client was far beyond the letter of his
+obligations; wherefore Mr. Grafton Carvel made it contingent upon the
+acceptance of the estate that his nephew should sign a paper renouncing
+forever any claims upon the properties of the late Mr. Lionel Carvel.
+This condition was so deftly rolled up in law-Latin that I did not
+understand a word of it until Mr. Swain stated it very briefly in
+English. His quiet laugh prodigiously disconcerted the pettifogger,
+who had before been sufficiently ill at ease in the presence of the
+great lawyer. Mr. Tucker blew his nose loudly to hide his confusion.
+
+"And what say you, Richard?" said Mr. Swain, without a shade of accent in
+his voice.
+
+I bowed my head. I knew that the honest barrister had read my heart
+when he spoke of noblesse oblige. That senseless pride of cast, so
+deep-rooted in those born in our province, had made itself felt. To be a
+factor (so I thought, for I was young) was to renounce my birth. Until
+that moment of travail the doctrine of equality had seemed very pretty
+to me. Your fine gentleman may talk as nobly as he pleases over his
+Madeira, and yet would patronize Monsieur Rousseau if he met him; and he
+takes never a thought of those who knuckle to him every day, and clean
+his boots and collect his rents. But when he is tried in the fire, and
+told suddenly to collect some one else's rents and curse another's
+negroes, he is fainthearted for the experiment. So it was with me when
+I had to meet the issue. I might take Grafton's offer, and the chance
+to marry Dorothy was come again. For by industry the owner of the Kent
+lands would become rich.
+
+The room was hot, and still save for the buzzing of the flies. When I
+looked up I discovered the eyes of all three upon me.
+
+"You may tell your client, Mr. Tucker, that I refuse his offer," I said.
+
+He got to his feet, and with the customary declaration of humble
+servitude bowed himself out.
+
+The door was scarce closed on him when the captain had me by the hands.
+
+"What said I, Henry?" he cried. "Did I not know the lad?"
+
+Mr. Swain did not stir from his seat. He was still gazing at me with a
+curious expression. And then I saw the world in truer colour. This good
+Samaritan was not only taking me into his home, but would fight for my
+rights with the strong brain that had lifted him out of poverty and
+obscurity. I stood, humbled before him.
+
+"I would accept your kindness, Mr. Swain," I said, vainly trying to
+steady my voice, "but I have the faithful fellow, Banks, who followed me
+here from England, dependant on me, and Hugo, whom I rescued from my
+uncle. I will make over the black to you and you will have him."
+
+He rose, brushed his eyes with his shirt, and took me by the arm.
+"You and the captain dine with me to-day," says he. "And as for Banks, I
+think that can be arranged. Now I have an estate, I shall need a trained
+butler, egad. I have some affairs to keep me in town to-day, Richard.
+But we'll be off for Cordon's Pride in the morning, and I know of one
+little girl will be glad to see us."
+
+We dined out under the apple tree in Gloucester Street. And the captain
+argued, in his hopeful way, that Tucker's visit betrayed a weak point in
+Grafton's position. But the barrister shook his head and said that
+Grafton was too shrewd a rogue to tender me an estate if he feared me.
+It was Mr. Swain's opinion that the motive of my uncle was to put himself
+in a good light; and perhaps, he added, there was a little revenge mixed
+therein, as the Kent estate was the one Mr. Carvel had given him when he
+cast him off.
+
+A southerly wind was sending great rolls of fog before it as Mr. Swain
+and I, with Banks, crossed over to Kent Island on the ferry the next
+morning. We traversed the island, and were landed by the other ferry on
+the soil of my native county, Queen Anne's. In due time we cantered past
+Master Dingley's tavern, the sight of which gave me a sharp pang, for it
+is there that the by-road turns over the bridge to Carvel Hall and Wilmot
+House; and force of habit drew my reins to the right across the horse's
+neck, so that I swerved into it. The barrister had no word of comment
+when I overtook him again.
+
+'Twas about two o'clock when we came to the gate Mr. Swain had erected at
+the entrance to his place; the land was a little rolling, and partly
+wooded, like that on the Wye. But the fields were prodigiously unkempt.
+He drew up, and glanced at me.
+
+"You will see there is much to be done with such fallows as these,"
+said he. "The lessees from his Lordship were sportsmen rather than
+husbandmen, and had an antipathy to a constable or a sheriff like a
+rat to a boar cat. That is the curse of some of your Eastern Shore
+gentlemen, especially in Dorchester," he added; "they get to be
+fishmongers."
+
+Presently we came in sight of the house, long and low, like the one in
+Gloucester Street, with a new and unpainted wing just completed. That
+day the mist softened its outline and blurred the trees which clustered
+about it. Even as we swung into the circle of the drive a rounded and
+youthful figure appeared in the doorway, gave a little cry, and stood
+immovable. It was Patty, in a striped dimity gown with the sleeves
+rolled up, and her face fairly shone with joy as I leaped from my horse
+and took her hands.
+
+"So you like my surprise, girl?" said her father, as he kissed her
+blushing face.
+
+For answer she tore herself away, and ran through the hall to the broad
+porch in front.
+
+"Our barrister is come, mother," we heard her exclaiming, "and whom do
+you think he has brought?"
+
+"Is it Richard?" asked the gentler voice, more hastily than usual.
+
+I stepped out on the porch, where the invalid sat in her armchair. She
+was smiling with joy, too, and she held out her wasted hands and drew me
+toward her, kissing me on both cheeks.
+
+"I thank God for His goodness," said she.
+
+"And the boy has come to stay, mother," said her husband, as he stooped
+over her.
+
+"To stay!" cries Patty.
+
+"Gordon's Pride is henceforth his home," replied the barrister. "And now
+I can return in peace to my musty law, and know that my plantation will
+be well looked after."
+
+Patty gasped.
+
+"Oh, I am so glad!" said she, "I could almost rejoice that his uncle
+cheated him out of his property. He is to be factor of Gordon's Pride?"
+
+"He is to be master of Gordon's Pride, my dear," says her father, smiling
+and tilting her chin; "we shall have no such persons as factors here."
+
+At that the tears forced themselves into my own eyes. I turned away, and
+then I perceived for the first time the tall form of my old friend, Percy
+Singleton.
+
+"May I, too, bid you welcome, Richard," said he, in his manly way; "and
+rejoice that I have got such a neighbour?"
+
+"Thank you, Percy," I answered. I was not in a state to say much more.
+
+"And now," exclaims Patty, "what a dinner we shall have in the prodigal's
+honour! I shall make you all some of the Naples biscuit Mrs. Brice told
+me of."
+
+She flew into the house, and presently we heard her clear voice singing
+in the kitchen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI
+
+GORDON'S PRIDE
+
+The years of a man's life that count the most are often those which may
+be passed quickest in the story of it. And so I may hurry over the first
+years I spent as Mr. Swain's factor at Gordon's Pride. The task that
+came to my hand was heaven-sent.
+
+That manor-house, I am sure, was the tidiest in all Maryland, thanks to
+Patty's New England blood. She was astir with the birds of a morning,
+and near the last to retire at night, and happy as the days were long.
+She was ever up to her elbows in some dish, and her butter and her
+biscuits were the best in the province. Little she cared to work
+samplers, or peacocks in pretty wools, tho' in some way she found the
+time to learn the spinet. As the troubles with the mother country
+thickened, she took to a foot-wheel, and often in the crisp autumn
+evenings I would hear the bumping of it as I walked to the house, and
+turn the knob to come upon her spinning by the twilight. She would have
+no English-made linen in that household. "If mine scratch your back,
+Richard," she would say, "you must grin and bear, and console yourself
+with your virtue." It was I saw to the flax, and learned from Ivie
+Rawlinson (who had come to us from Carvel Hall) the best manner to ripple
+and break and swingle it. And Mr. Swain, in imitation of the high
+example set by Mr. Bordley, had buildings put up for wheels and the
+looms, and in due time kept his own sheep.
