The Daltons Volume I Part 69

"I have seen one at Ramsgate, madam," replied he, dryly; "but the rent is more than we ought to give."

"Are we so very poor as that, sir?" said she, sarcastically, laying emphasis on the p.r.o.noun.

"Many excellent and worthy persons, madam, contrive to live respectably on less."

"Is Miss Onslow to go out as a governess, doctor? I am afraid you have forgotten her share in these transactions?"

"I have a letter from her in my pocket, madam, which would show that she herself is not guilty of this forgetfulness, wherein she makes the very proposition you allude to."

"And me? Have you no sphere of self-denial and duty have you no degrading station, nor menial servitude, adapted to my habits?"

"I know of none, madam," said Grounsell, sternly. "Varnish will no more make a picture than fine manners prove a subst.i.tute for skill or industry."

"This is really too much, sir," said she, rising, her face now crimson with anger; "and even if all you have said prove true, reverse of fortune can bring no heavier infliction than the prospect of your intimacy and obtrusive counsels."

"You may not need them, madam. In adversity," said Grounsell, with a smile, "healthy stomachs get on very well without bitters." And so saying, he bowed and left the room.

For a few moments Lady Hester sat overwhelmed by the tidings she had just heard, and then, suddenly rising, she rang the bell for her maid.

"Send Miss Dalton to me, Celestine; say I wish to speak to her immediately," said she. "This may be the last time we shall speak to each other ere we invert our positions," muttered she to herself. And in the working of her features might be read all the agony of the reflection.

CHAPTER x.x.xIX. PRATOLINO.

How like the great world is every little section of it! How full of all its pa.s.sions and interests, its warring jealousies and its selfish struggles! Within the Mazzarini Palace that night were at work every emotion and sentiment which sway the wide communities of men; and hope and fear, the yearnings of ambition, and the gloomy forebodings of despair, sat beside the pillows of those who, in vain, sought sleep and forgetfulness.

Before that long night ended, Sir Stafford had learned his ruin, for it was little less. Kate had yielded, to the pressing entreaties of Lady Hester, her consent to accept Midchekoff; and, just as day was breaking, George Onslow stole to his father's bedside to see him once more, perhaps for the last time. It would be difficult to say in which of those three hearts the darkest sorrow brooded. With noiseless step and cautious gesture, George crossed the little sitting-room, and entered his father's chamber; and, without awaking the servant, who kept watch habitually without, but now had dropped off to sleep, he gained the bedside, and sat down.

The terrible tidings he had just heard were evidently working on Sir Stafford's brain, and, despite all the influence of his opiate, still engaged his faculties; for his lips continued to move rapidly, and short broken sentences fell from him incessantly. "Poor George! poor George!"

he muttered from time to time, and the tears rolled down the young man's cheek as he heard them.

"How unworthy of him have I been!" thought he; "how shamefully unworthy and forgetful! Here should have been my place, for those hours which I have spent in noisy dissipation and debauch; and now I come for the first time, and probably the last! Oh, my poor father! How will you bear up against the shock that is preparing for you? for, with all my faults, I know how you have loved me!" A heavy tear dropped from him on the old man's cheek as he said this; and gently brus.h.i.+ng it off with his hand, Sir Stafford opened his eyes and awoke. A mild and gentle smile broke over his features as he saw his son beside him, and he drew him towards him, and kissed him.

"Have you been long here, George?" said he, affectionately.

"But a few minutes. I am so sorry to have disturbed you," muttered the other, in confusion,

"Have you seen Grounsell yet? Has he told you?" asked Sir Stafford.

"Grounsell? no, sir. I did not even hear of his arrival. What are his tidings?"

"The saddest, perhaps, one friend can bring another," sighed Onslow, as he covered his eyes with his hand. "Nay, nay, I am wrong," said he, rapidly. "So long as Sydney and yourself are spared to me I have no right to say this; still, George, it is a terrible blow that strikes a man down from affluence to poverty, and, in place of wealth and power, leaves him nothing but insignificance and ruin!"

"Good heavens, father! is your brain wandering? What fancies are these that are flitting across your mind?"

