Lord Kilgobbin Part 42

'I will now conclude with a resolution,' said McGloin, who, having filled the measure of allegation, proceeded to the application. 'I shall move that it is the sentiment of this meeting that Lord Kilgobbin be called on to disavow, in the newspapers, the whole narrative which has been circulated of the attack on his house; that he declare openly that the supposed incident was a mistake caused by the timorous fears of his household, during his own absence from home: terrors aggravated by the unwarrantable anxiety of an English visitor, whose ignorance of Ireland had worked upon an excited imagination; and that a copy of the resolution be presented to his lords.h.i.+p, either in letter or by a deputation, as the meeting shall decide.'

While the discussion was proceeding as to the mode in which this bold resolution should be most becomingly brought under Lord Kilgobbin's notice, a messenger on horseback arrived with a letter for McGloin. The bearer was in the Kilgobbin livery, and a ma.s.sive seal, with the n.o.ble lord's arms, attested the despatch to be from himself.

'Shall I put the resolution to the vote, or read this letter first, gentlemen?' said the chairman.

'Read! read!' was the cry, and he broke the seal. It ran thus:--

'Mr. McGloin,--Will you please to inform the members of the "Goat Club" at Moate that I retire from the presidency, and cease to be a member of that society? I was vain enough to believe at one time that the humanising element of even one gentleman in the vulgar circle of a little obscure town, might have elevated the tone of manners and the spirit of social intercourse. I have lived to discover my great mistake, and that the leaders.h.i.+p of a man like yourself is far more likely to suit the instincts and chime in with the sentiments of such a body.--Your obedient and faithful servant,

Kilgobbin.'

The cry which followed the reading of this doc.u.ment can only be described as a howl. It was like the enraged roar of wild animals, rather than the union of human voices; and it was not till after a considerable interval that McGloin could obtain a hearing. He spoke with great vigour and fluency. He denounced the letter as an outrage which should be proclaimed from one end of Europe to the other; that it was not their town, or their club, or themselves had been insulted, but Ireland! that this mock-lord (cheers)--this sham viscount--(greater cheers)--this Brummagem peer, whose n.o.bility their native courtesy and natural urbanity had so long deigned to accept as real, should now be taught that his pretensions only existed on sufferance, and had no claim beyond the polite condescension of men whom it was no stretch of imagination to call the equals of Mathew Kearney.

The cries that received this were almost deafening, and lasted for some minutes.

'Send the ould humbug his picture there,' cried a voice from the crowd, and the sentiment was backed by a roar of voices; and it was at once decreed the portrait should accompany the letter which the indignant 'Goats' now commissioned their chairman to compose.

That same evening saw the gold-framed picture on its way to Kilgobbin Castle, with an ample-looking doc.u.ment, whose contents we have no curiosity to transcribe--nor, indeed, is the whole incident one which we should have cared to obtrude upon our readers, save as a feeble ill.u.s.tration of the way in which the smaller rills of public opinion swell the great streams of life, and how the little events of existence serve now as impulses, now obstacles, to the larger interests that sway fortune. So long as Mathew Kearney drank his punch at the 'Blue Goat' he was a patriot and a Nationalist; but when he quarrelled with his flock, he renounced his Irishry, and came out a Whig.

CHAPTER x.x.xII

AN UNLOOKED-FOR PLEASURE

When d.i.c.k Kearney waited on Cecil Walpole at his quarters in the Castle, he was somewhat surprised to find that gentleman more reserved in manner, and in general more distant, than when he had seen him as his father's guest.

Though he extended two fingers of his hand on entering, and begged him to be seated, Walpole did not take a chair himself, but stood with his back to the fire--the showy skirts of a very gorgeous dressing-gown displayed over his arms--where he looked like some enormous bird exulting in the full effulgence of his bright plumage.

'You got my note, Mr. Kearney?' began he, almost before the other had sat down, with the air of a man whose time was too precious for mere politeness.

'It is the reason of my present visit,' said d.i.c.k dryly.

'Just so. His Excellency instructed me to ascertain in what shape most acceptable to your family he might show the sense entertained by the Government of that gallant defence of Kilgobbin; and believing that the best way to meet a man's wishes is first of all to learn what the wishes are, I wrote you the few lines of yesterday.'

'I suspect there must be a mistake somewhere,' began Kearney, with difficulty. 'At least, I intimated to Atlee the shape in which the Viceroy's favour would be most agreeable to us, and I came here prepared to find you equally informed on the matter.'

'Ah, indeed! I know nothing--positively nothing. Atlee telegraphed me, "See Kearney, and hear what he has to say. I write by post.--ATLEE." There's the whole of it.'

'And the letter--'

'The letter is there. It came by the late mail, and I have not opened it.'

'Would it not be better to glance over it now?' said d.i.c.k mildly.

'Not if you can give me the substance by word of mouth. Time, they tell us, is money, and as I have got very little of either, I am obliged to be parsimonious. What is it you want? I mean the sort of thing we could help you to obtain. I see,' said he, smiling, 'you had rather I should read Atlee's letter. Well, here goes.' He broke the envelope, and began:--

'"MY DEAR MR. WALPOLE,--I hoped by this time to have had a report to make you of what I had done, heard, seen, and imagined since my arrival, and yet here I am now towards the close of my second week, and I have nothing to tell; and beyond a sort of confused sense of being immensely delighted with my mode of life, I am totally unconscious of the flight of time.

