The Daltons Volume I Part 21

As Sir Stafford did not break the pause that followed these words, Prichard resumed,

"I told you last night that Mr. Dalton, not being able clearly to understand my communication, which I own, to prevent any searching scrutiny on his part, I did my best to envelop in a covering of technicalities, referred me to his eldest daughter, in whose acuteness he reposes much confidence. If I was not impressed with the difficulty of engaging such an adversary from his description, still less was I on meeting with the young lady this morning. A very quietly mannered, una.s.suming person, with considerable good looks, which once upon a time must have been actual beauty, was seated alone in the drawing-room awaiting me. Her dress was studiously plain; and were it not for an air of great neatness throughout, I should perhaps call it even poor.

I mention all these matters with a certain prolixity, because they bear upon what ensued.

"Without waiting for me to open my communication, she began by a slight apology for her presence there, occasioned, as she said, by her father's ill-health and consequent incapacity to transact business; after which she added a few words expressive of a hope that I would make my statement in the most simple and intelligible form, divested so far as might be of technical phraseology, and such as, to use her own words, a very unlettered person like herself might comprehend.

"This opening, I confess, somewhat startled me; I scarcely expected so much from her father's daughter; but I acquiesced and went on. As we concocted the whole plot together here, Sir Stafford, it is needless that I should weary you by a repet.i.tion of it. It is enough that I say I omitted nothing of plausibility, either in proof of the bequest, or in the description of the feeling that prompted its fulfilment. I descanted upon the happy event which, in the course of what seemed an accident, had brought the two families together, and prefaced their business intercourse by a friends.h.i.+p. I adverted to the good influence increased comforts would exercise upon her father's health. I spoke of her sister and her brother in the fuller enjoyment of all that became their name and birth. She heard me to the very end with deep attention, never once interrupting, nor even by a look or gesture expressing dissent.

"At last, when I had concluded, she said, 'This, then, is a bequest?'

"I replied affirmatively.

"'In that case,' said she, 'the terms on which it is conveyed will solve all the difficulty of our position. If my uncle G.o.dfrey intended this legacy to be a peace-offering, however late it has been in coming, we should have no hesitation in accepting it; if he meant that his generosity should be trammelled by conditions, or subject in any way to the good pleasure of a third party, the matter will have a different aspect. Which is the truth?'

"I hesitated at this point-blank appeal, so different from what I looked for, and she at once asked to see the will. Disconcerted still more, I now prevaricated, stating that I had not brought the doc.u.ment with me; that a memorandum of its provisions would, I had supposed, prove sufficient; and finally a.s.sured her that acceptance of the bequest involved neither a condition nor a pledge.

"'It may, however, involve an obligation, sir,' said she, firmly. 'Let us learn if such be the case.'

"'Are you so proud, Miss Dalton,' said I, 'that you cannot even submit to an obligation?'

"She blushed deeply, and with a weak voice answered,

"'We are too poor to incur a debt.'

"Seeing it was useless to dwell longer on this part of the subject, I adverted to her father's increasing age, his breaking health, and the necessity of affording him a greater share of comforts; but she suddenly stopped me, saying, "'You may make my refusal of this favor for such it is, and nothing less a more painful duty than I deemed it, but you cannot alter my resolution, sir. Poverty, so long as it is honorable, has nothing mean nor undeserving about it, but dependence can never bestow happiness. It is true, as you say, that my dear father might have around him many of those little luxuries that he once was used to; but with what changed hearts would not his children minister them to him? Where would be that high prompting sense of duty that every self-sacrifice is met by now? Where that rich reward of an approving spirit that lightens toil and makes even weariness blessed? Our humble fortunes have linked us closer together; the storms of the world have made us draw nearer to each other, have given us one heart, hope, and love alike. Leave us, then, to struggle on, nor cast the gloom of dependence over days that all the ills of poverty could not darken. We are happy now; who can tell what we should become hereafter?'

"I tried to turn her thoughts upon her brother, but she quickly stopped me, saying,

"'Frank is a soldier; the rewards in his career are never withheld from the deserving; at all events, wealth would be unsuitable to him. He never knew but narrow fortunes, and the spirit that becomes a more exalted condition is not the growth of a day.'