"Sad and stern truths, my poor boy," replied the old man, grasping his son's hand in his fevered palm. "A few weeks more will see the great house of Onslow bankrupt. These things cannot be told too briefly, George," said he, speaking with a tremulous and eager rapidity. "One should hear misfortune early, to gain more time for future measures. A great crash has fallen upon the moneyed interest of England. The vast speculations in railways have overreached themselves; failures of great houses abroad have added to the difficulty. The correspondents whose solvency we never doubted are tottering to ruin. Every post brings tidings of some new failure; and from Odessa, from Hamburg, and from the ports of the Baltic to the distant sh.o.r.es of the New World, there is nothing but bankruptcy."

"But you have large estates, sir; you possess property of various kinds beyond the reach of these casualties."

"I own nothing to which my creditors have not a just right; nor, if I did, could I exercise the privilege of retaining it, George," said the old man. "From what Grounsell tells me, there will be sufficient to meet every claim, but no more. There will remain nothing after. Lady Hester's settlement will, of course, secure to her a moderate competence; and we--you and I must look about, and see how we can face this same world we have been feasting so long. My time in it will needs be brief; but you, who may look forward with hope to long years of life, must bethink you at once of the new path before you. Arouse yourself, then, to the task, and I do not know but I may be prouder of you yet, buffeting the wild waves of adversity, and fighting the manful part of a bold, courageous spirit, than I have ever been in seeing you in the brilliant circle of all your high and t.i.tled acquaintances. Ay, George, the English merchant never died out in my heart, for all the aristocratic leaven which accident mixed up with my fortunes. I never ceased to glory in the pride of wealth acc.u.mulated by generous enterprises and honorable toil. I loved the life of labor that disciplined the faculties, and exercised not alone intelligence, but turned to use the gentler charities of life, linking man to man, as brethren journeying the same road, with different burdens, perhaps, but with the same goal. For myself, therefore, I have few cares. It remains with you to make them even fewer."

"Tell me what you propose for me, sir," said George, in a low, weak voice.

"First of all, George, you ought to leave the army. Grounsell, I must tell you, is not of this opinion; he advises an exchange into a regiment in India, but I think differently. To repair, if it be possible, the shattered wreck of our fortunes, you must address yourself to business life and habits. You 'll have to visit the West Indies, and, probably, the East. We still possess property in Ceylon, of value; and our coffee plantations there, as yet only in their infancy, need nothing but good management to ensure success. Grounsell laughed at my suggesting you for such duties, but I know you better, George, far better, than he does.

The English pluck that storms a breach or heads a charge is the very same quality that sustains a man on the long dark road of adverse fortune. I have often told Grounsell that the stuff was in you, George."

The young man squeezed his father's hand, but was obliged to turn away his head to hide the tears which filled his eyes; for what a terrible deception was he practising at that very moment, and what duplicity was there even in the silence with which he heard him!

For a few seconds Sir Stafford seemed to revel in all the bright visions of a warm fancy. The prospect his imagination had conjured up appeared to have momentarily lifted him above the reach of sorrow. He thought of his son engaged in the active business of life, and displaying in this new career the energies and resources of a bold and courageous spirit.

He imagined the high-principled youth becoming the British merchant, and making the name of "Onslow" great and respected in the old arena of all their victories, the city of London. Could this but come to pa.s.s, were this dream to be realized, and he would bless the hour that wrecked his fortune, and thus made his poverty the foundation of future greatness.

"I confess, George," said he, "that I have a pride in thinking that I knew you better than others did, and that I read in the very wayward caprices of your disposition the impatience of an active mind, and not the ennui of an indolent one." From this the old man branched off into his plans for the future; and, as if the emergency had suggested energy, talked well and clearly of all that was to be done. They were to start for England at once. Sir Stafford felt as if he was able to set out that very day. Some weeks would elapse before the crash came, and in the interval every preparation might be taken. "I hope," said he, feelingly, "that I have few enemies; I am not sanguine enough to say, none; but, such as they are, they will not seek to humiliate me, I trust, by any unnecessary publicity." The theme was a very painful one, and for a few seconds he could not go on. At last he resumed: "The extravagance of this household, George, will give much and just offence. It must be retrenched, and from this very day, from this very hour. You will look to this. It must not be said of us that, with ruin before us, we continued these habits of wasteful excess. Let these troops of idle servants be discharged at once. Except Lady Hester's carriage, sell off all equipage. Take no heed of what will be the town talk; such a downfall as ours can never be kept a secret. Let us only take care that we fall with dignity. Grounsell will remain here after us to settle everything, and our departure ought to be as speedy as may be. But you are not listening, George; do you hear me?"

