Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER XIX.

"I am not a Methuselah myself, you know."

"He is not a bit like little Mr. Gossett." "Perhaps he is like Mrs. Locksley, which a deal better."

"He has an older head with him; who was under his late father; who certainly has a touch of the Gossett element." "Name of the firm ?" "Burkitt and Goring." "Direction ?"

Ir was a singular coincidence enough, that "good little Mr. Gossett," as Miss Davenant had called him, had been the late and, in due course, the present Lord Roys-is ton's man of business also. It was, perhaps, more singular, that amidst all the pressure of his extensive and confidential business, he should never have become "Gossett and Anybody-else." Even his head clerk had been pure clerical clerk, confidential in few but minor matters. It, therefore, was not singular at all that his death, occurring at that peculiar crisis in Lord Royston's history, which craves unusual attention to "settlements," should cause some little inconvenience to that rising statesman.

"Solicitors, Freshet."

"A thousand thanks, dear sir. That's one weight off my mind.”

He booked the names and address in a small pocket-book, declaring that he would write that evening. He did: and so it befell that Burkitt and Goring acted for his

"I really wish, dear Mr. Locksley, you lordship in the matter of marriage settlewould take pity on a poor bothered under-ments. Keane had gained a footing at Rooksec, and act for me, or see that I'm acted for, just as you will for Lady Constance." "That would look ugly, if any one hereafter should object to any thing."

"Who on earth should? I don't want to make it a controversy, a plaintiff and defendant affair. I'm only anxious for what you are, to see that Lady Constance's interests are well secured if I should die, against greedy 'collaterals.'”

"I don't think it would do," said Robert Locksley, "for me to meddle with it, or instruct any one on your account. Men of business are plenty. Put yourself in the hands of some eminent and trusty firm: Pinkerton and Solway, for instance, or Blore, Sarsden, and Kimmeridge."

enham. He spared no resource of tact or diligence to make it secure. His relation to the Locksleys made a powerful prejudice in his favor, and helped his endeavor to complete success. Without any apparent servility, he was so useful and obliging that Lord Royston was led on to consult him upon many matters not strictly connected with actual" settlements," yet, such as marriagetide is a time for settling. He and his bride were to have a couple of months in Scotland, by the considerate kindness of the secretary under whom he served. Being tied, therefore, beforehand, closely to his official desk, there were endless things to be done at Rookenham, to which it was impossible that he should attend; these, Keane took off his hands in the easiest and most natural manner. Under such circumstances he was often over on business, of greater or less import, from Freshet; and as Cransdale was so near,

"Not a bit of it. Such legal leviathians terrify me. I want something safe and quiet, such as poor dear little old Gossett was himself." "There is Mr. Fowler, my lord, at Crans- dined and slept most evenings at the Lodge. mere."

[blocks in formation]

The room next to Ned's, which Philip had sometimes occupied as a boy, came to be called Keane's. The connection between himself, his uncle, and his aunt, grew naturally closer and more confidential. Robert Locksley could not but be pleased with the interest he displayed in all matters which concerned the business of the Cransdale estate, and was secretly flattered by the intelligent approval his nephew bestowed on his own really masterly management. The key to Lucy's heart was in the hands of one, whose memory treasured with gratitude and

esteem the image which absence only kept in more vivid continuance before her sight. The companionship and conversation of two such charming relatives could not but exercise some influence upon Keane. It was not merely that he looked upon a picture of enduring faith and tenderness in family life; but that he breathed the very breath of its worth and sweetness, and felt in his heart's fibres its fruitful and delicious warmth. Yet human hearts, like more material substances, vary in their power of conducting, reflecting, or accumulating heat. His manner towards his mother improved under this influence with truer improvement than that wherewith his tact and self-control had lacquered it over in the actual presence of his aunt. Unconscious imitation of the kindly courtesy which colored the commonplaces of life at the Locksleys, wrought this change for the better. But his appreciation of her motherliness, of its true force and tenderness for him, suffered loss upon the whole. With the ready injustice of a selfish son's heart-injustice too ready, perhaps, in the heart of the least selfish son-he made comparisons between mother-love, as his own mother had shown it, and mother-love as he saw it pervade the feelings, thoughts, and words-the very life of Lucy.

