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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7596.txt b/7596.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b678b80 --- /dev/null +++ b/7596.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1672 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook The Caxtons, by Bulwer-Lytton, Part 11 +#25 in our series by Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: The Caxtons, Part 11 + +Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Release Date: February 2005 [EBook #7596] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on January 7, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAXTONS, BY LYTTON, PART 11 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by Pat Castevens +and David Widger + + + + + +PART XI. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +The next day, on the outside of the "Cambridge Telegraph," there was one +passenger who ought to have impressed his fellow-travellers with a very +respectful idea of his lore in the dead languages; for not a single +syllable, in a live one, did he vouchsafe to utter from the moment he +ascended that "bad eminence" to the moment in which he regained his +mother earth. "Sleep," says honest Sancho, "covers a man better than a +cloak." I am ashamed of thee, honest Sancho, thou art a sad plagiarist; +for Tibullus said pretty nearly the same thing before thee,-- + + "Te somnus fusco velavit amictu." (1) + +But is not silence as good a cloak as sleep; does it not wrap a man round +with as offusc and impervious a fold? Silence, what a world it covers,-- +what busy schemes, what bright hopes and dark fears, what ambition, or +what despair! Do you ever see a man in any society sitting mute for +hours, and not feel an uneasy curiosity to penetrate the wall he thus +builds up between others and himself? Does he not interest you far more +than the brilliant talker at your left, the airy wit at your right whose +shafts fall in vain on the sullen barrier of the silent man! Silence, +dark sister of Nox and Erebus, how, layer upon layer, shadow upon shadow, +blackness upon blackness, thou stretchest thyself from hell to heaven, +over thy two chosen haunts,--man's heart and the grave! + +So, then, wrapped in my great-coat and my silence, I performed my +journey; and on the evening of the second day I reached the old-fashioned +brick house. How shrill on my ears sounded the bell! How strange and +ominous to my impatience seemed the light gleaming across the windows of +the hall! How my heart beat as I watched the face of the servant who +opened the gate to my summons! + +"All well?" cried I. + +"All well, sir," answered the servant, cheerfully. "Mr. Squills, indeed, +is with master, but I don't think there is anything the matter." + +But now my mother appeared at the threshold, and I was in her arms. + +"Sisty, Sisty! my dear, dear son--beggared, perhaps--and my fault--mine." + +"Yours! Come into this room, out of hearing,--your fault?" + +"Yes, yes! for if I had had no brother, or if I had not been led away,-- +if I had, as I ought, entreated poor Austin not to--" + +"My dear, dearest mother, you accuse yourself for what, it seems, was my +uncle's misfortune,--I am sure not even his fault! [I made a gulp +there.] No, lay the fault on the right shoulders,--the defunct shoulders +of that horrible progenitor, William Caxton the printer; for though I +don't yet know the particulars of what has happened, I will lay a wager +it is connected with that fatal invention of printing. Come, come! my +father is well, is he not?" + +"Yes, thank Heaven!" + +"And I too, and Roland, and little Blanche! Why, then, you are right to +thank Heaven, for your true treasures are untouched. But sit down and +explain, pray." + +"I cannot explain. I do not understand anything more than that he, my +brother--mine!--has involved Austin in--in--" (a fresh burst of tears.) + +I comforted, scolded, laughed, preached, and adjured in a breath; and +then, drawing my another gently on, entered my father's study. + +At the table was seated Mr. Squills, pen in hand, and a glass of his +favorite punch by his side. My father was standing on the hearth, a +shade more pale, but with a resolute expression on his countenance which +was new to its indolent, thoughtful mildness. He lifted his eyes as the +door opened, and then, putting his finger to his lips, as he glanced +towards my mother, he said gayly, "No great harm done. Don't believe +her! Women always exaggerate, and make realities of their own bugbears: +it is the vice of their lively imaginations, as Wierus has clearly shown +in accounting for the marks, moles, and hare-lips which they inflict upon +their innocent infants before they are even born. My dear boy," added my +father, as I here kissed him and smiled in his face, "I thank you for +that smile! God bless you!" He wrung my hand and turned a little aside. + +"It is a great comfort," renewed my father, after a short pause, "to +know, when a misfortune happens, that it could not be helped. Squills +has just discovered that I have no bump of cautiousness; so that, +craniologically speaking, if I had escaped one imprudence, I should +certainly have run my head against another." + +"A man with your development is made to be taken in," said Mr. Squills, +consolingly. + +"Do you hear that, my own Kitty? And have you the heart to blame Jack +any longer,--a poor creature cursed with a bump that would take in the +Stock Exchange? And can any one resist his bump, Squills?" + +"Impossible!" said the surgeon, authoritatively. + +"Sooner or later it must involve him in its airy meshes,--eh, Squills?- + entrap him into its fatal cerebral cell. There his fate waits him, like +the ant-lion in its pit." + +"Too true," quoth Squills. "What a phrenological lecturer you would have +made!" + +"Go then, my love," said my father, "and lay no blame but on this +melancholy cavity of mine, where cautiousness--is not! Go, and let Sisty +have some supper; for Squills says that he has a fine development of the +mathematical organs, and we want his help. We are hard at work on +figures, Pisistratus." + +My mother looked broken-hearted, and, obeying submissively, stole to the +door without a word. But as she reached the threshold she turned round +and beckoned to me to follow her. + +I whispered my father and went out. My mother was standing in the hall, +and I saw by the lamp that she had dried her tears, and that her face, +though very sad, was more composed. + +"Sisty," she said, in a low voice which struggled to be firm, promise me +that you will tell me all,--the worst, Sisty. They keep it from me, and +that is my hardest punishment; for when I don't know all that he--that +Austin suffers, it seems to me as if I had lost his heart. Oh, Sisty, my +child, my child, don't fear me! I shall be happy whatever befalls us, if +I once get back my privilege,--my privilege, Sisty, to comfort, to share! +Do you understand me?" + +"Yes indeed, my mother! And with your good sense and clear woman's wit, +if you will but feel how much we want them, you will be the best +counsellor we could have. So never fear; you and I will have no +secrets." + +My mother kissed me, and went away with a less heavy step. + +As I re-entered, my father came across the room and embraced me. + +"My son," he said in a faltering voice, "if your modest prospects in life +are ruined--" + +"Father, father, can you think of me at such a moment? Me! Is it +possible to ruin the young and strong and healthy! Ruin me, with these +thews and sinews; ruin me, with the education you have given me,--thews +and sinews of the mind! Oh, no! there, Fortune is harmless! And you +forget, sir,--the saffron bag!" + +Squills leaped up, and wiping his eyes with one hand, gave me a sounding +slap on the shoulder with the other. + +"I am proud of the care I took of your infancy, Master Caxton. That +comes of strengthening the digestive organs in early childhood. Such +sentiments are a proof of magnificent ganglions in a perfect state of +order. When a man's tongue is as smooth as I am sure yours is, he +slips through misfortune like an eel." + +I laughed outright, my father smiled faintly; and, seating myself, I drew +towards me a paper filled with Squills's memoranda, and said, "Now to +find the unknown quantity. What on earth is this? 