It was quite true George heeded little of what his father spoke; for, with bent-down head, he was trying to catch the sounds of what seemed a long, low whistle from the court without. As he listened, the whistle was repeated; he knew now that it was Norwood's signal, and that "his time was up."

"I must leave you, my dear father," said he, a.s.suming all that he could of calmness. "I have an appointment this morning, and one that I cannot well shake off. Norwood and I have promised to meet some friends at Pratolino."

"It was of that same Norwood I wished to speak to you, George. The sophistry of thinking him 'no worse than his set' will serve no longer.

Such men are not fitting acquaintances for one whose character must be above reproach. Norwood is a most unworthy friend for you."

"I scarcely ever thought of him in that light. We are intimate, it is true; but such intimacy is not friends.h.i.+p."

"The greater the pollution of such acquaintances.h.i.+p, then," said the old man, gravely. "To see the dark side of such a nature, and yet live under its baneful shadow, is infinitely worse, George, than all the self-deception of a rash confidence. Keep your promise to-day, but I beseech you, let it be for the last time in such company."

Again the whistle was heard, and with the sharp crack of a whip, denoting impatience; and fearful that some accident might betray his secret, George clasped the old man's hand fervidly within his own, and hurried away without a word.

"Is that George?" cried Norwood, as he stood beside a calessino ready harnessed, and with lamps lighted, for the morning was still dark, "is that George? Why, where have you been loitering this half-hour, man?

Our time is six sharp, and it is now considerably past five, and the way lies all up hill."

"I have often done the distance in half an hour," said George, angrily.

"Perhaps the errand was a pleasanter one," rejoined Norwood, laughing; "but jump in, for I feel certain the others are before us."

George Onslow was in no mood for talking as he took his seat beside his companion. The late scene with his father and the approaching event were enough to occupy him, even had his feeling for Norwood been different from what it was; but in reality never had he experienced the same dislike for the Viscount. All the flippant ease, all the cool indifference he displayed, were only so many offences to one whose thoughts were traversing the whole current of his life, from earliest boyhood down to that very moment. A few hours hence he might be no more!

And thence arose to his mind the judgments men would pa.s.s upon him, the few who would speak charitably, the still fewer who would regret him.

"What a career!" thought he. "What use to have made of fortune, station, health, and vigor; to have lived in dissipation, and die for a street brawl! And poor Kate! to what unfeeling scandal will this unhappy meeting expose you! how impossible to expect that truth will ever penetrate through that dark atmosphere of mystery and malevolence the world will throw over the event!"

Norwood was provoked at the silence, and tried in various ways to break it. He spoke of the road, the weather, the horse's trotting action, the scenery, over which the breaking day now threw fitful and uncertain lights, but all in vain; and at last, piqued by non-success, he spitefully pointed attention to a little valley beside the road, and said, "Do you see that spot yonder, near the pine-trees? that 's where Harry Mathews was shot. Malzahn sent the bullet through the brain at forty paces. They were both first-rate pistol-shots, and the only question was who should fire first. Harry determined to reserve his shot, and he carried the privilege into the other world with him.

Malzahn knew he might trust his skill, and fired the very instant he took his ground. The moral of which is, always try and have first fire with a foreigner."

"I heard the sound of wheels behind us; who are they?" said George, not heeding either the story or the counsel.

"The doctor, I suspect. I ordered a calessino to wait for him at the door of the palace, and bring him up as fast as possible."

"If Guilmard be equal to his reputation, we shall not want his services," said Onslow, with a faint smile.

"Who can tell? We 'll put you up at a short distance; and there 's nothing shakes the nerves of your practised pistol-shot more than ten or twelve paces."