The Daltons Volume II Part 41

He arose, and walked about the room, now stopping before each well-remembered object, now shaking his head in mournful acquiescence with some unspoken regret; he went in turn through each chamber, and then, pa.s.sing from the room that had been Nelly's, he descended a little zigzag, rickety stair, by which Hans had contrived to avoid injuring the gnarled branches of a fig-tree that grew beneath. Dalton now found himself in the garden; but how unlike what it had been! Once the perfection of blooming richness and taste,--the beds without a weed, the gravel trimly raked and s.h.i.+ning, bright channels of limpid water running amid the flowers, and beautiful birds of gay plumage caged beneath the shady shrubs,--now all was overrun with rank gra.s.s and tall weeds; the fountains were dried up, the flowers trodden down,--even the stately yew hedge, the ma.s.sive growth of a century, was broken by the depredations of the mountain cattle. All was waste, neglect, and desolation.

"I 'd not know the place,--it is not like itself," muttered Dalton, sorrowfully. "I never saw the like of this before. There's the elegant fine plants dying for want of care! and the rose-trees rotting just for want of a little water! To think of how he labored late and early here, and to see it now! He used to call them carnations his children: there was one Agnes, and there was another Undine--indeed, I believe that was a lily; and I think there was a Nelly, too; droll enough to make out they were Christians! but sure, they did as well; and he watched after them as close! and ay, and stranger than all, he'd sit and talk to them for hours. It's a quare world altogether; but maybe it's our own fault that it's not better; and perhaps we ought to give in more to each other's notions, and not sneer at whims and fancies when they don't please ourselves."

It was while thus ruminating, Dalton entered a little arbor, whose trellised walls and roofs had been one of the triumphs of Hanserl's skill. Ruin, however, had now fallen on it, and the drooping branches and straggling tendrils hung mournfully down on all sides, covering the stone table, and even the floor, with their vegetation. As Dalton stood, sad and sorrow-struck at this desolation, he perceived the figure of Hans himself, as, half-hidden by the leaves, he sat in his accustomed seat. His head was uncovered, but his hair fell in great ma.s.ses on either side, and with his long beard, now neglected and untrimmed, gave him an unusually wild and savage look. A book lay open on his knees, but his hands were crossed over it, and his eyes were upturned as if in revery.

Dalton felt half ashamed at accosting him; there was something ungracious in the way he had quitted the poor dwarfs dwelling; there had been a degree of estrangement for weeks before between them, and altogether he knew that he had ill-requited all the unselfish kindness of the little toy-seller; so that he would gladly have retired without being noticed, when Hans suddenly turned and saw him.

It was almost with a cry of surprise Hans called out his name.

"This is kind of you, Herr von Dalton. Is the Fraulein--" He stopped and looked eagerly around.

"No, Hanserl," said Dalton, answering to the half-expressed question, "Nelly is n't with me; I came up alone. Indeed, to tell the truth, I found myself here without well knowing why or how. Old habit, I suppose, led me, for I was thinking of something else."

"They were kind thoughts that guided your steps," said the dwarf, in accents of deep grat.i.tude, "for I have been lonely of late."

"Why don't you come down and see us, Hanserl? It's not so far off, and you know Nelly is always glad to see you."

"It is true," said the dwarf, mournfully.

"You were always a good friend to us, Hanserl," said Dalton, taking the other's hand and pressing it cordially; "and faix! as the world goes,"

added he, sighing, "there 's many a thing easier found than a friend."

"The rich can have all,--even friends.h.i.+p," muttered Hans, slowly.

"I don't know that, Hans; I 'm not so sure you 're right there."

"They buy it," said the dwarf, with a fierce energy, "as they can buy everything,--the pearl for which the diver hazards life, the gem that the polisher has grown blind over, the fur for which the hunter has shed his heart's blood. And yet when they 've got them they have not got content."

"Ay, that's true," sighed Dalton. "I suppose n.o.body is satisfied in this world."

"But they can be if they will but look upward," cried Hans, enthusiastically; "if they will learn to think humbly of themselves, and on how slight a claim they possess all the blessings of their lot; if they will but bethink them that the sun and the flowers, the ever-rolling sea, and the leafy forest are all their inheritance,--that for them, as for all, the organ peals through the dim-vaulted aisle with promises of eternal happiness,--and lastly, that, with all the wild contentions of men's pa.s.sions, there is ever gus.h.i.+ng up in the human heart a well of kind and affectionate thoughts; like those springs we read of, of pure water amid the salt ocean, and which, taken at the source, are sweet and good to drink from. Men are not so bad by nature; it is the prizes for which they struggle, the goals they strive for, corrupt them! Make of this fair earth a gaming-table, and you will have all the base pa.s.sions of the gamester around it."