+
+If man or woman, white or black, fell sick on the place, it was Patty
+herself who tended them. She knew the virtue of every herb in the big
+chest in the storeroom. And at table she presided over her father's
+guests with a womanliness that won her more admiration than mine. Now
+that the barrister was become a man of weight, the house was as crowded
+as ever was Carvel Hall. Carrolls and Pacas and Dulanys and Johnsons,
+and Lloyds and Bordleys and Brices and Scotts and Jennings and Ridouts,
+and Colonel Sharpe, who remained in the province, and many more families
+of prominence which I have not space to mention, all came to Gordon's
+Pride. Some of these, as their names proclaim, were of the King's side;
+but the bulk of Mr. Swain's company were stanch patriots, and toasted
+Miss Patty instead of his Majesty. By this I do not mean that they
+lacked loyalty, for it is a matter of note that our colony loved King
+George.
+
+I must not omit from the list above the name of my good friend, Captain
+Clapsaddle.
+
+Nor was there lack of younger company. Betty Tayloe, who plied me with
+questions concerning Dorothy and London, but especially about the dashing
+and handsome Lord Comyn; and the Dulany girls, and I know not how many
+others. Will Fotheringay, when he was home from college, and Archie
+Brice, and Francis Willard (whose father was now in the Assembly) and
+half a dozen more to court Patty, who would not so much as look at them.
+And when I twitted her with this she would redden and reply: "I was
+created for a housewife, sir, and not to make eyes from behind a fan."
+Indeed, she was at her prettiest and best in the dimity frock, with the
+sleeves rolled up.
+
+'Twas a very merry place, the manor of Gordon's Pride. A generous bowl
+of punch always stood in the cool hall, through which the south winds
+swept from off the water, and fruit and sangaree and lemonade were on the
+table there. The manor had no ball-room, but the negro fiddlers played
+in the big parlour. And the young folks danced till supper time. In
+three months Patty's suppers grew famous in a colony where there was no
+lack of good cooks.
+
+The sweet-natured invalid enjoyed these festivities in her quiet way,
+and often pressed me to partake. So did Patty beg me, and Mr. Swain.
+Perhaps a false sense of pride restrained me, but my duties held me all
+day in the field, and often into the night when there was curing to be
+done, or some other matters of necessity. And for the rest, I thought
+I detected a change in the tone of Mr. Fotheringay, and some others, tho'
+it may have been due to sensibility on my part. I would put up with no
+patronage.
+
+There was no change of tone, at least, with the elder gentlemen. They
+plainly showed me an added respect. And so I fell into the habit, after
+my work was over, of joining them in their suppers rather than the sons
+and daughters. There I was made right welcome. The serious conversation
+spiced with the wit of trained barristers and men of affairs better
+suited my changed condition of life. The times were sober, and for those
+who could see, a black cloud was on each horizon. 'Twas only a matter of
+months when the thunder-clap was to come-indeed, enough was going on
+within our own province to forebode a revolution. The Assembly to which
+many of these gentlemen belonged was in a righteous state of opposition
+to the Proprietary and the Council concerning the emoluments of colonial
+officers and of clergymen. Honest Governor Eden had the misfortune to
+see the justice of our side, and was driven into a seventh state by his
+attempts to square his conscience. Bitter controversies were waging in
+the Gazette, and names were called and duels fought weekly. For our
+cause "The First Citizen" led the van, and the able arguments and
+moderate language of his letters soon identified him as Mr. Charles
+Carroll of Carrollton, one of the greatest men Maryland has ever known.
+But even at Mr. Swain's, amongst his few intimate friends, Mr. Carroll
+could never be got to admit his 'nom de guerre' until long after
+'Antilon' had been beaten.
+
+I write it with pride, that at these suppers I was sometimes asked to
+speak; and, having been but lately to England, to give my opinion upon
+the state of affairs there. Mr. Carroll honoured me upon two occasions
+with his confidence, and I was made clerk to a little club they had, and
+kept the minutes in my own hand.
+
+I went about in homespun, which, if good enough for Mr. Bordley, was good
+enough for me. I rode with him over the estate. This gentleman was the
+most accomplished and scientific farmer we had in the province. Having
+inherited his plantation on Wye Island, near Carvel Hall, he resigned his
+duties as judge, and a lucrative practice, to turn all his energies to
+the cultivation of the soil. His wheat was as eagerly sought after as
+was Colonel Washington's tobacco.
+
+It was to Mr. Bordley's counsel that the greater part of my success was
+due. He taught me the folly of ploughing with a fluke,--a custom to
+which the Eastern Shore was wedded, pointing out that a double surface
+was thus exposed to the sun's rays; and explained at length why there was
+more profit in small grain in that district than heavy tobacco. He gave
+me Dr. Eliot's "Essays on Field Husbandry," and Mill's "Husby," which I
+read from cover to cover. And I went from time to time to visit him at
+Wye Island, when he would canter with me over that magnificent
+plantation, and show me with pride the finished outcome of his
+experiments.
+
+Mr. Swain's affairs kept him in town the greater part of the twelve
+months, and Mrs. Swain and Patty moved to Annapolis in the autumn. But
+for three years I was at Cordon's Pride winter and summer alike. At the
+end of that time I was fortunate enough to show my employer such
+substantial results as to earn his commendation--ay, and his confidence,
+which was the highest token of that man's esteem. The moneys of the
+estate he left entirely at my order. And in the spring of '73, when the
+opportunity was suddenly offered to buy a thousand acres of excellent
+wheat land adjoining, I made the purchase for him while he was at
+Williamsburg, and upon my own responsibility.
+
+This connected the plantation on the east with Singleton's. It had been
+my secret hope that the two estates might one day be joined in marriage.
+For of all those who came a-courting Patty, Percy was by far the best.
+He was but a diffident suitor; he would sit with me on the lawn evening
+after evening, when company was there, while Fotheringay and Francis
+Willard made their compliments within,--silly flatteries, at which Patty
+laughed.
+
+Percy kept his hounds, and many a run we had together' in the sparkling
+days that followed the busy summer, when the crops were safe in the
+bottoms; or a quiet pipe and bottle in his bachelor's hall, after a
+soaking on the duck points.
+
+And this brings me to a subject on which I am loth to write. Where Mr.
+Singleton was concerned, Patty, the kindest of creatures, was cruelty
+itself. Once, when I had the effrontery to venture a word in his behalf,
+I had been silenced so effectively as to make my ears tingle. A thousand
+little signs led me to a conclusion which pained me more than I can
+express. Heaven is my witness that no baser feeling leads me to hint of
+it here. Every day while the garden lasted flowers were in my room, and
+it was Banks who told me that she would allow no other hands than her own
+to place them by my bed. He got a round rating from me for violating the
+pledge of secrecy he had given her. It was Patty who made my shirts, and
+on Christmas knitted me something of comfort; who stood on the
+horse-block in the early morning waving after me as I rode away, and
+at my coming her eyes would kindle with a light not to be mistaken.
+
+None of these things were lost upon Percy Singleton, and I often wondered
+why he did not hate me. He was of the kind that never shows a hurt.
+Force of habit still sent him to Gordon's Pride, but for days he would
+have nothing to say to the mistress of it, or she to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII
+
+VISITORS
+
+It was not often that Mr. Thomas Swain honoured Gordon's Pride with his
+presence. He vowed that the sober Whig company his father brought there
+gave him the vapours. He snapped his fingers at the articles of the
+Patriots' Association, and still had his cocked hats and his Brussels
+lace and his spyglass, and his top boots when he rode abroad, like any
+other Tory buck. His intimates were all of the King's side,--of the
+worst of the King's side, I should say, for I would not be thought to
+cast any slur on the great number of conscientious men of that party.
+But, being the son of one of the main props of the Whigs, Mr. Tom went
+unpunished for his father's sake. He was not uncondemned.
+
+Up to 1774, the times that Mr. Swain mentioned his son to me might be
+counted on the fingers of one hand. It took not a great deal of
+shrewdness to guess that he had paid out many a pretty sum to keep Tom's
+honour bright: as bright, at least, as such doubtful metal would polish.
+Tho' the barrister sought my ear in many matters, I never heard a whimper
+out of him on this score.
+
+Master Tom had no ambition beyond that of being a macaroni; his
+easy-going nature led him to avoid alike trouble and responsibility.
+Hence he did not bother his head concerning my position. He appeared
+well content that I should make money out of the plantation for him to
+spend. His visits to Gordon's Pride were generally in the late autumn,
+and he brought his own company with him. I recall vividly his third or
+fourth appearance, in October of '73. Well I may! The family was
+preparing to go to town, and this year I was to follow them, and take
+from Mr. Swain's shoulders some of his private business, for he had been
+ailing a little of late from overwork.