'Supposed value of +books, L750.' Oh, father! this is impossible. I was prepared for +anything but that. Your books,--they are your life!" + +"Nay," said my father; "after all, they are the offending party in this +case, and so ought to be the principal victims. Besides, I believe I +know most of them by heart. But, in truth, we are only entering all our +effects, to be sure [added my father, proudly], that, come what may, we +are not dishonored." + +"Humor him," whispered Squills; "we will save the books." Then he added +aloud, as he laid finger and thumb on my pulse, "One, two, three, about +seventy,--capital pulse, soft and full; he can bear the whole: let us +administer it." + +My father nodded: "Certainly. But, Pisistratus, we must manage your dear +mother. Why she should think of blaming herself because poor Jack took +wrong ways to enrich us, I cannot understand. But as I have had occasion +before to remark, Sphinx is a noun feminine." + +My poor father! that was a vain struggle for thy wonted innocent humor. +The lips quivered. + +Then the story came out. It seems that when it was resolved to undertake +the publication of the "Literary Times," a certain number of shareholders +had been got together by the indefatigable energies of Uncle Jack; and in +the deed of association and partnership, my father's name figured +conspicuously as the holder of a fourth of this joint property. If in +this my father had committed some imprudence, he had at least done +nothing that, according to the ordinary calculations of a secluded +student, could become ruinous. But just at the time when we were in the +hurry of leaving town, Jack had represented to my father that it might be +necessary to alter a little the plan of the paper, and in order to allure +a larger circle of readers, touch somewhat on the more vulgar news and +Interests of the day. A change of plan might involve a change of title; +and he suggested to my father the expediency of leaving the smooth hands +of Mr. Tibbets altogether unfettered, as to the technical name and +precise form of the publication. To this my father had unwittingly +assented, on hearing that the other shareholders would do the same. Mr. +Peck, a printer of considerable opulence and highly respectable name, had +been found to advance the sum necessary for the publication of the +earlier numbers, upon the guarantee of the said act of partnership and +the additional security of my father's signature to a document +authorizing Mr. Tibbets to make any change in the form or title of the +periodical that might be judged advisable, concurrent with the consent of +the other shareholders. + +Now, it seems that Mr. Peck had, in his previous conferences with Mr. +Tibbets, thrown much cold water on the idea of the "Literary Times," and +had suggested something that should "catch the moneyed public,"--the fact +being, as was afterwards discovered, that the printer, whose spirit of +enterprise was congenial to Uncle Jack's, had shares in three or four +speculations to which he was naturally glad of an opportunity to invite +the attention of the public. In a word, no sooner was my poor father's +back turned than the "Literary Times" was dropped incontinently, and Mr. +Peck and Mr. Tibbets began to concentrate their luminous notions into +that brilliant and comet-like apparition which ultimately blazed forth +under the title of "The Capitalist." + +From this change of enterprise the more prudent and responsible of the +original shareholders had altogether withdrawn. A majority, indeed, were +left; but the greater part of those were shareholders of that kind most +amenable to the influences of Uncle Jack, and willing to be shareholders +in anything, since as yet they were possessors of nothing. + +Assured of my father's responsibility, the adventurous Peck put plenty of +spirit into the first launch of "The Capitalist." All the walls were +placarded with its announcements; circular advertisements ran from one +end of the kingdom to the other. Agents were engaged, correspondents +levied en masse. The invasion of Xerxes on the Greeks was not more +munificently provided for than that of "The Capitalist" upon the +credulity and avarice of mankind. + +But as Providence bestows upon fishes the instrument of fins, whereby +they balance and direct their movements, however rapid and erratic, +through the pathless deeps, so to the cold-blooded creatures of our own +species--that may be classed under the genus Money-Makers--the same +protective power accords the fin-like properties of prudence and caution, +wherewith your true money-getter buoys and guides himself majestically +through the great seas of speculation. In short, the fishes the net was +cast for were all scared from the surface at the first splash. They came +round and smelt at the mesh with their sharp bottle-noses, and then, +plying those invaluable fins, made off as fast as they could, plunging +into the mud, hiding themselves under rocks and coral banks. Metaphor +apart, the capitalists buttoned up their pockets, and would have nothing +to say to their namesake. + +Not a word of this change, so abhorrent to all the notions of poor +Augustine Caxton, had been breathed to him by Peck or Tibbets. He ate +and slept and worked at the Great Book, occasionally wondering why he had +not heard of the advent of the "Literary Times," unconscious of all the +awful responsibilities which "The Capitalist" was entailing on him, +knowing no more of "The Capitalist" than he did of the last loan of the +Rothschilds. + +Difficult was it for all other human nature, save my father's, not to +breathe an indignant anathema on the scheming head of the brother-in-law +who had thus violated the most sacred obligations of trust and kindred, +and so entangled an unsuspecting recluse. But, to give even Jack Tibbets +his due, he had firmly convinced himself that "The Capitalist" would make +my father's fortune; and if he did not announce to him the strange and +anomalous development into which the original sleeping chrysalis of the +"Literary Times" had taken portentous wing, it was purely and wholly in +the knowledge that my father's "prejudices," as he termed them, would +stand in the way of his becoming a Creesus. And, in fact, Uncle Jack had +believed so heartily in his own project that he had put himself +thoroughly into Mr. Peck's power, signed bills, in his own name, to some +fabulous amount, and was actually now in the Fleet, whence his +penitential and despairing confession was dated, arriving simultaneously +with a short letter from Mr. Peck, wherein that respectable printer +apprised my father that he had continued, at his own risk, the +publication of "The Capitalist" as far as a prudent care for his family +would permit; that he need not say that a new daily journal was a very +vast experiment; that the expense of such a paper as "The Capitalist" was +immeasurably greater than that of a mere literary periodical, as +originally suggested; and that now, being constrained to come upon the +shareholders for the sums he had advanced, amounting to several +thousands, he requested my father to settle with him immediately,-- +delicately implying that Mr. Caxton himself might settle as he could with +the other shareholders, most of whom, he grieved to add, he had been +misled by Mr. Tibbets into believing to be men of substance, when in +reality they were men of straw! + +Nor was this all the evil. The "Great Anti-Bookseller Publishing +Society," which had maintained a struggling existence, evinced by +advertisements of sundry forthcoming works of solid interest and enduring +nature, wherein, out of a long list, amidst a pompous array of "Poems;" +"Dramas not intended for the Stage;" "Essays by Phileutheros, +Philanthropos, Philopolis, Philodemus, and Philalethes," stood +prominently forth "The History of Human Error, Vols. I. and II., quarto, +with illustrations,"--the "Anti-Bookseller Society," I say, that had +hitherto evinced nascent and budding life by these exfoliations from its +slender stem, died of a sudden blight the moment its sun, in the shape of +Uncle Jack, set in the Cimmerian regions of the Fleet; and a polite +letter from another printer (O William Caxton, William Caxton, fatal +progenitor!) informing my father of this event, stated complimentarily +that it was to him, "as the most respectable member of the Association," +that the said printer would be compelled to look for expenses incurred, +not only in the very costly edition of the "History of Human Error," but +for those incurred in the print and paper devoted to "Poems," "Dramas not +intended for the Stage," "Essays by Phileutheros, Philanthropos, +Philopolis, Philodemus, and Philalethes," with sundry other works, no +doubt of a very valuable nature, but in which a considerable loss, in a +pecuniary point of view, must be necessarily expected. + +I own that as soon as I had mastered the above agreeable facts, and +ascertained from Mr. Squills that my father really did seem to have +rendered himself legally liable to these demands, I leaned back in my +chair stunned and bewildered. + +"So you see," said my father, "that as yet we are contending with +monsters in the dark,--in the dark all monsters look larger and uglier. +Even Augustus Caesar, though certainly he had never scrupled to make as +many ghosts as suited his convenience, did not like the chance of a visit +from them, and never sat alone in tenebris. What