Both had abundant overflow indeed; but one showed barren beside the other. Ungrateful! Nile waters gladden even the Nubian sand; but only where the Delta's deep loam drinks them do the oxen browse kneedeep in green succulence, tread, presently, knee-deep in harvest gold. Lucy and her sister-in-law had lavished love on different soils. Again he noted favorably the equable flow of Lucy's strong affection, remembering against his mother the capriciousness of hers. Amidst all her large indulgence, he bethought him, she had been sometimes harsh with him, and even violent in years bygone. Ungrateful again! Had not those old attempted severities expressed the widow's wish to gift his boyhood with the lost blessing of a father's irresistible authority? But her present uniform weak concession to his own will showed in pitiful contrast even with that old fitful energy. A coward shows sometimes worse even than a bully. Thrice ungrateful! Why fail thus to perceive in her submission to a son's manhood, the re

assertion in her widowed heart of the woman's loving instinct to obey?

But Keane's domestication with the Locksleys wrought yet another effect upon him. His better selfishness was won to note with special interest the charm, so new to the inmate of a widow's home, which married companionship may give to common life. Dispassionate after a sort, and of forecasting mind, a stranger to the fanciful aspirations in which most young men at his age indulge, he was both struck and pleased, as few such would be, by the lesser, homelier delights wherewith he saw that Lucy smoothed her husband's daily course. He had spoken of his uncle's feathering his nest at Cransdale, using the metaphor in its most mercenary sense. Now he perceived a new sense in the figure, in which his imagination was well pleased to coozle and lie snug.

Golden guineas would build a tower of defence. Its thick walls and high battlements would make its owner powerful. But he began to think, as he had not thought before, of the soft and quiet comfort which might be likewise fitted up within. He was not haunted by a poet's dream of a "fair ladye's bower" within a castle-keep, but planned the design of a sitting-room which should be gracefully comfortable.

Fanny Davenant, however, it is not to be denied, sat ever in a "causeuse" in this chamber of imagery. Whatever grace and tenderness familiarity with such imaginings wrought upon Keane's tone and manner, told upon the character of his intercourse with her. She could not fail to perceive, nor yet to be won upon by this mellowing and harmonizing change.

Unstudied and unartificial, it gave Keane an advantage, unsuspected at first by either. It seemed to supply the missing element in the quality of such homage as he had hitherto partly tendered for her acceptance, partly assumed a right to impose upon it. Leaving untouched his superiority over other competitors in the restricted arena of their local society, it suggested an abatement of his pretensions to supremacy over herself, and thus rendered less necessary the jealous assertion of her own power as against him. An heiress, moreover, even when unaware of her own vantage ground, becomes an object of real deference to such men as Keane

miration.

Mrs. Burkitt's heart forthwith adopted

Burkitt and Fanny Davenant, knowing | hailed it as, perhaps, a promise of restoranothing of what caused his increased sub- tion. missiveness, might pardonably attribute it to the deepening of his attachment and ad- Fanny Davenant. Fearful of seeming to As Keane won upon her, so did have surprised a confidence which neither she upon him. Becoming, by almost insen- word nor look from her son had willingly sible degrees, less defiant, she was becoming given her, she carefully forbore to give him more winsome to one in his present mood. intimation that his secret was in her possession. If no fresh ardor were kindled, some new Fearful also of injuring him with Fanny, tenderness was instilled, the very element should she give her reason to suspect that required to make the man appear both more her suitor had brushed the bloom from off his loving and more loveworthy. suing, even by letting a mother's hand handle it, she was very guarded, as she thought, in her approaches to closer acquaintance with this adopted daughter of her heart. But Fanny was beginning to believe more and more in Keane's affection; she was beginning to suspect herself also more and more of returning it. Her interest, therefore, in what was his quickened her observation day by day, and an intuitive knowledge arose in her of the yearning of his mother's heart towards herself. The quiet, loving deference with which Mrs. Burkitt treated her produced a bashful, but not unpleasing confusion in her feelings. She could not but accept it as a pledge of the sincerity of the son's quiet attentions to her, and, accepting it as such, could not be wrong in finding a special sacredness and sweetness in its nature. There was a tacit understanding soon between the elder and the younger woman, the caressing atmosphere of which exercised upon the latter a very powerful influence. Keane, without suspecting its cause, perceived his mother's liking for the object of his own choice; and though her disapproval of his selection would not much have troubled him, he was glad enough to find that she gave it her unsolicited sanction. Home life was wonderfully sweetened thus, both for mother and son. Office life at the same time continued to be prosperous. At Keane's earnest solicitation, his own proceedings on behalf of his noble client, in the marriage settlements, had been submitted by Lord Royston to eminent conveyancing authories in London, and a flattering verdict had been given upon the precision, clearness, and comprehensiveness of his work.