+
+The day of which I have spoken a storm had set in, the rain falling in
+sheets. I had been in the saddle since breakfast, seeing to an hundred
+repairs that had to be made before the cold weather. 'Twas near the
+middle of the afternoon when I pulled up before the weaving house. The
+looms were still, and Patty met me at the door with a grave look, which I
+knew portended something. But her first words were of my comfort.
+
+"Richard, will you ever learn sense? You have been wet all day long,
+and have missed your dinner. Go at once and change your clothes, sir!"
+she commanded severely.
+
+"I have first to look at the warehouse, where the roof is leaking," I
+expostulated.
+
+"You shall do no such thing," replied she, "but dry yourself, and march
+into the dining room. We have had the ducks you shot yesterday, and some
+of your experimental hominy; but they are all gone."
+
+I knew well she had laid aside for me some dainty, as was her habit.
+I dismounted. She gave me a quick, troubled glance, and said in a low
+voice:
+
+"Tom is come. And oh, I dare not tell you whom he has with him now!"
+
+"Courtenay?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, of coarse. I hate the sight of the man. But your cousin, Philip
+Carvel, is here, Richard. Father will be very angry. And they are
+making a drinking-tavern of the house."
+
+I gave Firefly a slap that sent her trotting stable-ward, and walked
+rapidly to the house. I found the three of them drinking in the hall,
+the punch spilled over the table, and staining the cards.
+
+"Gad's life!" cries Tom, "here comes Puritan Richard, in his broad rim.
+How goes the crop, Richard? 'Twill have to go well, egad, for I lost an
+hundred at the South River Club last week!"
+
+Next him sat Philip, whom I had not seen since before I was carried off.
+He was lately come home from King's College; and very mysteriously, his
+father giving out that his health was not all it should be. He had not
+gained Grafton's height, but he was broader, and his face had something
+in it of his father. He had his mother's under lip and complexion.
+Grafton was sallow; Philip was a peculiar pink,--not the ruddy pink of
+heartier natures, like my grandfather's, nor yet had he the peach-like
+skin of Mr. Dix. Philip's was a darker and more solid colour, and I have
+never seen man or woman with it and not mistrusted them. He wore a red
+velvet coat embroidered with gold, and as costly ruffles as I had ever
+seen in London. But for all this my cousin had a coarse look, and his
+polished blue flints of eyes were those of a coarse man.
+
+He got to his feet as Tom spoke, looking anywhere but at me, and came
+forward slowly. He was loyal to no one, was Philip, not even to his
+father. When he was got within three paces he halted.
+
+"How do you, cousin?" says he.
+
+"A little wet, as you perceive, Philip," I replied.
+
+I left him and stood before the fire, my rough wool steaming in the heat.
+He sat down again, a little awkwardly; and the situation began to please
+me better.
+
+"How do you?" I asked presently.
+
+"I have got a devilish cold," said he. "Faith, I'll warrant the doctor
+will be sworn I have been but indifferent company since we left the Hall.
+Eh, doctor?"
+
+Courtenay, with his feet stretched out, bestowed an amiable but languid
+wink upon me, as much as to say that I knew what Mr. Philip's company was
+at best. When I came out after my dinner, they were still sitting there,
+Courtenay yawning, and Tom and Philip wrangling over last night's play.
+
+"Come, my man of affairs, join us a hand!" says the doctor to me.
+"I have known the time when you would sit from noon until supper."
+
+"I had money then," said I.
+
+"And you have a little now, or I am cursed badly mistook. Oons! what do
+you fear?" he exclaimed, "you that have played with March and Fox?"
+
+"I fear nothing, doctor," I answered, smiling. "But a man must have a
+sorry honour when he will win fifty pounds with but ten of capital."
+
+"One of Dr. Franklin's maxims, I presume," says he, with sarcasm.
+
+"And if it were, it could scarce be more pat," I retorted. "'Tis Poor
+Richard's maxim."
+
+"O lud! O my soul!" cries Tom, with a hiccup and a snigger; "'tis time
+you made another grand tour, Courtenay. Here's the second Whig has got
+in on you within the week!"
+
+"Thank God they have not got me down to osnabrig and bumbo yet," replies
+the doctor. Coming over to me by the fire, he tapped my sleeve and added
+in a low tone: "Forbearance with such a pair of asses is enough to make a
+man shed bitter tears. But a little of it is necessary to keep out of
+debt. You and I will play together, against both the lambs, Richard.
+One of them is not far from maudlin now."
+
+"Thank you, doctor," I answered politely, "but I have a better way to
+make my living." In three years I had learned a little to control my
+temper.
+
+He shrugged his thin shoulders. "Eh bien, mon bon," says he, "I dare
+swear you know your own game better than do I." And he cast a look up
+the stairs, of which I quite missed the meaning. Indeed, I was wholly
+indifferent. The doctor and his like had passed out of my life, and I
+believed they were soon to disappear from our Western Hemisphere. The
+report I had heard was now confirmed, that his fortune was dissipated,
+and that he lived entirely off these young rakes who aspired to be
+macaronies.
+
+"Since your factor is become a damned Lutheran, Tom," said he, returning
+to the table and stripping a pack, "it will have to be picquet. You
+promised me we could count on a fourth, or I had never left Inman's."
+
+It was Tom, as I had feared, who sat down unsteadily opposite. Philip
+lounged and watched them sulkily, snuffing and wheezing and dipping into
+the bowl, and cursing the house for a draughty barn. I took a pipe on
+the settle to see what would come of it. I was not surprised that
+Courtenay lost at first, and that Tom drank the most of the punch. Nor
+was it above half an hour before the stakes were raised and the tide
+began to turn in the doctor's favour.
+
+"A plague of you, Courtenay!" cries Mr. Tom, at length, flinging down the
+cards. His voice was thick, while the Selwyn of Annapolis was never
+soberer in his life. Tom appealed first to Philip for the twenty pounds
+he owed him.
+
+"You know how damned stingy my father is, curse you," whined my cousin,
+in return. "I told you I should not have it till the first of the
+month."
+
+Tom swore back. He thrust his hands deep in his pockets and sank into
+that attitude of dejection common to drunkards. Suddenly he pulled
+himself up.
+
+"'Shblood! Here's Richard t' draw from. Lemme have fifty pounds,
+Richard."
+
+"Not a farthing," I said, unmoved.
+
+"You say wha' shall be done with my father's money!" he cried. "I call
+tha' damned cool--Gad's life! I do. Eh, Courtenay?"
+
+Courtenay had the sense not to interfere.
+
+"I'll have you dishcharged, Gads death! so I will!" he shouted. "No
+damned airs wi' me, Mr. Carvel. I'll have you know you're not wha' you
+once were, but, only a cursht oversheer."
+
+He struggled to his feet, forgot his wrath on the instant, and began to
+sing drunkenly the words of a ribald air. I took him by both shoulders
+and pushed him back into his chair.
+
+"Be quiet," I said sternly; "while your mother and sister are here you
+shall not insult them with such a song." He ceased, astonished. "And as
+for you, gentlemen," I continued, "you should know better than to make a
+place of resort out of a gentleman's house."
+
+Courtenay's voice broke the silence that followed.
+
+"Of all the cursed impertinences I ever saw, egad!" he drawled. "Is
+this your manor, Mr. Carvel? Or have you a seat in Kent?"
+
+I would not have it in black and white that I am an advocate of fighting.
+But a that moment I was in the mood when it does not matter much one way
+or the other. The drunken man carried us past the point.
+
+"The damned in--intriguing rogue'sh worked himself into my father's
+grashes," he said, counting out his words. "He'sh no more Whig than me.
+I know'sh game, Courtenay--he wants t' marry Patty. Thish place'll be
+hers."
+
+The effect upon me of these words, with all their hideous implication of
+gossip and scandal, was for an instant benumbing. The interpretation of
+the doctor's innuendo struck me then. I was starting forward, with a
+hand open to clap over Tom's mouth, when I saw the laugh die on
+Courtenay's face, and him come bowing to his legs. I turned with a
+start.
+
+On the stairs stood Patty herself, pale as marble.
+
+"Come with me, Tom," she said.
+
+He had obeyed her from childhood. This time he tried, and failed
+miserably.