the amount of the sums +claimed from me may be, we know not; what may be gained from the other +shareholders is equally obscure and undefined. But the first thing to do +is to get poor Jack out of prison." + +"Uncle Jack out of prison!" exclaimed I. "Surely, sir, that is carrying +forgiveness too far." + +"Why, he would not have been in prison if I had not been so blindly +forgetful of his weakness, poor man! I ought to have known better. But +my vanity misled me; I must needs publish a great book, as if [said Mr. +Caxton, looking round the shelves] there were not great books enough in +the world! I must needs, too, think of advancing and circulating +knowledge in the form of a journal,--I, who had not knowledge enough of +the character of my own brother-in-law to keep myself from ruin! Come +what--will, I should think myself the meanest of men to let that poor +creature, whom I ought to have considered as a monomaniac, rot in prison +because I, Austin Caxton, wanted common-sense. And [concluded my father, +resolutely] he is your mother's brother, Pisistratus. I should have gone +to town at once, but hearing that my wife had written to you, I waited +till I could leave her to the companionship of hope and comfort,--two +blessings that smile upon every mother in the face of a son like you. +To-morrow I go." + +"Not a bit of it," said Mr. Squills, firmly; "as your medical adviser, I +forbid you to leave the house for the next six days." + +(1) Tibullus, iii. 4,55. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +"Sir," continued Mr. Squills, biting off the end of a cigar which he +pulled from his pocket, "you concede to me that it is a very important +business on which you propose to go to London." + +"Of that there is no doubt," replied my father. + +"And the doing of business well or ill entirely depends upon the habit of +body!" cried Mr. Squills, triumphantly. "Do you know, Mr. Caxton, that +while you are looking so calm, and talking so quietly,--just on purpose +to sustain your son and delude your wife,--do you know that your pulse, +which is naturally little more than sixty, is nearly a hundred? Do you +know, sir, that your mucous membranes are in a state of high irritation, +apparent by the papillce at the tip of your tongue? And if, with a pulse +like this and a tongue like that, you think of settling money matters +with a set of sharp-witted tradesmen, all I can say is, that you are a +ruined man." + +"But--" began my father. + +"Did not Squire Rollick," pursued Mr. Squills,--"Squire Rollick, the +hardest head at a bargain I know of,--did not Squire Rollick sell that +pretty little farm of his, Scranny Holt, for thirty per cent below its +value? And what was the cause, sir? The whole county was in amaze! +What was the cause, but an incipient simmering attack of the yellow +jaundice, which made him take a gloomy view of human life and the +agricultural interest? On the other hand, did not Lawyer Cool, the most +prudent man in the three kingdoms,--Lawyer Cool, who was so methodical +that all the clocks in the county were set by his watch,--plunge one +morning head over heels into a frantic speculation for cultivating the +bogs in Ireland? (His watch did not go right for the next three months, +which made our whole shire an hour in advance of the rest of England!) +And what was the cause of that nobody knew, till I was called in, and +found the cerebral membrane in a state of acute irritation,--probably +just in the region of his acquisitiveness and ideality. No, Mr. Caxton, +you will stay at home and take a soothing preparation I shall send you, +of lettuce-leaves and marshmallows. But I," continued Squills, lighting +his cigar and taking two determined whiffs,--"but I will go up to town +and settle the business for you, and take with me this young gentleman, +whose digestive functions are just in a state to deal safely with those +horrible elements of dyspepsia,--the L. S. D." + +As he spoke, Mr. Squills set his foot significantly upon mine. + +"But," resumed my father, mildly, "though I thank you very much, Squills, +for your kind offer, I do not recognize the necessity of accepting it. I +am not so bad a philosopher as you seem to imagine; and the blow I have +received has not so deranged my physical organization as to render me +unfit to transact my affairs." + +"Hum!" grunted Squills, starting up and seizing my father's pulse; +"ninety-six,--ninety-six if a beat! And the tongue, sir!" + +"Pshaw!" quoth my father; "you have not even seen my tongue!" + +"No need of that; I know what it is by the state of the eyelids,--tip +scarlet, sides rough as a nutmeg-grater!" + +"Pshaw!" again said my father, this time impatiently. + +"Well," said Squills, solemnly, "it is my duty to say," (here my mother +entered, to tell me that supper was ready), "and I say it to you, Mrs. +Caxton, and to you, Mr. Pisistratus Caxton, as the parties most nearly +interested, that if you, sir, go to London upon this matter, I'll not +answer for the consequences." + +"Oh! Austin, Austin," cried my mother, running up and throwing her arms +round my father's neck; while I, little less alarmed by Squills's serious +tone and aspect, represented strongly the inutility of Mr. Caxton's +personal interference at the present moment. All he could do on arriving +in town would be to put the matter into the hands of a good lawyer, and +that we could do for him; it would be time enough to send for him when +the extent of the mischief done was more clearly ascertained. Meanwhile +Squills griped my father's pulse, and my mother hung on his neck. + +"Ninety-six--ninety-seven!" groaned Squills in a hollow voice. + +"I don't believe it!" cried my father, almost in a passion,--"never +better nor cooler in my life." + +"And the tongue--Look at his tongue, Mrs. Caxton,--a tongue, ma'am, so +bright that you could see to read by it!" + +"Oh! Austin, Austin!" + +"My dear, it is not my tongue that is in fault, I assure you," said my +father, speaking through his teeth; "and the man knows no more of my +tongue than he does of the Mysteries of Eleusis." + +"Put it out then," exclaimed Squills; "and if it be not as I say, you +have my leave to go to London and throw your whole fortune into the two +great pits you have dug for it. Put it out!" + +"Mr. Squills!" said my father, coloring,--"Mr. Squills, for shame!" + +"Dear, dear, Austin! your hand is so hot; you are feverish, I am sure." + +"Not a bit of it." + +"But, sir, only just gratify Mr. Squills," said I, coaxingly. + +"There, there!" said my father, fairly baited into submission, and shyly +exhibiting for a moment the extremest end of the vanquished organ of +eloquence. + +Squills darted forward his lynx-like eyes. "Red as a lobster, and rough +as a gooseberry-bush!" cried Squills, in a tone of savage joy. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +How was it possible for one poor tongue, so reviled and persecuted, so +humbled, insulted, and triumphed over, to resist three tongues in league +against it? + +Finally, my father yielded, and Squills; in high spirits, declared that +he would go to supper with me, to see that I ate nothing that would tend +to discredit his reliance on my system. Leaving my mother still with her +Austin, the good surgeon then took my arm, and as soon as we were in the +next room, shut the door carefully, wiped his forehead, and said: "I +think we have saved him!" + +"Would it really, then, have injured my father so much?" + +"So much? Why, you foolish young man, don't you see that with his +ignorance of business where he himself is concerned,--though for any +other one's business, neither Rollick nor Cool has a better judgment,-- +and with his d--d Quixotic spirit of honor worked up into a state of +excitement, he would have rushed to Mr. Tibbets and exclaimed, "How much +do we owe you? There it is' settled in the same way with these printers, +and come back without a sixpence; whereas you and I can look coolly about +us and reduce the inflammation to the minimum!" + +"I see, and thank you heartily, Squills." + +"Besides," said the surgeon, with more feeling, "your father has really +been making a noble effort over himself. He suffers more than you would +think,--not for himself (for I do believe that if he were alone in the +world, he would be quite contented if he could save fifty pounds a-year +and his books), but for your mother and yourself; and a fresh access of +emotional excitement, all the nervous anxiety of a journey to London on +such a business, might have ended in a paralytic or epileptic affection. +Now we have him here snug; and the worst news we can give him will be +better than what he will make up his mind for. But you don't eat." + +"Eat! How can I? My poor father!" + +"The effect of grief upon the gastric juices, through the nervous system, +is very remarkable," said Mr. Squills, philosophically, and helping +himself to a broiled bone; "it increases the thirst, while it takes away +hunger. No--don't touch port!