"Bad luck to it for gambling," said Dalton, whose intelligence was just able to grasp at the ill.u.s.tration; "I wish I 'd never seen a card; and that reminds me, Hans, that maybe you 'd give me a bit of advice. There was a run against me last night in that thieving place. The 'red' came up fourteen times, and I, backing against it every time, sometimes ten, sometimes twenty,----ay, faix! as high as fifty 'Naps.' you may think what a squeeze I got! And when I went to old Kraus this morning, this is what he sticks in my hand instead of a roll of banknotes." With these words Dalton presented to Hans the printed summons of the "Tribunal."

"A Gerichts-Ruf!" said Hans, with a voice of deep reverence; for he entertained a most German terror for the law and its authority. "This is a serious affair."

"I suppose it is," sighed Dalton; "but I hope we 're in a Christian country, where the law is open?"

Hans nodded, and Peter went on:----

"What I mean is, that nothing can be done in a hurry; that when we have a man on our side, he can oppose and obstruct, and give delays, picking a hole here and finding a flaw there; asking for vouchers for this and proofs for that, and then waiting for witnesses that never come, and looking for papers that never existed; making Chancery of it, Hans, my boy,--making Chancery of it."

"Not here,--not with us!" said Hans, gravely. "You must answer to this charge to-day, and before four o'clock too, or to-morrow there will be writ of 'contumacy' against you. You have n't got the money?"

"Of course I haven't, nor a ten-pound note towards it."

"Then you must provide security."

"'T is easy said, my little man, but it is not so easy dealing with human beings as with the little wooden figures in your shop beyond."

"There must be 'good and substantial bail,' as the summons declares; such as will satisfy the Court," said Hans, who seemed at once to have become a man of acute worldly perception at sight of this printed doc.u.ment.

"Security--bail!" exclaimed Dalton. "You might as well ask Robinson Crusoe who 'd be G.o.dfather to his child on the desert island. There's not a man, woman, or child in the place would give me a meal's meat There's not a house I could shelter my head in for one night; and see now," cried he, carried away by an impulse of pa.s.sionate excitement, "it is n't by way of disparagement I say it to this little town,--for the world all over is the same,--the more you give the less you get! Treat them with champagne and venison; send money to this one, make presents to that, and the day luck turns with you, the best word they 'll have for you is, 'He was a wasteful, careless devil; could n't keep it when he had it; lived always above his means; all hand and mouth.' It's a kind friend that will vouchsafe as much as 'Poor fellow! I 'm sorry for him.'"

"And to what end is wealth," cried Hans, boldly, "if it but conduce to this? Are the friends well chosen who can behave thus? Are the hospitalities well bestowed that meet such return? or is it not rather selfishness is paid back in the same base coin that it uttered?"

"For the matter of that," said Dalton, angrily, "I never found that vulgar people was a bit more grateful than their betters, nor low manners any warranty for high principles; and when one is to be s.h.i.+pwrecked it's better to go down in a 'seventy-four' than be drowned out of a punt in a mill-pond."

"It's past noon already," said Hans, pointing to the son-dial on his house. "There 's little time to be lost."

"And as little to be gained," muttered Dalton, moodily, as he strolled out into the garden.

"Let me have this paper," said Hans; "I will see the Herr Kraus myself, and try if something cannot be done. With time, I suppose, you could meet this claim?"

"To be sure I could, when my remittances arrive,----when my instalments are paid up, when my rents come in, when--" He was about to add, "when luck changes," but he stopped himself just in time.

"There need be no difficulty if you can be certain," said Hans, slowly.

"Certain!--and of what is a man certain in this life?" said Dalton, in his tone of moralizing. "Was n't I certain of the Corrig-O'Neal estate?

Wasn't I certain of Miles Dalton's property in the funds? Wasn't I certain that if the Parliament was n't taken away from us that I 'd have my own price for the boroagh of Knocknascanelera?--and sorrow one of the three ever came to me. Ay, no later than last night, was n't I certain that black would come up--"

"When I said certain," broke in Hans, "I meant so far as human foresight could pledge itself; but I did not speak of the chances of the play-table. If your expectations of payment rest on these, do not talk of them as certainties."