"I next ventured, but with every caution and delicacy, to inquire whether your aid and influence might not avail them in any future plans of life they might form?

"'We have no plans," said she, simply; 'or, rather, we have had so many that they all resolve themselves into mere castle-building. My dear father longs for Ireland again, for home as he still calls it, forgetting that we have no longer a home there. He fancies warm-hearted friends and neighbors, an affectionate people, attached to the very traditions of his name; but it is now wiser to feed this delusion than destroy it, by telling him that few, scarcely one, of his old companions still live, that other influences, other fortunes, other names, have replaced ours; we should go back there as strangers, and without even the stranger's claim to kind acceptance. Then, we had thought of the new world beyond seas; but these are the lauds of the young, the ardent, and the enterprising, high in hope and resolute of heart; and so, at last, we deemed it wisest to seek out some quiet spot, in some quiet country, where our poverty would, at least, present nothing remarkable, and there to live for each other; and we are happy, so happy that, save the pa.s.sing dread that this delicious calm of life may not be lasting, we have few sorrows.'

"Again and again I tried to persuade her to recall her decision, but in vain. Once only did she show any sign of hesitation. It was when I charged her with pride as the reason of refusal. Then suddenly her eyes filled up, and her lip trembled, and such a change came over her features that I grew shocked at my own words.

"'Pride!' cried she. 'If you mean that inordinate self-esteem that prefers isolation to sympathy, that rejects an obligation from mere haughtiness, I know not the feeling. Our pride is not in our self-sufficiency, for every step in life teaches us how much we owe to others; but in this, that low in lot, and humble in means, we have kept, and hope still to keep, the motives and principles that guided us in happier fortunes. Yes, you may call us proud, for we are so, proud that our poverty has not made us mean; proud that in a strange land we have inspired sentiments of kindness, and even of affection; proud that, without any of the gifts or graces which attract, we have drawn towards us this instance of n.o.ble generosity of which you are now the messenger.

I am not ashamed to own pride in all these.'

"To press her further was useless; and only asking, that if by any future change of circ.u.mstances she might be induced to alter her resolve, she would still consider the proposition as open to her acceptance, I took my leave."

"This is most provoking," exclaimed Onslow.

"Provoking!" cried Grounsell; "you call it provoking! That where you sought to confer a benefit you discover a spirit greater than all the favors wealth ever gave, or ever will give! A n.o.ble nature, that soars above every accident of fortune, provoking!"

"I spoke with reference to myself," replied Onslow, tartly; "and I repeat, it is most provoking that I am unable to make a recompense where I have unquestionably inflicted a wrong!"

"Rather thank G.o.d that in this age of money-seeking and gold-hunting there lives one whose heart is uncorrupted and incorruptible," cried Grouusell.

"If I had not seen it I could not have believed it!" said Prichard.

"Of course not, sir," chimed in Grounsell, bluntly. "Yours is not the trade where such instances are frequently met with; nor have I met with many myself!"

"I beg to observe," said Prichard, mildly, "that even in my career I have encountered many acts of high generosity."

"Generosity! Yes, I know what that means. A sister who surrenders her legacy to a spendthrift brother; a childless widow that denies herself the humblest means of comfort to help the ruined brother of her lost husband; a wife who places in a reckless husband's hand the last little remnant of fortune that was h.o.a.rded against the day of utter dest.i.tution; and they are always women who do these things, saving, sc.r.a.ping, careful creatures, full of self-denial and small economies. Not like your generous men, as the world calls them, whose free-heartedness is nothing but selfishness, whose liberality is the bait to catch flattery. But it is not of generosity I speak here. To give, even to one's last farthing, is far easier than to refuse help when you are needy. To draw the rags of poverty closer, to make their folds drape decently, and hide the penury within, that is the victory, indeed."

"Mark you," cried Onslow, laughing, "it is an old bachelor says all this."

Grounsell's face became scarlet, and as suddenly pale as death; and although he made an effort to speak, not a sound issued from his lips.