But all these developments were very gradual. Miss Davenant's will was not yet signed, and all uncertainties must counsel caution to well-regulated minds. Even had it been signed and sealed, Keane's sense of what is due to the authority of elders-perhaps his acquaintance with the effects of codicils-seemed to whisper that, before "committing "himself, it might be well to sound, on opportunity, the disposition of Fanny's aunt towards his suit. Should it prove hostile, not only would there be danger to the dowry, but his own legacy might go to the dogs-or rather to the cats. This was a delicate investigation, wherein precipitancy might be fatal. Nothing, therefore, could be more deliberate and unobtrusive than Keane's wooing. It found, however, in his own mother, an unsolicited auxiliary. She had at once perceived the softening of his manner with herself, and sunned her heart at first, in its new smiles, with unconcern, as the seamews on the skerry preen their wings in the pale warmth of wintry suns, which can scarce yet be said to herald spring-time. But, pale warmth as it might be, it was marvellous pleasant; and when it seemed to keep on shining, unlike the gleam of those short, fitful breaks of winter, she began, with joy, to speculate on its continuance, and to seek about, in curious hope, for the source of the new light and warmth. Little by little her eyes were drawn to Fanny Davenant; they saw, what no one else saw, the imperceptible growth of intimacy between her and Keane. This discovery challenged gratitude by too good a claim to rouse in her the jealousy which the conquest of "It's no use doing things by halves, my Ned's heart by Lady Constance had roused dear Mr. Locksley," Lord Royston said, a in Lucy. The mother, rich in possession of a few days previous to the wedding; “I her son's love, had almost resented its first shall have all the boxes of Rookenham deeds attachment elsewhere as a robbery. The and documents, which little Gossett had, inmother, poor by doubt of her son's affection, trusted to your nephew before I leave. I've

always been flattering myself with hopes of intelligence were mellowed by the goodminding my own business; but it's not com- humor bred of prosperity. He was evidently patible with minding that of the state, even in my subordinate situation. Besides, I shall have a wife to look after now, and shall steal all possible spare time for her."

[blocks in formation]

a busy man, yet one who loved such ease and luxury as were not wholly incompatible with success in business.

"I am not quite sure," he said, "about that stock of Lord Royston's; but I will look through my memoranda. A trifle it was; I think, some four or five thousand only."

There were substantial men and money sums in Freshet affairs; but the unaffected

"Well, the Houses are up: so we are safe till February. I shan't shake off the cares of office till then: and even the shortest honey-magniloquence of this metropolitan estimate moon will run up arrears of work for me. of trifles impressed the country man of busiSo my tin boxes must find their way to ness considerably. Freshet, for a time at least. That needn't give your nephew a regular vested interest in them. If, hereafter, the base intrigues of faction should drive such a stateman as I from official occupation, they'll be nearer Rookenham than they are in town, and I can reclaim them."

Keane himself came up, therefore, to take formal charge of them, and so was present at the marriage.

"Let me see, now; three years ago, you say?" turning over a whole drawer full of metallic memorandum books. "Some time in August, was it, or earlier? I do believe it must be in that identical book I took down home last week, and forgot in my dressingroom. Do you stay long in town, Mr. Burkitt?"