"What's my estates for? Where's my landed property?" cried Dalton, indignantly. "To hear you talk, one would think I was a chevalier of indhustry, as they call them."

"I ask your pardon, Herr," said Hans, humbly. "It is in no spirit of idle curiosity that I speak; less still, with any wish to offend you. I will now see what is best to do. You may leave all in my hands, and by four o'clock, or five at furthest, you shall hear from me."

"That's sensible,----that's friendly," cried Dalton, shaking the other's hand warmly, and really feeling the most sincere grat.i.tude for the kindness.

If there was any act of friends.h.i.+p he particularly prized, it was the intervention that should relieve him of the anxiety and trouble of a difficult negotiation, and leave him, thoughtless and careless, to stroll about, neither thinking of the present nor uneasy for the future. The moment such an office had devolved upon another, Dalton felt relieved of all sense of responsibility before his own conscience; and although the question at issue were his own welfare or ruin, he ceased to think of it as a personal matter. Like his countryman, who consoled himself when the house was in flames by thinking "he was only a lodger,"

he actually forgot his own share of peril by reflecting on the other interests that were at stake. And the same theory that taught him to leave his soul to his priest's care, and his health to his doctor's, made him quite satisfied when a friend had charge of his honor or his fortune.

It was as comfortable a kind of fatalism as need be; and, a.s.suredly, to have seen Peter's face as he now descended the steps to the lower town, it would be rash to deny that he was not a sincere believer in his philosophy. No longer absent in air and clouded in look, he had a smile and a pleasant word for all who pa.s.sed him; and now, with a jest for this one, and a kreutzer for that, he held on his way, with a tail of beggars and children after him, all attracted by that singular mesmerism which draws around certain men everything that is vagrant and idle,--from the cripple at the crossing to the half-starved cur-dog without an owner.

This gift was, indeed, his; and whatever was penniless and friendless and houseless seemed to feel they had a claim on Peter Dalton.

CHAPTER XX. THE LAST STAKE OF ALL.

Dalton found his little household on the alert at his return home; for Mrs. Ricketts had just received an express to inform her that her "two dearest friends on earth" were to arrive that evening in Baden, and she was busily engaged in arranging a little fete for their reception.

All that poor Nelly knew of the expected guests was that one was a distinguished soldier, and the other a no less ill.u.s.trious diplomatist; claims which, for the reader's illumination, we beg to remark were embodied in the persons of Colonel Haggerstone and Mr. Fogla.s.s. Most persons in Mrs. Ricketts's position would have entertained some scruples about introducing a reinforcement to the already strong garrison of the villa, and would have been disposed to the more humble but safe policy enshrined in the adage of "letting well alone." But she had a spirit far above such small ambitions, and saw that the Dalton hospitalities were capable of what, in parliamentary phrase, is called a "most extended application."

By the awestruck air of Nelly, and the overweening delight manifested by her father, Zoe perceived the imposing effect of great names upon both, and so successfully did she mystify the description of her two coming friends, that an uninterested listener might readily have set them down for the Duke and Prince Metternich, unless, indeed, that the praises she lavished on them would have seemed even excessive for such greatness.

A triumphal arch was erected half-way up the avenue, over which, in flowery initials, were to be seen the letters "B." and "P.," symbols to represent "Bayard" and "Puffendorf;" under which guise Haggerstone and the Consul were to be represented. Strings of colored lamps were to be festooned along the approach, over which an Irish harp was to be exhibited in a transparency, with the very original inscription of "Caed Mille failtha," in Celtic letters beneath.

The banquet--the word "dinner" was strictly proscribed for that day--was to be arrayed in the hall, where Dalton was to preside, if possible, with an Irish crown upon his head, supported by Nelly as the genius of Irish music; and Zoe herself in a composite character,--half empress, half prophetess,--a something between Sappho and the Queen of Sheba; Martha, for the convenience of her various household cares, was to be costumed as a Tyrolese hostess; and Purvis, in a dress of flesh-colored web, was to represent Mercury, sent on purpose from above to deliver a message of welcome to the arriving guests. As for the General, there was a great doubt whether he ought to be Belisarius or Suwarrow; for, being nearly as blind as the one and as deaf as the other, his qualifications were about evenly balanced.