+
+"Beg pardon, Patty," he stammered, "no offensh meant. Thish factor
+thinks h' ownsh Gordon's now. I say, not'll h' marries you. Good
+fellow, Richard, but infernal forward. Eh, Courtenay?"
+
+Philip turned away, while the doctor pretended to examine the silver
+punch-ladle. As for me, I could only stare. It was Patty who kept her
+head, and made us a stately curtsey.
+
+"Will you do me the kindness, gentlemen," said she, "to leave me with my
+brother?"
+
+We walked silently into the parlour, and I closed the door.
+
+"Slife!" cried Courtenay, "she's a vision. What say you, Philip? And I
+might see her in that guise again, egad, I would forgive Tom his five
+hundred crowns!"
+
+"A buxom vision," agreed my cousin, "but I vow I like 'em so." He had
+forgotten his cold.
+
+"This conversation is all of a piece with the rest of your conduct," said
+I, hotly.
+
+The candles were burning brightly in the sconces. The doctor walked to
+the glass, took snuff, and burnished his waistcoat before he answered.
+
+"Sure, a fortune lies under every virtue we assume," he recited. "But
+she is not for you, Richard," says he, tapping his box.
+
+"Mr. Carvel, if you please," I replied. I felt the demon within me. But
+I had the sense to realize that a quarrel with Dr. Courtenay, under the
+circumstances, would be far from wise. He had no intention of
+quarrelling, however. He made me a grand bow.
+
+"Mr. Carvel, your very obedient. Hereafter I shall know better than to
+forget myself with an overseer." And he gave me his back. "What say you
+to a game of billiards, Philip?"
+
+Philip seemed glad to escape. And soon I heard their voices, mingling
+with the click of the balls. There followed for me one of the bitterest
+half hours I have had in my life. Then Patty opened the hall door.
+
+"Will you come in for a moment, Richard?" she said, quite calmly.
+
+I followed her, wondering at the masterful spirit she had shown. For
+there was Tom all askew in his chair, his feet one way and his hands
+another, totally subdued. What was most to the point, he made me an
+elaborate apology. How she had sobered his mind I know not. His body
+was as helpless as the day he was born.
+
+Long before the guests thought of rising the next morning, Patty came to
+me as I was having the mare saddled. The sun was up, and the clouds were
+being chased, like miscreants who have played their prank, and were now
+running for it. The sharp air brought the red into her cheeks. And for
+the first time in her life with me she showed shyness. She glanced up
+into my face, and then down at the leaves running on the ground.
+
+"I hope they will go to-day," said she, when I was ready to mount.
+
+I began to tighten the girths, venting my feelings on Firefly until the
+animal swung around and made a vicious pass at my arm.
+
+"Richard!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You will not worry over that senseless speech of Tom's?"
+
+"I see it in a properer light now, Patty," I replied. "I usually do--in
+the morning."
+
+She sighed.
+
+"You are so--high-strung," she said, "I was afraid you would--"
+
+"I would--?"
+
+She did not answer until I had repeated.
+
+"I was very silly," she said slowly, her colour mounting even higher,"
+I was afraid that you would--leave us." Stroking the mare's neck, and
+with a little halt in her voice, "I do not know what we should do
+without you."
+
+Indeed, I was beginning to think I would better leave, though where I
+should go was more than I could say. With a quick intuition she caught
+my hand as I put foot in the stirrup.
+
+"You will not go away!" she cried. "Say you will not! What would poor
+father do? He is not so well as he used to be."
+
+The wild appeal in her eyes frightened me. It was beyond resisting. In
+great agitation I put my foot to the ground again.
+
+"Patty, I should be a graceless scamp in truth," I exclaimed. "I do not
+forget that your father gave me a home when mine was taken away, and has
+made me one of his family. I shall thank God if I can but lighten some
+of his burdens."
+
+But they did not depart that day, nor the next; nor, indeed, for a week
+after. For Philip's cold brought on a high fever. He stuck to his bed,
+and Patty herself made broth and dainties for him, and prescribed him
+medicine out of the oak chest whence had come so much comfort. At first
+Philip thought he would die, and forswore wine and cards, and some other
+things the taste for which he had cultivated, and likewise worse vices
+that had come to him by nature.
+
+I am greatly pleased to write that the stay profited the gallant Dr.
+Courtenay nothing. Patty's mature beauty and her manner of carrying off
+the episode in the hall had made a deep impression upon the Censor. I
+read the man's mind in his eye; here was a match to mend his fortunes,
+and do him credit besides. However, his wit and his languishing glances
+and double meanings fell on barren ground. No tire-woman on the
+plantation was busier than Patty during the first few days of his stay.
+After that he grew sulky and vented his spleen on poor Tom, winning more
+money from him at billiards and picquet. Since the doctor was too much
+the macaroni to ride to hounds and to shoot ducks, time began to hang
+exceeding heavy on his hands.
+
+Patty and I had many a quiet laugh over his predicament. And, to add
+zest to the situation, I informed Singleton of what was going forward.
+He came over every night for supper, and to my delight the bluff
+Englishman was received in a fashion to make the doctor writhe and snort
+with mortification. Never in his life had he been so insignificant a
+person. And he, whose conversation was so sought after in the gay season
+in town, was thrown for companionship upon a scarce-grown boy whose talk
+was about as salted, and whose intellect as great, as those of the
+cockerouse in our fable. He stood it about a se'nnight, at the end of
+which space Philip was put on his horse, will-he-nill-he, and made to
+ride northward.
+
+I sat with my cousin of an evening as he lay in bed. Not, I own, from
+any charity on my part, but from other motives which do me no credit.
+The first night he confessed his sins, and they edified me not a little.
+On the second he was well enough to sit up and swear, and to vow that
+Miss Swain was an angel; that he would marry her the very next week and
+his father Grafton were not such a stickler for family.
+
+"Curse him," says his dutiful and loyal son, "he is so bally stingy with
+my stipend that I am in debt to half the province. And I say it myself,
+Richard, he has been a blackguard to you, tho' I allow him some little
+excuse. You were faring better now, my dear cousin, and you had not
+given him every reason to hate you. For I have heard him declare more
+than once 'pon my soul, I have--that he would rather you were his friend
+than his enemy."
+
+My contempt for Philip kept me silent here. I might quarrel with
+Grafton, who had sense enough to feel pain at a well deserved thrust.
+Philip had not the intelligence to recognize insult from compliment. It
+was but natural he should mistake my attitude now. He leaned forward in
+his bed.
+
+"Hark you, Richard," whispers he, with a glance at the door, "I might
+tell you some things and I chose, and--and it were worth my while."
+
+"Worth your while?" I repeated vaguely.
+
+He traced nervously the figures on the counterpane. Next came a rush of
+anger to redden his face.
+
+"By Gad, I will tell you. Swear to Gad I will." Then, the little
+cunning inherited from his father asserting itself, he added, "Look you,
+Richard, I am the son of one of the richest men in the colony, and I get
+the pittance of a backwoods pastor. I tell you 'tis not to be borne
+with. And I am not of as much consideration at the Hall as Brady, the
+Irish convict, who has become overseer."
+
+I little wondered at this. Philip sank back, and for some moments eyed
+me between narrowed lids. He continued presently with shortened breath:
+
+"I have evidence--I have evidence to get you back a good share of the
+estate, which my father will never miss. And I will do it," he cries,
+suddenly bold, "I will do it for three thousand pounds down when you
+receive it."
+
+This was why he had come with Tom to Talbot! I was so dumfounded that my
+speech was quite taken away. Then I got up and began pacing the room.
+Was it not fair to fight a scoundrel with his own weapons? Here at last
+was the witness Mr. Swain had been seeking so long, come of his own free
+will. Then--Heaven help me!--my mind flew on. As time had passed I had
+more than once regretted refusing the Kent plantation, which had put her
+from whom my thought never wandered within my reach again. Good Mr.
+Swain had erred for once. 'Twas foolish, indeed, not to accept a portion
+of what was rightfully mine, when no more could be got. And now, if what
+Philip said was true (and I doubted it not), here at last was the chance
+come again to win her without whom I should never be happy. I glanced at
+my cousin.
+
+"Gad's life!" says he, "it is cheap enough. I might have asked you
+double."