--heating! Sherry and water." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +The house-door had closed upon Mr. Squills,--that gentleman having +promised to breakfast with me the next morning, so that we might take the +coach from our gate,--and I remained alone, seated by the supper-table, +and revolving all I had heard, when my father walked in. + +"Pisistratus," said he gravely, and looking round him, "your mother!-- +suppose the worst--your first care, then, must be to try and secure +something for her. You and I are men,--we can never want, while we have +health of mind and body; but a woman--and if anything happens to me--" + +My father's lip writhed as it uttered these brief sentences. + +"My dear, dear father!" said I, suppressing my tears with difficulty, +"all evils, as you yourself said, look worse by anticipation. It is +impossible that your whole fortune can be involved. The newspaper did +not run many weeks, and only the first volume of your work is printed. +Besides, there must be other shareholders who will pay their quota. +Believe me, I feel sanguine as to the result of my embassy. As for my +poor mother, it is not the loss of fortune that will wound her,--depend +on it, she thinks very little of that,--it is the loss of your +confidence." + +"My confidence!" + +"Ah, yes! tell her all your fears, as your hopes. Do not let your +affectionate pity exclude her from one corner of your heart." + +"It is that, it is that, Austin,--my husband--my joy--my pride--my soul-- +my all!" cried a soft, broken voice. + +My mother had crept in, unobserved by us. + +My father looked at us both, and the tears which had before stood in his +eyes forced their way. Then opening his arms, into which his Kitty threw +herself joyfully, he lifted those moist eyes upward, and by the movement +of his lips I saw that he thanked God. + +I stole out of the room. I felt that those two hearts should be left +to beat and to blend alone. And from that hour I am convinced that +Augustine Caxton acquired a stouter philosophy than that of the Stoics. +The fortitude that concealed pain was no longer needed, for the pain was +no longer felt. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +Mr. Squills and I performed our journey without adventure, and as we were +not alone on the coach, with little conversation. We put up at a small +inn in the City, and the next morning I sallied forth to see Trevanion; +for we agreed that he would be the best person to advise us. But on +arriving at St. James's Square I had the disappointment of hearing that +the whole family had gone to Paris three days before, and were not +expected to return till the meeting of Parliament. + +This was a sad discouragement, for I had counted much on Trevanion's +clear head and that extraordinary range of accomplishment in all matters +of business--all that related to practical life--which my old patron pre- +eminently possessed. The next thing would be to find Trevanion's lawyer +(for Trevanion was one of those men whose solicitors are sure to be +able and active). But the fact was that he left so little to lawyers +that he had never had occasion to communicate with one since I had known +him, and I was therefore in ignorance of the very name of his solicitor; +nor could the porter, who was left in charge of the house, enlighten me. +Luckily, I bethought myself of Sir Sedley Beaudesert, who could scarcely +fail to give me the information required, and who, at all events, might +recommend to me some other lawyer. So to him I went. + +I found Sir Sedley at breakfast with a young gentleman who seemed about +twenty. The good baronet was delighted to see me; but I thought it was +with a little confusion, rare to his cordial ease, that he presented me +to his cousin, Lord Castleton. It was a name familiar to me, though I +had never before met its patrician owner. + +The Marquis of Castleton was indeed a subject of envy to young idlers, +and afforded a theme of interest to gray-bearded politicians. Often had +I heard of "that lucky fellow Castleton," who when of age would step into +one of those colossal fortunes which would realize the dreams of +Aladdin,--a fortune that had been out to nurse since his minority. Often +had I heard graver gossips wonder whether Castleton would take any active +part in public life,--whether he would keep up the family influence. His +mother (still alive) was a superior woman, and had devoted herself, from +his childhood, to supply a father's loss and fit him for his great +position. It was said that he was clever, had been educated by a tutor +of great academic distinction, and was reading for a double-first class +at Oxford. This young marquis was indeed the head of one of those few +houses still left in England that retain feudal importance. He was +important, not only from his rank and his vast fortune, but from an +immense circle of powerful connections; from the ability of his two +predecessors, who had been keen politicians and cabinet ministers; from +the prestige they had bequeathed to his name; from the peculiar nature of +his property, which gave him the returning interest in no less than six +parliamentary seats in Great Britain and Ireland; besides the indirect +ascendency which the head of the Castletons had always exercised over +many powerful and noble allies of that princely house. I was not aware +that he was related to Sir Sedley, whose world of action was so remote +from politics; and it was with some surprise that I now heard that +announcement, and certainly with some interest that I, perhaps from the +verge of poverty, gazed on this young heir of fabulous El Dorados. + +It was easy to see that Lord Castleton had been brought up with a careful +knowledge of his future greatness, and its serious responsibilities. He +stood immeasurably aloof from all the affectations common to the youth of +minor patricians. He had not been taught to value himself on the cut of +a coat or the shape of a hat. His world was far above St. James's Street +and the clubs. He was dressed plainly, though in a style peculiar to +himself,--a white neck-cloth (which was not at that day quite so uncommon +for morning use as it is now), trousers without straps, thin shoes, and +gaiters. In his manner there was nothing of the supercilious apathy +which characterizes the dandy introduced to some one whom he doubts if he +can nod to from the bow-window at White's,--none of such vulgar +coxcombries had Lord Castleton; and yet a young gentleman more +emphatically coxcomb it was impossible to see. He had been told, no +doubt, that as the head of a house which was almost in itself a party in +the state, he should be bland and civil to all men; and this duty being +grafted upon a nature singularly cold and unsocial, gave to his +politeness something so stiff, yet so condescending that it brought the +blood to one's cheek,--though the momentary anger was counterbalanced by +a sense of the almost ludicrous contrast between this gracious majesty of +deportment and the insignificant figure, with the boyish beardless face, +by which it was assumed. Lord Castleton did not content himself with a +mere bow at our introduction. Much to my wonder how he came by the +information he displayed, he made me a little speech after the manner of +Louis XIV. to a provincial noble, studiously modelled upon that royal +maxim of urbane policy which instructs a king that he should know +something of the birth, parentage, and family of his meanest gentleman. +It was a little speech in which my father's learning and my uncle's +services and the amiable qualities of your humble servant were neatly +interwoven, delivered in a falsetto tone, as if learned by heart, though +it must have been necessarily impromptu; and then, reseating himself, he +made a gracious motion of the head and hand, as if to authorize me to do +the same. + +Conversation succeeded, by galvanic jerks and spasmodic starts,--a +conversation that Lord Castleton contrived to tug so completely out of +poor Sir Sedleys ordinary course of small and polished small-talk that +that charming personage, accustomed, as he well deserved, to be Coryphxus +at his own table, was completely silenced. With his light reading, his +rich stores of anecdote, his good-humored knowledge of the drawing-room +world, he had scarce a word that would fit into the great, rough, serious +matters which Lord Castleton threw upon the table as he nibbled his +toast. Nothing but the most grave and practical subjects of human +interest seemed to attract this future leader of mankind. The fact is +that Lord Castleton had been taught everything that relates to property, +--a knowledge which embraces a very wide circumference. It had been said +to him, "You will be an immense proprietor: knowledge is essential to +your