'"His Excellency received me once for ten minutes, and later on, after some days, for half an hour; for he is confined to bed with gout, and forbidden by his doctor all mental labour. He was kind and courteous to a degree, hoped I should endeavour to make myself at home--giving orders at the same time that my dinner should be served at my own hour, and the stables placed at my disposal for riding or driving. For occupation, he suggested I should see what the newspapers were saying, and make a note or two if anything struck me as remarkable.

'"Lady Maude is charming--and I use the epithet in all the significance of its sorcery. She conveys to me each morning his Excellency's instructions for my day's work; and it is only by a mighty effort I can tear myself from the magic thrill of her voice, and the captivation of her manner, to follow what I have to reply to, investigate, and remark on.

'"I meet her each day at luncheon, and she says she will join me 'some day at dinner.' When that glorious occasion arrives, I shall call it the event of my life, for her mere presence stimulates me to such effort in conversation that I feel in the very la.s.situde afterwards what a strain my faculties have undergone."'

'What an insufferable c.o.xcomb, and an idiot to boot!' cried Walpole.

'I could not do him a more spiteful turn than to tell my cousin of her conquest. There is another page, I see, of the same sort. But here you are--this is all about you: I'll read it. "In _re_ Kearney. The Irish are always logical; and as Miss Kearney once shot some of her countrymen, when on a mission they deemed National, her brother opines that he ought to represent the principles thus involved in Parliament."'

'Is this the way in which he states my claims!' broke in d.i.c.k, with ill-suppressed pa.s.sion.

'Bear in mind, Mr. Kearney, this jest, and a very poor one it is, was meant for me alone. The communication is essentially private, and it is only through my indiscretion you know anything of it whatever.'

'I am not aware that any confidence should ent.i.tle him to write such an impertinence.'

'In that case, I shall read no more,' said Walpole, as he slowly refolded the letter.' The fault is all on my side, Mr. Kearney,' he continued;' but I own I thought you knew your friend so thoroughly that extravagance on his part could have neither astonished nor provoked you.'

'You are perfectly right, Mr. Walpole; I apologise for my impatience. It was, perhaps, in hearing his words read aloud by another that I forgot myself, and if you will kindly continue the reading, I will promise to behave more suitably in future.'

Walpole reopened the letter, but, whether indisposed to trust the pledge thus given, or to prolong the interview, ran his eyes over one side and then turned to the last page. 'I see,' said he, 'he augurs ill as to your chances of success; he opines that you have not well calculated the great cost of the venture, and that in all probability it has been suggested by some friend of questionable discretion. "At all events,"' and here he read aloud--'"at all events, his Excellency says, 'We should like to mark the Kilgobbin affair by some show of approbation; and though supporting young K. in a contest for his county is a "higher figure" than we meant to pay, see him, and hear what he has to say of his prospects--what he can do to obtain a seat, and what he will do if he gets one. We need not caution him against'"--'hum, hum, hum,' muttered he, slurring over the words, and endeavouring to pa.s.s on to something else.

'May I ask against what I am supposed to be so secure?'

'Oh, nothing, nothing. A very small impertinence, but which Mr. Atlee found irresistible.'

'Pray let me hear it. It shall not irritate me.'

'He says, "There will be no more a fear of bribery in your case than of a debauch at Father Mathew's."'

'He is right there,' said Kearney. 'The only difference is that our forbearance will be founded on something stronger than a pledge.'

Walpole looked at the speaker, and was evidently struck by the calm command he had displayed of his pa.s.sion.

'If we could forget Joe Atlee for a few minutes, Mr. Walpole, we might possibly gain something. I, at least, would be glad to know how far I might count on the Government aid in my project.'

'Ah, you want to--in fact, you would like that we should give you something like a regular--eh?--that is to say, that you could declare to certain people--naturally enough, I admit; but here is how we are, Kearney.

Of course what I say now is literally between ourselves, and strictly confidential.'

'I shall so understand it,' said the other gravely.

'Well, now, here it is. The Irish vote, as the Yankees would call it, is of undoubted value to us, but it is confoundedly dear! With Cardinal Cullen on one side and Fenianism on the other, we have no peace. Time was when you all pulled the one way, and a sop to the Pope pleased you all. Now that will suffice no longer. The "Sovereign Pontiff dodge" is the surest of all ways to offend the Nationals; so that, in reality, what we want in the House is a number of Liberal Irishmen who will trust the Government to do as much for the Catholic Church as English bigotry will permit, and as much for the Irish peasant as will not endanger the rights of property over the Channel.'

'There's a wide field there, certainly,' said d.i.c.k, smiling.

'Is there not?' cried the other exultingly. 'Not only does it bowl over the Established Church and Protestant ascendency, but it inverts the position of landlord and tenant. To unsettle everything in Ireland, so that anybody might hope to be anything, or to own Heaven knows what--to legalise gambling for existence to a people who delight in high play, and yet not involve us in a civil war--was a grand policy, Kearney, a very grand policy. Not that I expect a young, ardent spirit like yourself, fresh from college ambitions and high-flown hopes, will take this view.'

d.i.c.k only smiled and shook his head.