+
+"So you might, and have been refused," I cried hotly. For I believe that
+speech of his recalled me to my senses. It has ever been an instinct
+with me that no real prosperity comes out of double-dealing. And
+commerce with such a sneak sickened me. "Go back to your father,
+Philip, and threaten him, and he may make you rich. Such as he live by
+blackmail. And you may add, and you will, that the day of retribution
+is coming for him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII
+
+MULTUM IN PARVO
+
+I lost no time after getting to Annapolis in confiding to Mr. Swain the
+conversation I had had with my cousin Philip. And I noticed, as he sat
+listening to my account in the library in Gloucester Street, that the
+barrister looked very worn. He had never been a strong man, and the
+severe strain he had been under with the patriots' business was beginning
+to tell.
+
+He was very thoughtful when I had finished, and then told me briefly that
+I had done well not to take the offer. "Tucker would have made but short
+work of such evidence, my lad," said he, "and I think Master Philip would
+have lied himself in and out a dozen times. I cannot think what witness
+he would have introduced save Mr. Allen. And there is scarcely a doubt
+that your uncle pays him for his silence, for I am told he is living in
+Frederick in a manner far above what he gets from the parish. However,
+Philip has given us something more to work on. It may be that he can put
+hands on the messenger."
+
+I rose to go.
+
+"We shall bring them to earth yet, Richard, and I live," he added. "And
+I have always meant to ask you whether you ever regretted your decision
+in taking Gordon's Pride."
+
+"And you live, sir!" I exclaimed, not heeding the question.
+
+He smiled somewhat sadly.
+
+"Of one thing I am sure, my lad," he continued, "which is that I have had
+no regrets about taking you. Mr. Bordley has just been here, and tells
+me you are the ablest young man in the province. You see that more eyes
+than mine are upon you. You have proved yourself a man, Richard, and
+there are very few macaronies would have done as you did. I am resolved
+to add another little mite to your salary."
+
+The "little mite" was of such a substantial nature that I protested
+strongly against it. I thought of Tom's demands upon him.
+
+"I could afford to give you double for what you have made off the place,"
+he interrupted. "But I do not believe in young men having too much." He
+sighed, and turned to his work.
+
+I hesitated. "You have spent time and labour upon my case, sir, and have
+asked no fee."
+
+"I shall speak of the fee when I win it," he said dryly, "and not before.
+How would you like to be clerk this winter to the Committee of
+Correspondence?"
+
+I suppose my pleasure was expressed in my face.
+
+"Well," said he, "I have got you the appointment without much difficulty.
+There are many ways in which you can be useful to the party when not
+helping me with my affairs."
+
+This conversation gave me food for reflection during a week. I was
+troubled about Mr. Swain, and what he had said as to not living kept
+running in my head as I wrote or figured. For I had enough to hold me
+busy.
+
+In the meantime, the clouds fast gathering on both sides of the Atlantic
+grew blacker, and blacker still. I saw a great change in Annapolis. Men
+of affairs went about with grave faces, while gay and sober alike were
+touched by the spell. The Tory gentry, to be sure, rattled about in
+their gilded mahogany coaches, in spite of jeers and sour looks. My Aunt
+Caroline wore jewelled stomachers to the assemblies,--now become dry and
+shrivelled entertainments. She kept her hairdresser, had three men in
+livery to her chair, and a little negro in Turk's costume to wait on her.
+I often met her in the streets, and took a fierce joy in staring her, in
+the eye. And Grafton! By a sort of fate I was continually running
+against him. He was a very busy man, was my uncle, and had a kind of
+dignified run, which he used between Marlboro' Street and the Council
+Chamber in the Stadt House, or the Governor's mansion. He never did me
+the honour to glance at me. The Rev. Mr. Allen, too, came a-visiting
+from Frederick, where he had grown stout as an alderman upon the living
+and its perquisites and Grafton's additional bounty. The gossips were
+busy with his doings, for he had his travelling-coach and servant now.
+He went to the Tory balls with my aunt. Once I all but encountered him
+on the Circle, but he ran into Northeast Street to avoid me.
+
+Yes, that was the winter when the wise foresaw the inevitable, and the
+first sharp split occurred between men who had been brothers. The old
+order of things had plainly passed, and I was truly thankful that my
+grandfather had not lived to witness those scenes. The greater part of
+our gentry stood firm for America's rights, and they had behind them the
+best lawyers in America. After the lawyers came the small planters and
+most of the mechanics. The shopkeepers formed the backbone of King
+George's adherents; the Tory gentry, the clergy, and those holding office
+under the proprietor made the rest.
+
+And it was all about tea, a word which, since '67, had been steadily
+becoming the most vexed in the language. The East India Company had put
+forth a complaint. They had Heaven knows how many tons getting stale in
+London warehouses, all by reason of our stubbornness, and so it was
+enacted that all tea paying the small American tax should have a rebate
+of the English duties. That was truly a master-stroke, for Parliament to
+give it us cheaper than it could be had at home! To cause his Majesty's
+government to lose revenues for the sake of being able to say they had
+caught and taxed us at last! The happy result is now history, my dears.
+And this is not a history, tho' I wish it were. What occurred at Boston,
+at Philadelphia, and Charleston, has since caused Englishmen, as well as
+Americans, to feel proud. The chief incident in Annapolis I shall
+mention in another chapter.
+
+When it became known with us that several cargoes were on their way to
+the colonies, excitement and indignation gained a pitch not reached since
+the Stamp Act. Business came to a standstill, plantations lay idle, and
+gentry and farmers flocked to Annapolis, and held meetings and made
+resolutions anew. On my way of a morning from Mr. Swain's house to his
+chambers in the Circle I would meet as many as a dozen knots of people.
+Mr. Claude was one of the few patriots who reaped reward out of the
+disturbance, for his inn was crowded. The Assembly met, appointed
+committees to correspond with the other colonies, and was prorogued once
+and again. Many a night I sat up until the small hours copying out
+letters to the committees of Virginia, and Pennsylvania, and
+Massachusetts. The gentlemen were wont to dine at the Coffee House,
+and I would sit near the foot of the table, taking notes of their plans.
+'Twas so I met many men of distinction from the other colonies. Colonel
+Washington came once. He was grown a greater man than ever, and I
+thought him graver than when I had last seen him. I believe a trait of
+this gentleman was never to forget a face.
+
+"How do you, Richard?" said he. How I reddened when he called me so
+before all the committee. "I have heard your story, and it does you vast
+credit. And the gentlemen tell me you are earning laurels, sir."
+
+That first winter of the tea troubles was cold and wet with us, and the
+sun, as if in sympathy with the times, rarely showed his face. Early in
+February our apprehensions concerning Mr. Swain's health were realized.
+One day, without a word to any one, he went to his bed, where Patty found
+him. And I ran all the way to Dr. Leiden's. The doctor looked at him,
+felt his pulse and his chest, and said nothing. But he did not rest that
+night, nor did Patty or I.
+
+Thus I came to have to do with the good barrister's private affairs. I
+knew that he was a rich man, as riches went in our province, but I had
+never tried to guess at his estate. I confess the sums he had paid out
+in Tom's behalf frightened me. With the advice of Mr. Bordley and Mr.
+Lloyd I managed his money as best I could, but by reason of the
+non-importation resolutions there was little chance for good investments,
+--no cargoes coming and few going. I saw, indeed, that buying the Talbot
+estate had been a fortunate step, since the quantities of wheat we grew
+there might be disposed of in America.
+
+When Dr. Leiden was still coming twice a day to Gloucester Street, Mr.
+Tom must needs get into a scrape with one of the ladies of the theatre,
+and come to me in the Circle chambers for one hundred pounds. I told
+him, in despair, that I had no authority to pay out his father's money.
+"And so you have become master, sure enough!" he cried, in a passion.
+For he was desperate. "You have worked your way in vastly well, egad,
+with your Whig committee meetings and speeches. And now he is on his
+back, and you have possession, you choose to cut me off. 'Slife, I know
+what will be coming next!"
+
+I pulled him into Mr. Swain's private room, where we would be free of the
+clerks. "Yes, I am master here," I replied, sadly enough, as he stood
+sullenly before me. "I should think you would be ashamed to own it.
+When I came to your father I was content to be overseer in Talbot, and
+thankful for his bounty. 'Tis no fault of mine, but your disgrace, that
+his son is not managing his business, and supporting him in the rights of
+his country. I am not very old, Tom. A year older than you, I believe.