self-preservation. You will be puzzled, bubbled, ridiculed, duped +every day of your life if you do not make yourself acquainted with all by +which property is assailed or defended, impoverished or increased. You +have a vast stake in the country, you must learn all the interests of +Europe,--nay, of the civilized world; for those interests react on the +country, and the interests of the country are of the greatest possible +consequence to the interests of the Marquis of Castleton." Thus the +state of the Continent; the policy of Metternich; the condition of the +Papacy; the growth of Dissent; the proper mode of dealing with the +general spirit of Democracy, which was the epidemic of European +monarchies; the relative proportions of the agricultural and +manufacturing population; corn-laws, currency, and the laws that regulate +wages; a criticism on the leading speakers of the House of Commons, with +some discursive observations on the importance of fattening cattle; the +introduction of flax into Ireland; emigration; the condition of the poor; +the doctrines of Mr. Owen; the pathology of potatoes; the connection +between potatoes, pauperism, and patriotism,--these and suchlike +stupendous subjects for reflection, all branching more or less +intricately from the single idea of the Castleton property, the young +lord discussed and disposed of in half-a-dozen prim, poised sentences; +evincing, I must say in justice, no inconsiderable information, and a +mighty solemn turn of mind. The oddity was that the subjects so selected +and treated should not come rather from some young barrister, or mature +political economist, than from so gorgeous a lily of the field. Of a man +less elevated in rank one would certainly have said, "Cleverish, but a +prig;" but there really was something so respectable in a personage born +to such fortunes, and having nothing to do but to bask in the sunshine, +voluntarily taking such pains with himself and condescending to identify +his own interests--the interests of the Castleton property--with the +concerns of his lesser fellow-mortals that one felt the young marquis had +in him the stuff to become a very considerable man. + +Poor Sir Sedley, to whom all these matters were as unfamiliar as the +theology of the Talmud, after some vain efforts to slide the conversation +into easier grooves, fairly gave in, and with a compassionate smile on +his handsome countenance, took refuge in his easy-chair and the +contemplation of his snuff-box. + +At last, to our great relief, the servant announced Lord Castleton's +carriage; and with another speech of overpowering affability to me, and a +cold shake of the hand to Sir Sedley, Lord Castleton went his way. + +The breakfast-parlor looked on the street, and I turned mechanically to +the window as Sir Sedley followed his guest out of the room. A +travelling carriage with four post-horses was at the door, and a servant, +who looked like a foreigner, was in waiting with his master's cloak. As +I saw Lord Castleton step into the street, and wrap himself in his costly +mantle lined with sables, I observed, more than I had while he was in the +room, the enervate slightness of his frail form, and the more than +paleness of his thin, joyless face; and then, instead of envy, I felt +compassion for the owner of all this pomp and grandeur,--felt that I +would not have exchanged my hardy health and easy humor and vivid +capacities of enjoyment in things the slightest and most within the reach +of all men, for the wealth and greatness which that poor youth perhaps +deserved the more for putting them so little to the service of pleasure. + +"Well," said Sir Sedley, "and what do you think of him?" + +"He is just the sort of man Trevanion would like," said I, evasively. + +"That is true," answered Sir Sedley, in a serious tone of voice, and +looking at me somewhat earnestly. "Have you heard? But no, you cannot +have heard yet." + +"Heard what?" + +"My dear young friend," said the kindest and most delicate of all fine +gentlemen, sauntering away, that he might not observe the emotion he +caused, "Lord Castleton is going to Paris to join the Trevanions. The +object Lady Ellinor has had at heart for many a long year is won, and our +pretty Fanny will be Marchioness of Castleton when her betrothed is of +age,--that is, in six months. The two mothers have settled it all +between them." + +I made no answer, but continued to look out of the window. + +"This alliance," resumed Sir Sedley, "was all that was wanting to assure +Trevanion's position. When Parliament meets, he will have some great +office. Poor man, how I shall pity him! It is extraordinary to me," +continued Sir Sedley, benevolently going on, that I might have full time +to recover myself, "how contagious that disease called 'business' is in +our foggy England! Not only Trevanion, you see, has the complaint in its +very worst and most complicated form, but that poor dear cousin of mine +who is so young [here Sir Sedley sighed], and might enjoy himself so +much, is worse than you were when Trevanion was fagging you to death. +But, to be sure, a great name and position, like Castleton's, must be a +very heavy affliction to a conscientious mind. You see how the sense of +its responsibilities has aged him already,--positively, two great +wrinkles under his eyes. Well, after all, I admire him and respect his +tutor: a soil naturally very thin, I suspect, has been most carefully +cultivated; and Castleton, with Trevanion's help, will be the first man +in the peerage,--prime minister some day, I dare say. And when I think +of it, how grateful I ought to feel to his father and mother, who +produced him quite in their old age; for if he had not been born, I +should have been the most miserable of men,--yes, positively, that +horrible marquisate would have come to me! I never think over Horace +Walpole's regrets, when he got the earldom of Orford, without the deepest +sympathy, and without a shudder at the thought of what my dear Lady +Castleton was kind enough to save me from,--all owing to the Ems waters, +after twenty years' marriage! Well, my young friend, and how are all at +home?" + +As when, some notable performer not having yet arrived behind the scenes, +or having to change his dress, or not having yet quite recovered an +unlucky extra tumbler of exciting fluids, and the green curtain has +therefore unduly delayed its ascent, you perceive that the thorough-bass +in the orchestra charitably devotes himself to a prelude of astonishing +prolixity, calling in "Lodoiska" or "Der Freischutz" to beguile the time, +and allow the procrastinating histrio leisure sufficient to draw on his +flesh-colored pantaloons and give himself the proper complexion for a +Coriolanus or Macbeth,--even so had Sir Sedley made that long speech +requiring no rejoinder, till he saw the time had arrived when he could +artfully close, with the flourish of a final interrogative, in order to +give poor Pisistratus Caxton all preparation to compose himself and step +forward. There is certainly something of exquisite kindness and +thoughtful benevolence in that rarest of gifts,--fine breeding; and when +now, re-manned and resolute, I turned round and saw Sir Sedley's soft +blue eye shyly, but benignantly, turned to me, while, with a grace no +other snuff-taker ever had since the days of Pope, he gently proceeded to +refresh himself by a pinch of the celebrated Beaudesert mixture,--I felt +my heart as gratefully moved towards him as if he had conferred on me +some colossal obligation. And this crowning question, "And how are all +at home?" restored me entirely to my self-possession, and for the moment +distracted the bitter current of my thoughts. + +I replied by a brief statement of my father's involvement, disguising our +apprehensions as to its extent, speaking of it rather as an annoyance +than a possible cause of ruin, and ended by asking Sir Sedley to give me +the address of Trevanion's lawyer. + +The good baronet listened with great attention; and that quick +penetration which belongs to a man of the world enabled him to detect +that I had smoothed over matters more than became a faithful narrator. + +He shook his head, and, seating himself on the sofa, motioned me to come +to his side; then, leaning his arm over my shoulder, he said, in his +seductive, wincing way,-- + +"We two young fellows should understand each other when we talk of money +matters. I can say to you what I could not say to my respectable +senior,--by three years,--your excellent father. Frankly, then, I +suspect this is a bad business. I know little about newspapers, except +that I have to subscribe to one in my county, which costs me a small +income; but I know that a London daily paper might ruin a man in a few +weeks. And as for shareholders, my dear Caxton, I was once teased into +being a shareholder in a canal that ran through my property, and +ultimately ran off with L30,000 of it! The other shareholders were all +drowned in the canal, like Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea. But your +father is a great scholar, and must not be plagued with such matters. I +owe him a great deal. He was very kind to me at Cambridge, and gave me +the taste for reading to which I owe the pleasantest hours of my life. +So, when you and the lawyers have found out what the extent of the +mischief is, you and I must see how we can best settle it. What the +deuce! My young friend, I have no 'incumbrances,' as the servants, with +great want of politeness, call wives and children. And I am not a +miserable great landed millionnaire, like that poor dear Castleton, who +owes so many duties to society that he can't spend a shilling except in a +grand way and purely to benefit the public. So go, my boy, to +Trevanion's lawyer,--he is mine, too. Clever fellow, sharp as a needle, +Mr. Pike, in Great Ormond Street,--name on a brass plate; and when he has +settled the amount, we young scapegraces will help each other, without +a word to the old folks." + +What good it does to a man, throughout life, to meet kindness and +generosity like this in his youth! + +I need not say that I was too faithful a representative of my father's +scholarly pride and susceptible independence of spirit to accept this +proposal; and probably Sir Sedley, rich and liberal as he was, did not +dream of the extent to which his proposal might involve him. But I +expressed my gratitude so as to please and move this last relic of the De +Coverleys, and went from his house straight to Mr. Pike's office, with a +little note of introduction from Sir Sedley. I found Mr. Pike exactly +the man I had anticipated from Trevanion's character,--short, quick, +intelligent, in question and answer; imposing and somewhat domineering in +manner; not overcrowded with business, but with enough for experience and +respectability; neither young nor old; neither a pedantic machine of +parchment, nor a jaunty off-hand coxcomb of West End manners. + +"It is an ugly affair," said he, "but one that requires management. +Leave it all in my hands for three days. Don't go near Mr. Tibbets nor +Mr. Peck; and on Saturday next, at two o'clock, if you will call here, +you shall know my opinion of the whole matter." With that Mr. Pike +glanced at the clock, and I took up my hat and went. + +There is no place more delightful than a great capital if you are +comfortably settled in it, have arranged the methodical disposal of your +time, and know how to take business and pleasure in due proportions. But +a flying visit to a great capital in an unsettled, unsatisfactory way; at +an inn--an inn in the City too--with a great, worrying load of business +on your mind, of which you are to hear no more for three days, and an +aching, jealous, miserable sorrow at the heart such as I had, leaving you +no labor to pursue and no pleasure that you have the heart to share in,-- +oh, a great capital then is indeed forlorn, wearisome, and oppressive! +It is the Castle of Indolence, not as Thomson built it, but as Beckford +drew in his Hall of Eblis,--a wandering up and down, to and fro; a great, +awful space, with your hand pressed to your heart; and--oh for a rush on +some half-tamed horse through the measureless green wastes of Australia! +That is the place for a man who has no home in the Babel, and whose hand +is ever pressing to his heart, with its dull, burning pain. + +Mr. Squills decoyed me the second evening into one of the small theatres; +and very heartily did Mr. Squills enjoy all he saw and all he heard. And +while, with a convulsive effort of the jaws, I was trying to laugh too, +suddenly in one of the actors, who was performing the worshipful part of +a parish beadle, I recognized a face that I had seen before. Five +minutes afterwards I had disappeared from the side of Squills, and was +amidst that strange world,--Behind The Scenes. + +My beadle was much too busy and important to allow me a good opportunity +to accost him till the piece was over. I then seized hold of him as he +was amicably sharing a pot of porter with a gentleman in black shorts and +a laced waistcoat, who was to play the part of a broken-hearted father in +the Domestic Draina in Three Acts that would conclude the amusements of +the evening. + +"Excuse me," said I, apologetically; "but as the Swan pertinently +observes, 'Should auld acquaintance be forgot?'" + +"The Swan, sir!" cried the beadle, aghast,--"the Swan never demeaned +himself by such d--d broad Scotch as that!" + +"The Tweed has its swans as well as the Avon, Mr. Peacock." + +"St--st--hush--hush- h--u--sh!" whispered the beadle in great alarm, and +eying me, with savage observation, under his corked eyebrows. Then, +taking me by the arm, he jerked me away. When he had got as far as the +narrow limits of that little stage would allow, Mr. Peacock said,-- + +"Sir, you have the advantage of me; I don't remember you. Ah! you need +not look--by gad, sir, I am not to be bullied--it was all fair play. If +you will play with gentlemen, sir, you must run the consequences." + +I hastened to appease the worthy man. + +"Indeed, Mr. Peacock, if you remember, I refused to play with you; and so +far from wishing to offend you, I now come on purpose to compliment you +on your excellent acting, and to inquire if you have heard anything +lately of your young friend Mr. Vivian." + +"Vivian? Never heard the name, sir. Vivian! Pooh, you are trying to +hoax me; very good!" + +"I assure you, Mr. Peac--" + +"St--st--How the deuce did you know that I was once called Peac--, that +is, people called me Peac--. A friendly nickname, no more. Drop it, +sir, or you 'touch me with noble anger'!" + +"Well, well; 'the rose by any name will smell as sweet,' as the Swan, +this time at least, judiciously observes. But Mr. Vivian, too, seems to +have other names at his disposal. I mean a young, dark, handsome man--or +rather boy--with whom I met you in company by the roadside, one morning." + +"O--h!" said Mr. Peacock, looking much relieved, "I know whom you mean, +though I don't remember to have had the pleasure of seeing you before. +No; I have not heard any thing of the young man lately. I wish I did +know something of him. He was a 'gentleman in my own way.' Sweet Will +has hit him off to a hair!-- + + 'The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword.' + +"Such a hand with a cue! You should have seen him seek the +'bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth.' I may say," continued Mr. +Peacock, emphatically, "that he was a regular trump. Trump!" he +reiterated with a start, as if the word had stung him--" trump! he was a +Brick!" + +Then fixing his eyes on mine, dropping his arms, interlacing his fingers +in the manner recorded of Talma in the celebrated "Qu'en dis-tu!" he +resumed in a hollow voice, slow and distinct-- + +"When--saw--you--him,--young m--m--a--n--nnn?" + +Finding the tables thus turned on myself, and not willing to give Mr. +Peac-- any clew to poor Vivian (who thus appeared, to my great +satisfaction, to have finally dropped an acquaintance more versatile than +reputable), I contrived, by a few evasive sentences, to keep Mr. Peac--'s +curiosity at a distance till he was summoned in haste to change his +attire for the domestic drama. And so we parted. + + + + +CHAPTER. VI. + + +I hate law details as cordially as my readers can, and therefore I shall +content myself with stating that Mr. Pike's management at the end, not of +three days, but of two weeks, was so admirable that Uncle Jack was drawn +out of prison and my father extracted from all his liabilities by a sum +two thirds less than was first startlingly submitted to our indignant +horror,--and that, too, in a manner that would have satisfied the +conscience of the most punctilious formalist whose contribution to the +national fund for an omitted payment to the Income Tax the Chancellor of +the Exchequer ever had the honor to acknowledge. Still, the sum was very +large in proportion to my poor father's income; and what with Jack's +debts, the claims of the Anti-Publisher Society's printer, including the +very expensive plates that had been so lavishly bespoken, and in great +part completed, for the "History of Human Error," and, above all, the +liabilities incurred on "The Capitalist;" what with the plant, as Mr. +Peck technically phrased a great upas-tree of a total, branching out into +types, cases, printing-presses, engines, etc., all now to be resold at a +third of their value; what with advertisements and bills that had covered +all the dead-walls by which rubbish might be shot, throughout the three +kingdoms; what with the dues of reporters, and salaries of writers, who +had been engaged for a year at least to "The Capitalist," and whose +claims survived the wretch they had killed and buried; what, in