For an instant the pause which ensued was unbroken, when a tap was heard at the door. It was a message from Lady Hester, requesting, if Sir Stafford were disengaged, to be permitted to speak with him.

"You're not going, Grounsell?" cried Sir Stafford, as he saw the doctor seize his hat; but he hastened out of the room without speaking, while the lawyer, gathering up his papers, prepared to follow him.

"We shall see you at dinner, Prichard?" said Sir Stafford. "I have some hope of joining the party myself to-day."

Mr. Prichard bowed his acknowledgments and departed.

And now the old baronet sat down to ponder in his mind the reasons for so strange an event as a visit in the forenoon from Lady Hester. "What can it mean? She can't want money," thought he; "'t is but the other day I sent her a large check. Is she desirous of going back to England again? Are there any new disagreements at work?" This last thought reminded him of those of whom he had been so lately hearing, of those whose narrow fortunes had drawn them nearer to each other, rendering them more tolerant and more attached, while in his own family, where affluence prevailed, he saw nothing but dissension.

As he sat pondering over this not too pleasant problem, a tall and serious-looking footman entered the room, rolling before him an armchair. Another and not less dignified functionary followed, with cus.h.i.+ons and a foot-warmer, signs which Sir Stafford at once read as indicative of a long interview; for her Ladys.h.i.+p's preparations were always adopted with a degree of forethought and care that she very rarely exhibited in matters of real consequence.

Sir Stafford was contemplating these august demonstrations, when the solemn voice of an upper servant announced Lady Hester; and, after a second's pause, she swept into the room in all that gauzy amplitude of costume that gives to the wearer a seeming necessity of inhabiting the most s.p.a.cious apartments of a palace.

"How d'ye do?" said she, languidly, as she sank down into her chair. "I had not the least notion how far this room was off; if Clements has not been taking me a tour of the whole house."

Mr. Clements, who was still busily engaged in disposing and arranging the cus.h.i.+ons, blandly a.s.sured her Ladys.h.i.+p that they had come by the most direct way.

"I'm sorry for it," said she, peevishly, "for I shall have the more fatigue in going back again. There, you 're only making it worse. You never can learn that I don't want to be propped up like an invalid. That will do; you may leave the room. Sir Stafford, would you be good enough to draw that blind a little lower? the sun is directly in my eyes. Dear me, how yellow you are! or is it the light in this horrid room? Am I so dreadfully bilious-looking?"

"On the contrary," said he, smiling, "I should p.r.o.nounce you in the most perfect enjoyment of health."

"Oh, of course, I have no doubt of that. I only wonder you didn't call it 'rude health.' I cannot conceive anything more thoroughly provoking than the habit of estimating one's sufferings by the very efforts made to suppress them."

"Sufferings, my dear? I really was not aware that you had sufferings."

"I am quite sure of that; nor is it my habit to afflict others with complaint. I 'm sure your friend, Mr. Grounsell, would be equally unable to acknowledge their existence. How I do hate that man! and I know, Stafford, he hates us. Oh, you smile, as if to say, 'Only some of us; 'but I tell you he detests us all, and his old school-fellow, as he vulgarly persists in calling you, as much as the others."

"I sincerely hope you are mistaken."

"Polite, certainly; you trust that his dislike is limited to myself.

Not that, for my own part, I have the least objection to any amount of detestation with which he may honor me; it is the tribute the low and obscure invariably render the well-born, and I am quite ready to accept it; but I own it is a little hard that I must submit to the infliction beneath my own roof."

"My dear Hester, how often have I a.s.sured you that you were mistaken; and that what you regard as disrespect to yourself is the roughness of an unpolished but sterling nature. The ties which have grown up between him and me since we were boys together ought not to be snapped for the sake of a mere misunderstanding; and if you cannot or will not estimate him for the good qualities he unquestionably possesses, at least bear with him for my sake."

"So I should, so I strive to do; but the evil does not end there; he inspires everybody with the same habits of disrespect and indifference.

Did you remark Clements, a few moments since, when I spoke to him about that cus.h.i.+on?"