+But I have seen enough of life to prophesy your end and you do not
+reform."
+
+"We are turned preacher," he says, with a sneer.
+
+"God forbid! But I have been in a sponging-house, and tasted the lowest
+dregs. And if this country becomes free, as I think it will some day,
+such as you will be driven to England, and die in the Fleet."
+
+"Not while my father lives," retorts he, and throws aside the oiled silk
+cape with a London name upon it. The day was rainy. I groaned. My
+responsibility lay heavy upon me. And this was not my first scene with
+him. He continued doggedly:--"You have no right to deny me what is not
+yours. 'Twill be mine one day."
+
+"You have no right to accuse me of thoughts that do not occur to men of
+honour," I replied. "I am slower to anger than I once was, but I give
+you warning now. Do you know that you will ruin your father in another
+year and you continue?"
+
+He gave me no answer. I reached for the ledger, and turning the pages,
+called off to him the sums he had spent.
+
+"Oh, have done, d--n it!" he cried, when I was not a third through.
+"Are you or are you not to give me the money?"
+
+"And you are to spend it upon an actress?" I should have called her by
+a worse name.
+
+"Actress!" he shouted. "Have you seen her in The Orphan? My soul, she
+is a divinity!" Then he shifted suddenly to whining and cringing.
+"I am ruined outright, Richard, if I do not get it."
+
+Abjectly he confessed the situation, which had in it enough material for
+a scandal to set the town wagging for a month. And the weight of it
+would fall; as I well knew, upon those who deserved it least.
+
+"I will lend you the money, or, rather, will pay it for you," I said, at
+last. For I was not so foolish as to put it into his hands. "You shall
+have the sum under certain conditions."
+
+He agreed to them before they were out of my mouth, and swore in a dozen
+ways that he would repay me every farthing. He was heartily tired of the
+creature, and, true to his nature, afraid of her. That night when the
+play was over I went to her lodging, and after a scene too distressing to
+dwell upon, bought her off.
+
+I sat with Mr. Swain many an hour that spring, with Patty sewing at the
+window open to the garden. Often, as we talked, unnoticed by her father
+she would drop her work and the tears glisten in her eyes. For the
+barrister's voice was not as strong as it once was, and the cold would
+not seem to lift from his chest. So this able man, who might have sat in
+the seats of Maryland's high reward, was stricken when he was needed
+most.
+
+He was permitted two visitors a day: now 'twas Mr. Carroll and Colonel
+Lloyd, again Colonel Tilghman and Captain Clapsaddle, or Mr. Yaca and Mr.
+Bordley. The gentlemen took turns, and never was their business so
+pressing that they missed their hour. Mr. Swain read all the prints, and
+in his easier days would dictate to me his views for the committee,
+or a letter signed Brutes for Mr. Green to put in the Gazette. So I
+became his mouthpiece at the meetings, and learned to formulate my
+thoughts and to speak clearly.
+
+For fear of confusing this narrative, my dears, I have referred but
+little to her who was in my thoughts night and day, and whose locket I
+wore, throughout all those years, next my heart. I used to sit out under
+the stars at Gordon's Pride, with the river lapping at my feet, and
+picture her the shining centre of all the brilliant scenes I had left,
+and wonder if she still thought of me.
+
+Nor have I mentioned that faithful correspondent, and more faithful
+friend, Lord Comyn. As soon as ever I had obtained from Captain Daniel
+my mother's little inheritance, I sent off the debt I owed his Lordship.
+'Twas a year before I got him to receive it; he despatched the money back
+once, saying that I had more need of it than he. I smiled at this, for
+my Lord was never within his income, and I made no doubt he had signed a
+note to cover my indebtedness.
+
+Every letter Comyn writ me was nine parts Dolly, and the rest of his
+sheet usually taken up with Mr. Fox and his calamities: these had fallen
+upon him very thick of late. Lord Holland had been forced to pay out a
+hundred thousand pounds for Charles, and even this enormous sum did not
+entirely free Mr. Fox from the discounters and the hounds. The reason
+for this sudden onslaught was the birth of a boy to his brother Stephen,
+who was heir to the title. "When they told Charles of it," Comyn wrote,
+"said he, coolly: 'My brother Ste's son is a second Messiah, born for the
+destruction of the Jews.'"
+
+I saw no definite signs, as yet, of the conversion of this prodigy, which
+I so earnestly hoped for. He had quarrelled with North, lost his place
+on the Admiralty, and presently the King had made him a Lord of the
+Treasury, tho' more out of fear than love. Once in a while, when he saw
+Comyn at Almack's, he would desire to be remembered to me, and he always
+spoke of me with affection. But he could be got to write to no one, said
+my Lord, with kind exaggeration; nor will he receive letters, for fear he
+may get a dun.
+
+Alas, I got no message from Dorothy! Nor had she ever mentioned my name
+to Comyn. He had not seen her for eight months after I left England, as
+she had been taken to the Continent for her health. She came back to
+London more ravishing than before, and (I use his Lordship's somewhat
+extravagant language) her suffering had stamped upon her face even more
+of character and power. She had lost much of her levity, likewise. In
+short, my Lord declared, she was more of the queen than ever, and the
+mystery which hung over the Vauxhall duel had served only to add to her
+fame.
+
+Dorothy having become cognizant of Mr. Marmaduke's trickery, Chartersea
+seemed to have dropped out of the race. He now spent his time very
+evenly between Spa and Derresley and Paris. Hence I had so much to be
+thankful for,--that with all my blunders, I had saved her from his Grace.
+My Lord the Marquis of Wells was now most conspicuous amongst her
+suitors. Comyn had nothing particular against this nobleman, saying that
+he was a good fellow, with a pretty fortune. And here is a letter, my
+dears, in which he figures, that I brought to Cordon's Pride that spring:
+
+                  "10 SOUTH PARADE, BATH,
+                    "March 12, 1774.
+
+   "DEAR RICHARD:--Miss Manners has come to Bath, with a train behind
+   her longer than that which followed good Queen Anne hither, when she
+   made this Gehenna the fashion. Her triumphal entry last Wednesday
+   was announced by such a peal of the abbey bells as must have cracked
+   the metal (for they have not rung since) and started Beau Nash
+   a-cursing where he lies under the floor. Next came her serenade by
+   the band. Mr. Marmaduke swore they would never have done, and
+   squirmed and grinned like Punch when he thought of the fee, for he
+   had hoped to get off with a crown, I warrant you. You should have
+   seen his face when they would accept no fee at all for the beauty!
+   Some wag has writ a verse about it, which was printed, and has set
+   the whole pump-room laughing this morning.
+
+   "She was led out by Wells in the Seasons last night. As Spring she
+   is too bewildering for my pen,--all primrose and white, with the
+   flowers in her blue-black hair. Had Sir Joshua seen her, he would
+   never rest content till he should have another portrait. The Duc de
+   Lauzun, who contrived to get two dances, might give you a
+   description in a more suitable language than English. And there was
+   a prodigious deal of jealousy among the fair ones on the benches,
+   you may be sure, and much jaundiced comment.
+
+   "Some half dozen of us adorers have a mess at the Bear, and have
+   offered up a prize for the most appropriate toast on the beauty.
+   This is in competition with Mrs. Miller. Have you not heard of her
+   among your tobacco-hills? Horry calls her Mrs. 'Calliope' Miller.
+   At her place near here, Bath Easton Villa, she has set up a Roman
+   vase bedecked with myrtle, and into this we drop our bouts-rimes.
+   Mrs. Calliope has a ball every Thursday, when the victors are
+   crowned. T'other day the theme was 'A Buttered Muffin,' and her
+   Grace of Northumberland was graciously awarded the prize. In faith,
+   that theme taxed our wits at the Bear,--how to weave Miss Dolly's
+   charms into a verse on a buttered muffin. I shall not tire you with
+   mine. Storer's deserved to win, and we whisper that Mrs. Calliope
+   ruled it out through spite. 'When Phyllis eats,' so it began, and I
+   vow 'twas devilish ingenious.
+
+   "We do nothing but play lasquenet and tennis, and go to the
+   assembly, and follow Miss Dolly into Gill's, the pastry-cook's,
+   where she goes every morning to take a jelly. The ubiquitous Wells
+   does not give us much chance. He writes 'vers de societe' with the
+   rest, is high in Mr. Marmaduke's favour, which alone is enough to
+   damn his progress. I think she is ill of the sight of him.