short, +with all that the combined ingenuity of Uncle Jack and Printer Peck could +supply for the utter ruin of the Caxton family (even after all +deductions, curtailments, and after all that one could extract in the way +of just contribution from the least unsubstantial of those shadows called +the shareholders),--my father's fortune was reduced to a sum of between +seven and eight thousand pounds, which being placed at mortgage at four +per cent, yielded just L372 10s. a year: enough for my father to live +upon, but not enough to afford also his son Pisistratus the advantages of +education at Trinity College, Cambridge. The blow fell rather upon me +than my father, and my young shoulders bore it without much wincing. + +This settled to our universal satisfaction, I went to pay my farewell +visit to Sir Sedley Beaudesert. He had made much of me during my stay in +London. I had breakfasted and dined with him pretty often; I had +presented Squills to him, who no sooner set eyes upon that splendid +conformation than he described his character with the nicest accuracy, as +the necessary consequence of such a development for the rosy pleasures of +life. We had never once retouched on the subject of Fanny's marriage, +and both of us tacitly avoided even mentioning the Trevanions. But in +this last visit, though he maintained the same reserve as to Fanny, he +referred without scruple to her father. + +"Well, my young Athenian," said he, after congratulating me on the result +of the negotiations, and endeavoring again in vain to bear at least some +share in my father's losses, "well, I see I cannot press this further; +but at least I can press on you any little interest I may have in +obtaining some appointment for yourself in one of the public offices. +Trevanion could of course be more useful; but I can understand that he is +not the kind of man you would like to apply to." + +"Shall I own to you, my dear Sir Sedley, that I have no taste for +official employment? I am too fond of my liberty. Since I have been at +my uncle's old Tower, I account for half my character by the Borderer's +blood that is in me. I doubt if I am meant for the life of cities; and I +have odd floating notions in my head that will serve to amuse me when I +get home, and may settle into schemes. And now to change the subject: +may I ask what kind of person has succeeded me as Mr. Trevanion's +secretary?" + +"Why, he has got a broad-shouldered, stooping fellow, in spectacles and +cotton stockings, who has written upon 'Rent,' I believe,--an imaginative +treatise in his case, I fear, for rent is a thing he could never have +received, and not often been trusted to pay. However, he is one of your +political economists, and wants Trevanion to sell his pictures, as +"unproductive capital.' Less mild than Pope's Narcissa, 'to make a +wash,' he would certainly 'stew a child.' Besides this official +secretary, Trevanion trusts, however, a good deal to a clever, good- +looking young gentleman who is a great favorite with him." + +"What is his name?" + +"His name? Oh! Gower,--a natural son, I believe, of one of the Gower +family." + +Here two of Sir Sedley's fellow fine gentlemen lounged in, and my visit +ended. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +"I Swear," cried my uncle, "that it shall be so." And with a big frown +and a truculent air he seized the fatal instrument. + +"Indeed, brother, it must not," said my father, laying one pale, scholar- +like hand mildly on Captain Roland's brown, bellicose, and bony fist, and +with the other, outstretched, protecting the menaced, palpitating victim. + +Not a word had my uncle heard of our losses until they had been adjusted +and the sum paid; for we all knew that the old Tower would have been gone +--sold to some neighboring squire or jobbing attorney--at the first +impetuous impulse of Uncle Roland's affectionate generosity. Austin +endangered! Austin ruined!--he would never have rested till he came, +cash in hand, to his deliverance. Therefore, I say, not till all was +settled did I write to the Captain and tell him gayly what had chanced. +And however light I made of our misfortunes, the letter brought the +Captain to the red brick house the same evening on which I myself +reached it, and about an hour later. My uncle had not sold the Tower, +but he came prepared to carry us off to it vi et armis. We must live +with him and on him, let or sell the brick house, and put out the +remnant of my father's income to nurse and accumulate. And it was on +finding my father's resistance stubborn, and that hitherto he had made +no way, that my uncle, stepping back into the hall, in which he had +left his carpet bag, etc., returned with an old oak case, and, touching +a spring roller, out flew the Canton pedigree. + +Out it flew, covering all the table, and undulating, Nile-like, till it +had spread over books, papers, my mother's work-box, and the tea-service +(for the table was large and compendious, emblematic of its owner's +mind); and then, flowing on the carpet, dragged its slow length along +till it was stopped by the fender. + +"Now," said my uncle, solemnly, "there never have been but two causes of +difference between you and me, Austin. One is over: why should the other +last? Aha! I know why you hang back: you think that we may quarrel about +it!" + +"About what, Roland?" + +"About it, I say; and I'll be d--d if we do!" cried my uncle, reddening. +"And I have been thinking a great deal upon the matter, and I have no +doubt you are right. So I brought the old parchment with me, and you +shall see me fill up the blank just as you would have it. Now, then, you +will come and live with me, and we can never quarrel any more." Thus +saying, Uncle Roland looked round for pen and ink; and having found +them,--not without difficulty, for they had been submerged under the +overflow of the pedigree,--he was about to fill up the lacuna, or hiatus, +which had given rise to such memorable controversy, with the name of +"William Caxton, printer in the Sanctuary," when my father, slowly +recovering his breath, and aware of his brother's purpose, intervened. +It would have done your heart good to hear them, so completely, in the +inconsistency of human nature, had they changed sides upon the question, +--my father now all for Sir William de Caxton, the hero of Bosworth; my +uncle all for the immortal printer. And in this discussion they grew +animated their eyes sparkled, their voices rose,--Roland's voice deep and +thunderous, Austin's sharp and piercing. Mr. Squills stopped his ears. +Thus it arrived at that point, when my uncle doggedly came to the end of +all argumentation,--"I swear that it shall be so;" and my father, trying +the last resource of pathos, looked pleadingly into Roland's eyes, and +said, with a tone soft as mercy, "Indeed, brother, it must not." +Meanwhile the dry parchment crisped, creaked, and trembled in every pore +of its yellow skin. + +"But," said I, coming in opportunely, like the Horatian deity, "I don't +see that either of you gentlemen has a right so to dispose of my +ancestry. It is quite clear that a man has no possession in posterity. +Posterity may possess him; but deuce a bit will he ever be the better for +his great great-grandchildren!" + +Squills.--"Hear, hear!" + +Pisistratus (warming).--"But a man's ancestry is a positive property to +him. How much, not only of acres, but of his constitution, his temper, +his conduct, character, and nature, he may inherit from some progenitor +ten times removed! Nay, without that progenitor would he ever have been +born,--would a Squills ever have introduced him into the world, or a +nurse ever have carried him upo kolpo!" + +Squills.--"Hear, hear!" + +Pisistratus (with dignified emotion).