+
+   "Albeit she does not mourn herself into a tree, I'll take oath your
+   Phyllis is true to you, Richard, and would live with you gladly in a
+   thatched hut and you asked her. Write me more news of yourself.
+
+                  "Your ever affectionate
+                         "COMYN
+
+
+   "P.S. I have had news of you through Mr. Worthington, of your
+   colony, who is just arrived here. He tells me that you
+   have gained a vast reputation for your plantation, and likewise that
+   you are thought much of by the Whig wiseacres, and that you hold
+   many seditious offices. He does not call them so. Since your
+   modesty will not permit you to write me any of these things, I have
+   been imagining you driving slaves with a rawhide, and seeding
+   runaway convicts to the mines. Mr. W. is even now paying his
+   respects to Miss Manners, and I doubt not trumpeting your praises
+   there, for he seems to like you. So I have asked him to join the
+   Bear mess. One more unfortunate!
+
+   "P.S. I was near forgetting the news about Charles Fox. He sends
+   you his love, and tells me to let you know that he has been turned
+   out of North's house for good and all. He is sure you will be
+   cursed happy over it, and says that you predicted he would go over
+   to the Whigs. I can scarce believe that he will. North took a
+   whole week to screw up His courage, h-s M-j-sty pricking him every
+   day. And then he wrote this:
+
+   "'Sir, his Majesty has thought proper to order a new Commission of
+   the Treasury to be made out, in which I do not see your name.' Poor
+   Charles! He is now without money or place, but as usual appears to
+   worry least of all of us, and still reads his damned Tasso for
+   amusement.
+                       "C."
+
+Perchance he was to be the Saint Paul of English politics, after all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX
+
+LIBERTY LOSES A FRIEND
+
+Mr. Bordley's sloop took Mr. Swain to Gordon's Pride in May, and placed
+him in the big room overlooking the widening river. There he would lie
+all day long, staring through the leaves at the water, or listening to
+the sweet music of his daughter's voice as she read from the pompous
+prints of the time. Gentlemen continued to come to the plantation,
+for the barrister's wisdom was sorely missed at the councils. One day,
+as I rode in from the field, I found Colonel Lloyd just arrived from
+Philadelphia, sipping sangaree on the lawn and mopping himself with his
+handkerchief. His jolly face was troubled. He waved his hand at me.
+
+"Well, Richard," says he, "we children are to have our first whipping.
+At least one of us. And the rest are resolved to defy our parent."
+
+"Boston, Mr. Lloyd?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, Boston," he replied; "her port is closed, and we are forbid any
+intercourse with her until she comes to her senses. And her citizens
+must receive his gracious Majesty's troopers into their houses. And if
+a man kill one of them by any chance, he is to go to England to be tried.
+And there is more quite as bad."
+
+"'Tis bad enough!" I cried, flinging myself down. And Patty gave me a
+glass in silence.
+
+"Ay, but you must hear all," said he; "our masters are of a mind to do
+the thing thoroughly. Canada is given some score of privileges. Her
+French Roman Catholics, whom we fought not long since, are thrown a sop,
+and those vast territories between the lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi
+are given to Quebec as a price for her fidelity. And so, if the worst
+comes to worst, George's regiments will have a place to land against us."
+
+Such was the news, and though we were some hundreds of miles from
+Massachusetts, we felt their cause as our own. There was no need
+of the appeal which came by smoking horses from Philadelphia, for the
+indignation of our people was roused to the highest pitch. Now Mr. Swain
+had to take to his bed from the excitement.
+
+This is not a history, my dears, as I have said. And time is growing
+short. I shall pass over that dreary summer of '74. It required no very
+keen eye to see the breakers ahead, and Mr. Bordley's advice to provide
+against seven years of famine did not go unheeded. War was the last
+thing we desired. We should have been satisfied with so little, we
+colonies! And would have voted the duties ten times over had our rights
+been respected. Should any of you doubt this, you have but to read the
+"Address to the King" of our Congress, then sitting in Philadelphia. The
+quarrel was so petty, and so easy of mending, that you of this generation
+may wonder why it was allowed to run. I have tried to tell you that the
+head of a stubborn, selfish, and wilful monarch blocked the way to
+reconciliation. King George the Third is alone to blame for that hatred
+of race against race which already hath done so much evil. And I pray
+God that a great historian may arise whose pen will reveal the truth,
+and reconcile at length those who are, and should be, brothers.
+
+By October, that most beautiful month of all the year in Maryland, we
+were again in Annapolis: One balmy day 'twas a Friday, I believe, and a
+gold and blue haze hung over the Severn--Mr. Chase called in Gloucester
+Street to give the barrister news of the Congress, which he had lately
+left. As he came down the stairs he paused for a word with me in the
+library, and remarked sadly upon Mr. Swain's condition. "He looks like
+a dying man, Richard," said he, "and we can ill afford to lose him."
+
+Even as we sat talking in subdued tones, the noise of a distant commotion
+arose. We had scarce started to our feet, Mr. Chase and I, when the
+brass knocker resounded, and Mr. Hammond was let in. His wig was awry,
+and his face was flushed.
+
+"I thought to find you here," he said to Mr. Chase. "The Anne Arundel
+Committee is to meet at once, and we desire to have you with us."
+Perceiving our blank faces, he added: "The 'Peggy Stewart' is in this
+morning with over a ton of tea aboard, consigned to the Williams's."
+
+The two jumped into a chaise, and I followed afoot, stopped at every
+corner by some excited acquaintance; so that I had the whole story, and
+more, ere I reached Church Street. The way was blocked before the
+committee rooms, and 'twas said that the merchants, Messrs. Williams,
+and Captain Jackson of the brig, were within, pleading their cause.
+
+Presently the news leaked abroad that Mr. Anthony Stewart, the brig's
+owner, had himself paid the duty on the detested plant. Some hundreds
+of people were elbowing each other in the street, for the most part quiet
+and anxious, until Mr. Hammond appeared and whispered to a man at the
+door. In all my life before I had never heard the hum of an angry crowd.
+The sound had something ominous in it, like the first meanings of a wind
+that is to break off great trees at their trunks. Then some one shouted:
+"To Hanover Street! To Hanover Street! We'll have him tarred and
+feathered before the sun is down!" The voice sounded strangely like
+Weld's. They charged at this cry like a herd of mad buffalo, the weaker
+ones trampled under foot or thrust against the wall. The windows of Mr.
+Aikman's shop were shattered. I ran with the leaders, my stature and
+strength standing me in good stead more than once, and as we twisted into
+Northwest Street I took a glance at the mob behind me, and great was my
+anxiety at not being able to descry one responsible person.
+
+Mr. Stewart's house stood, and stands to-day, amid trim gardens, in plain
+sight of the Severn. Arriving there, the crowd massed in front of it,
+some of the boldest pressing in at the gate and spreading over the circle
+of lawn enclosed by the driveway. They began to shout hoarsely, with
+what voices they had left, for Mr. Stewart to come out, calling him names
+not to be spoken, and swearing they would show him how traitors were to
+be served. I understood then the terror of numbers, and shuddered. A
+chandler, a bold and violent man, whose leather was covered with grease,
+already had his foot on the steps, when the frightened servants slammed
+the door in his face, and closed the lower windows. In vain I strained
+my eyes for some one who might have authority with them. They began to
+pick up stones, though none were thrown.
+
+Suddenly a figure appeared at an upper window,--a thin and wasted woman
+dressed in white, with sad, sweet features. It was Mrs. Stewart.
+Without flinching she looked down upon the upturned faces; but a mob of
+that kind has no pity. Their leaders were the worst class in our
+province, being mostly convicts who had served their terms of indenture.
+They continued to call sullenly for "the traitor." Then the house door
+opened, and the master himself appeared. He was pale and nervous, and
+no wonder; and his voice shook as he strove to make himself heard. His
+words were drowned immediately by shouts of "Seize him! Seize the d--d
+traitor!" "A pot and a coat of hot tar!"
+
+Those who were nearest started forward, and I with them. With me 'twas
+the decision of an instant. I beat the chandler up the steps, and took
+stand in front of the merchant, and I called out to them to fall back.