--"No man, therefore, has a right to +rob another of a forefather, with a stroke of his pen, from any motive, +howsoever amiable. In the present instance you will say, perhaps, that +the ancestor in question is apocryphal,--it may be the printer, it may be +the knight. Granted; but here, where history is in fault, shall a mere +sentiment decide? While both are doubtful, my imagination appropriates +both. At one time I can reverence industry and learning in the printer; +at another, valor and devotion in the knight. This kindly doubt gives me +two great forefathers; and, through them, two trains of idea that +influence my conduct under different circumstances. I will not permit +you, Captain Roland, to rob me of either forefather, either train of +idea. Leave, then, this sacred void unfilled, unprofaned, and accept +this compromise of chivalrous courtesy while my father lives with the +Captain, we will believe in the printer; when away from the Captain, we +will stand firm to the knight." + +"Good!" cried Uncle Roland, as I paused, a little out of breath. + +"And," said my mother, softly, "I do think, Austin, there is a way of +settling the matter which will please all parties. It is quite sad to +think that poor Roland and dear little Blanche should be all alone in the +Tower; and I am sure that we should be much happier all together." + +"There!" cried Roland, triumphantly. "If you are not the most obstinate, +hard-hearted, unfeeling brute in the world,--which I don't take you to +be,--brother Austin, after that really beautiful speech of your wife's, +there is not a word to be said further." + +"But we have not yet heard Kitty to the end, Roland." + +"I beg your pardon a thousand times, ma'am--sister," said the Captain, +bowing. + +"Well, I was going to add," said my mother, "that we will go and live +with you, Roland, and club our little fortunes together. Blanche and I +will take care of the house, and we shall be just twice as rich together +as we are separately." + +"Pretty sort of hospitality that!" grunted the Captain. "I did not +expect you to throw me over in that way. No, no; you must lay by for the +boy there. What's to become of him?" + +"But we shall all lay by for him," said my mother, simply,--"you as well +as Austin. We shall have more to save, if we have more to spend." + +"Ah, save!--that is easily said; there would be a pleasure in saving, +then," said the Captain, mournfully. + +"And what's to become of me?" cried Squills, very petulantly. "Am I to +be left here in my old age, not a rational soul to speak to, and no other +place in the village where there's a drop of decent punch to be had? 'A +plague on both your houses!' as the chap said at the theatre the other +night." + +"There's room for a doctor in our neighborhood, Mr. Squills," said the +Captain. "The gentleman in your profession who does for us, wants, I +know, to sell the business." + +"Humph," said Squills,--"a horribly healthy neighborhood, I suspect!" + +"Why, it has that misfortune, Mr. Squills; but with your help," said my +uncle, slyly, "a great alteration for the better may be effected in that +respect." + +Mr. Squills was about to reply when ring--a--ting--ring--ting! there +came such a brisk, impatient, make-one's-self-at home kind of +tintinnabular alarum at the great gate that we all started up and looked +at each other in surprise. Who could it possibly be? We were not kept +long in suspense; for in another moment Uncle Jack's voice, which was +always very clear and distinct, pealed through the hall, and we were +still staring at each other when Mr. Tibbets, with a bran-new muffler +round his neck, and a peculiarly comfortable greatcoat,--best double +Saxony, equally new,--dashed into the room, bringing with him a very +considerable quantity of cold air, which he hastened to thaw, first in my +father's arms, next in my mother's. He then made a rush at the Captain, +who ensconced himself behind the dumb-waiter with a "Hem! Mr.--sir-- +Jack--sir--hem, hem!" Failing there, Mr. Tibbets rubbed off the +remaining frost upon his double Saxony against your humble servant, +patted Squills affectionately on the back, and then proceeded to occupy +his favorite position before the fire. + +"Took you by surprise, eh?" said Uncle Jack, unpeeling himself by the +hearth-rug. "But no,--not by surprise; you must have known Jack's heart: +you at least, Austin Caxton, who know everything,--you must have seen +that it overflowed with the tenderest and most brotherly emotions; that +once delivered from that cursed Fleet (you have no idea what a place it +is, sir!), I could not rest, night or day, till I had flown here,--here, +to the dear family nest,--poor wounded dove that I am," added Uncle Jack, +pathetically, and taking out his pocket-handkerchief from the double +Saxony, which he had now flung over my father's arm-chair. + +Not a word replied to this eloquent address, with its touching +peroration. My mother hung down her pretty head and looked ashamed. My +uncle retreated quite into the corner and drew the dumb-waiter after him, +so as to establish a complete fortification. Mr. Squills seized the pen +that Roland had thrown down, and began mending it furiously,--that is, +cutting it into slivers,--thereby denoting, symbolically, how he would +like to do with Uncle Jack, could he once get him safe and snug under his +manipular operations. I bent over the pedigree, and my father rubbed his +spectacles. + +The silence would have been appalling to another man nothing appalled +Uncle Jack. + +Uncle Jack turned to the fire, and warmed first one foot, then the other. +This comfortable ceremony performed, he again faced the company, and +resumed, musingly, and as if answering some imaginary observations,-- + +"Yes, yes, you are right there; and a deuced unlucky speculation it +proved too. But I was overruled by that fellow Peck. Says I to him, +says I, "Capitalist"!--pshaw! no popular interest there; it don't address +the great public! Very confined class the capitalists, better throw +ourselves boldly on the people. Yes,' said I, 'call it the "Anti- +Capitalist."' By Jove! sir, we should have carried all before us! but I +was overruled. The 'Anti-Capitalist'!--what an idea! Address the whole +reading world, there, sir: everybody hates the capitalist--everybody +would have his neighbor's money. The 'Anti-Capitalist'!--sir, we should +have gone off, in the manufacturing towns, like wildfire. But what could +I do?--" + +"John Tibbets," said my father, solemnly, "Capitalist 'or' Anti- +Capitalist,' thou hadst a right to follow thine own bent in either,--but +always provided it had been with thine own money. Thou seest not the +thing, John Tibbets, in the right point of view; and a little repentance +in the face of those thou hast wronged, would not have misbecome thy +father's son and thy sister's brother!" + +Never had so severe a rebuke issued from the mild lips of Austin Caxton; +and I raised my eyes with a compassionate thrill, expecting to see John +Tibbets gradually sink and disappear through the carpet. + +"Repentance!" cried Uncle Jack, bounding up as if ha had been shot. "And +do you think I have a heart of stone, of pumice-stone? Do you think I +don't repent? I have done nothing but repent; I shall repent to my dying +day." + +"Then there is no more to be said, Jack," cried my father, softening, and +holding out his hand. + +"Yes!" cried Mr. Tibbets, seizing the hand and pressing it to the heart +he had thus defended from the suspicion of being pumice, "yes,--that I +should have trusted that dunderheaded, rascally curmudgeon Peck; that I +should have let him call it 'The Capitalist,' despite all my convictions, +when the Anti--'" + +"Pshaw!" interrupted my father, drawing away his hand. + +"John," said my mother, gravely, and with tears in her voice, "you forget +who delivered you from prison; you forget whom you have nearly consigned +to prison yourself; you forg--" + +"Hush, hush!" said my father, "this will never do; and it is you who +forget, my dear, the obligations I owe to Jack. He has reduced my +fortune one half, it is true; but I verily think he has made the three +hearts, in which he my real treasures, twice as large as they were +before. Pisistratus, my boy, ring the bell." + +"My dear Kitty," cried Jack, whimperingly, and stealing up to my mother, +"don't be so hard on me; I thought to make all your fortunes,--I did +indeed." + +Here the servant entered. + +"See that Mr. Tibbets's things are taken up to his room, and that there +is a good fire," said my father. + +"And," continued Jack, loftily, "I will, make all your fortunes yet. I +have it here!" and he struck his head. + +"Stay a moment!" said my father to the servant, who had got back to the +door. "Stay a moment," said my father, looking extremely frightened,-- +"perhaps Mr. Tibbets may prefer the inn!" + +"Austin," said Uncle Jack, with emotion, "if I were a dog, with no home +but a dog-kennel, and you came to me for shelter, I would turn out--to +give you the best of the straw!" + +My father was thoroughly melted this time. + +"Primmins will be sure to see everything is made comfortable for Mr. +Tibbets," said he, waving his hand to the servant. "Something nice for +supper, Kitty, my dear,--and the largest punch-bowl. You like punch, +Jack?" + +"Punch, Austin!" said Uncle Jack, putting his handkerchief to his eyes. + +The Captain pushed aside the dumb-waiter, strode across the room, and +shook hands with Uncle Jack; my mother buried her face in her apron, and +fairly ran off; and Squills said in my ear, "It all comes of the biliary +secretions. Nobody could account for this who did not know the +peculiarly fine organization of your father's--liver!" + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAXTONS, BY LYTTON, PART 11 *** + +********** This file should be named 7596.txt or 7596.zip ********** + +This eBook was produced by Pat Castevens +and David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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