+
+To my astonishment they halted. The skirts of the crowd were now come to
+the foot of the little porch. I faced them with my hand on Mr. Stewart's
+arm, without a thought of what to do next, and expecting violence. There
+was a second's hush. Then some one cried out:
+
+"Three cheers for Richard Carvel!"
+
+They gave them with a will that dumfounded me.
+
+"My friends," said I, when I had got my wits, "this is neither the
+justice nor the moderation for which our province is noted. You have
+elected your committee of your free wills, and they have claims before
+you."
+
+"Ay, ay, the committee!" they shouted. "Mr. Carvel is right. Take him
+to the Committee!"
+
+Mr. Stewart raised his hand.
+
+"My friends," he began, as I had done, "when you have learned the
+truth, you will not be so hasty to blame me for an offence of which I am
+innocent. The tea was not for me. The brig was in a leaky and dangerous
+state and had fifty souls aboard her. I paid the duty out of humanity--"
+
+He had come so far, when they stopped him.
+
+"Oh, a vile Tory!" they shouted. "He is conniving with the Council.
+'Twas put up between them." And they followed this with another volley
+of hard names, until I feared that his chance was gone.
+
+"You would best go before the Committee, Mr. Stewart," I said.
+
+"I will go with Mr. Carvel, my friends," he cried at once. And he
+invited me into the house whilst he ordered his coach. I preferred to
+remain outside.
+
+I asked them if they would trust me with Mr. Stewart to Church Street.
+
+"Yes, yes, Mr. Carvel, we know you," said several. "He has good cause to
+hate Tories," called another, with a laugh. I knew the voice.
+
+"For shame, Weld," I cried. And I saw McNeir, who was a stanch friend of
+mine, give him a cuff to send him spinning.
+
+To my vast satisfaction they melted away, save only a few of the idlest
+spirits, who hung about the gate, and cheered as we drove off. Mr.
+Stewart was very nervous, and profuse in his gratitude. I replied that
+I had acted only as would have any other responsible citizen. On the way
+he told me enough of his case to convince me that there was much to be
+said on his side, but I thought it the better part of wisdom not to
+commit myself. The street in front of the committee rooms was empty, and
+I was informed that a town meeting had been called immediately at the
+theatre in West Street. And I advised Mr. Stewart to attend. But
+through anxiety or anger, or both, he was determined not to go, and drove
+back to his house without me.
+
+I had got as far as St. Anne's, halfway to the theatre, when it suddenly
+struck me that Mr. Swain must be waiting for news. With a twinge I
+remembered what Mr. Chase had said about the barrister's condition, and I
+hurried back to Gloucester Street, much to the surprise of those I met on
+their way to the meeting. I was greatly relieved, when I arrived, to
+find Patty on the porch. I knew she had never been there were her father
+worse. After a word with her and her mother, I went up the stairs.
+
+It was the hour for the barrister's nap. But he was awake, lying back
+on the pillows, with his eyes half closed. He was looking out into the
+garden, which was part orchard, now beginning to shrivel and to brown
+with the first touch of frosts.
+
+"That is you, Richard?" he inquired, without moving. "What is going
+forward to-day?"
+
+I toned down the news, so as not to excite him, and left out the
+occurrence in Hanover Street. He listened with his accustomed interest,
+but when I had done he asked no questions, and lay for a long time
+silent. Then he begged me to bring my chair nearer.
+
+"Richard,--my son," said he, with an evident effort, "I have never
+thanked you for your devotion to me and mine through the best years of
+your life. It shall not go unrewarded, my lad."
+
+It seemed as if my heart stood still with the presage of what was to
+come.
+
+"May God reward you, sir!" I said.
+
+"I have wished to speak to you," he continued, "and I may not have
+another chance. I have arranged with Mr. Carroll, the barrister, to take
+your cause against your uncle, so that you will lose nothing when I am
+gone. And you will see, in my table in the library, that I have left my
+property in your hands, with every confidence in your integrity, and
+ability to care for my family, even as I should have done."
+
+I could not speak at once. A lump rose in my throat, for I had come to
+look upon him as a father. His honest dealings, his charity, of which
+the world knew nothing, and his plain and unassuming ways had inspired
+in me a kind of worship. I answered, as steadily as I might:
+
+"I believe I am too inexperienced for such a responsibility, Mr. Swain.
+Would it not be better that Mr. Bordley or Mr. Lloyd should act?"
+
+"No, no," he said; "I am not a man to do things unadvisedly, or to let
+affection get the better of my judgment, where others dear to me are
+concerned. I know you, Richard Carvel. Scarce an action of yours has
+escaped my eye, though I have said nothing. You have been through the
+fire, and are of the kind which comes out untouched. You will have Judge
+Bordley's advice, and Mr. Carroll's. And they are too busy with the
+affairs of the province to be burdened as my executors. But," he added a
+little more strongly, "if what I fear is coming, Mr. Bordley will take
+the trust in your absence. If we have war, Richard, you will not be
+content to remain at home, nor would I wish it."
+
+I did not reply.
+
+"You will do what I ask?" he said.
+
+"I would refuse you nothing, Mr. Swain," I answered. "But I have heavy
+misgivings."
+
+He sighed. "And now, if it were not for Tom, I might die content," he
+said.
+
+If it were not for Tom! The full burden of the trust began to dawn upon
+me then. Presently I heard him speaking, but in so low a voice that I
+hardly caught the words.
+
+"In our youth, Richard," he was saying, "the wrath of the Almighty is
+but so many words to most of us. When I was little more than a lad, I
+committed a sin of which I tremble now to think. And I was the fool to
+imagine, when I amended my life, that God had forgotten. His punishment
+is no heavier than I deserve. But He alone knows what He has made me
+suffer."
+
+I felt that I had no right to be there.
+
+"That is why I have paid Tom's debts," he continued; "I cannot cast off
+my son. I have reasoned, implored, and appealed in vain. He is like
+Reuben,--his resolutions melt in an hour. And I have pondered day and
+night what is to be done for him."
+
+"Is he to have his portion?" I asked. Indeed, the thought of the
+responsibility of Tom Swain overwhelmed me.
+
+"Yes, he is to have it," cried Mr. Swain, with a violence to bring on a
+fit of coughing. "Were I to leave it in trust for a time, he would have
+it mortgaged within a year. He is to have his portion, but not a penny
+additional."
+
+He lay for a long time breathing deeply, I watching him. Then, as he
+reached out and took my hand, I knew by some instinct what was to come.
+I summoned all my self-command to meet his eye. I knew that the
+malicious and unthinking gossip of the town had reached him, and
+that he had received it in the simple faith of his hopes.
+
+"One thing more, my lad," he said, "the dearest wish of all--that you
+will marry Patty. She is a good girl, Richard. And I have thought,"
+he added with hesitation, "I have thought that she loves you, though her
+lips have never opened on that subject."
+
+So the blow fell. I turned away, for to save my life the words would not
+come. He missed the reason of my silence.
+
+"I understand and honour your scruples," he went on. His kindness was
+like a knife.
+
+"No, I have had none, Mr. Swain," I exclaimed. For I would not be
+thought a hypocrite.
+
+There I stopped. A light step sounded in the hall, and Patty came in
+upon us. Her colour at once betrayed her understanding. To my infinite
+relief her father dropped my fingers, and asked cheerily if there was any
+news from the town meeting.
+
+On the following Wednesday, with her flag flying and her sails set, the
+Peggy Stewart was run ashore on Windmill Point. She rose, a sacrifice to
+Liberty, in smoke to heaven, before the assembled patriots of our city.
+
+That very night a dear friend to Liberty passed away. He failed so
+suddenly that Patty had no time to call for aid, and when the mother had
+been carried in, his spirit was flown. We laid him high on the hill
+above the creek, in the new lot he had bought and fenced around. The
+stone remains:
+
+                HERE LIETH
+
+            HENRY SWAIN, BARRISTER.
+            BORN MAY 13, 1730 (O.S.);
+             DIED OCTOBER 19, 1774.
+           Fidus Amicis atque Patrice.
+
+The simple inscription, which speaks volumes to those who knew him, was
+cut after the Revolution. He was buried with the honours of a statesman,
+which he would have been had God spared him to serve the New Country
+which was born so soon after his death.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Richard Carvel, Volume 7, by Winston Churchill
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