"I had no intention of making any lengthened stay. Business, even in our small It was celebrated in London, against the provincial way, will press, you know." natural longings of Lady Cransdale and her "How very unfortunate! I would do any daughter. But among other reasons which thing to refresh Lord Royston's memory, I'm determined them to drive in bridal pomp to a sure. A rising man, sir! And a fine match town church portico rather than walk on he's made, in every way, I'm told. The the moss to the chapel porch in Cransdale Cransdales are a wealthy family. A powerPark, was their consideration for Mrs. Locks-ful political connection too; at least it was ley. At home, they would not have known in the late earl's time. Young earl in the whether to ask or to leave her uninvited. Guards, I understand. Did you ever see Her presence might have been irksome and Lady Constance Cranleigh-I beg her parpainful to herself; her absence, when close at don-the new Lady Royston ?" hand, within the ring-fence of Park, would “Oh dear, yes, often. An uncle of mine have been unnatural, depressing, and sorrow-manages the estates, and was a great friend ful to Lady Constance. As it was, there of the late earl's. He has been almost a was a grand wedding, and Philip gave away guardian to her and her brother. Indeed, the bride, with a paternal unction and grav- I'm not sure that he was not regularly such ity, for which Katey Kilmore, who was a under their father's will." bridesmaid, and wept profusely herself during the ceremony, laughed at him unmercifully in the less affecting atmosphere of the banquet-room. Even the immediate instructions touching his private affairs, which Keane had received from Lord Royston, were delayed to the last moment, hurried, and incomplete. On one money matter, of some importance, the late Mr. Gossett's head clerk himself was as much at a loss as Keane; but referred him for elucidation to an eminent stock-broker who had intermeddled in the transaction.

Keane found this Mr. Sherbrooke a pleasant, gentlemanly man, whose shrewdness and

"Indeed! Is she so very lovely as they say?"

"She looked wonderfully well at the wedding, certainly."

"Oh, you were at it, were you? I'll tell you what, Mr. Burkitt, my wife and daughters have a few young friends this evening after dinner. If I could bring such a live fashionable intelligencer down with me, I should appear a public benefactor. Drive down with me to Twickenham to dine and sleep. We'll find the pocket-book, and perhaps the notes that you're in search of." It was as pleasant a way as any of passing

his evening, so Keane accepted; and found your sharp way with him, and would have it pleasanter than any when he also found Fanny Davenant in the Sherbrookes' drawing-room.

There was old friendship, it seemed, and even distant cousinhood between them and her family. She was there in fulfilment of an old standing engagement to accompany them on a tour to the Lakes.

66

Papa promised us this expedition last year," explained one of the Sherbrooke girls; "but it came to nothing. Then we were positively to go this year, in June. June went; July and August after them; and there's not much of September left now. But go at last we must and will, in spite of that tiresome business which always serves for an excuse."

"Tiresome business, indeed, Miss Nina! I should be fitter for drowning in lakes than touring round them if it wasn't for the tiresome business, I can tell you."

been delighted to put you up to what he calls the dodges' of the share market. He is a little too rash, though, Master Walter is; and if I didn't keep a tight rein on him, would run us into shaky places now and then."

There was a little music and a little dancing, and there were two or three charming seats in the conservatory, half hidden in flowery shrubs, for confidential conversation. Keane thought the evening had only passed away too quickly; and Fanny Davenant herself sighed to find it late so soon. Brother Walter, however, who had had his full month with the grouse, returned unexpectedly before the little party was broken up.

"I thought, sir, you might like me to be in the way for that Spanish meeting; and as the next steamer from the north would have been four and twenty hours late, I came away at once on hearing of it."

"Now, you naughty pappy, you know you "Wise Walter! You couldn't have done are as rich as a Jew, and can spare us a better. I told you, Mr. Burkitt, he was a couple of months. Besides which, Walter promising lad on 'Change. Allow me, has had his holiday, and will attend to the though: Mr. Keane Burkitt, my son Walbusiness as well as you could. What's ter. Odd enough; I was saying after dinner more, if you don't take us, we mean to that I thought you would get on together, drown ourselves at the bottom of the lawn and as Mr. Burkitt was anxious for a little here, without going all the way to West-insight into some of the ways of stock-bromoreland to find deep water. So beware!" king, that you were the man to give it to "Well, really, next week, after the Spanish bond-holders have had their meeting, we'll try to make a start of it. I dare say, Nina, you'll keep us waiting for your bandboxes at last."

"How can you, pappy, when I've been packed since Wednesday? I've half a mind to have our boxes brought down into the hall this evening to convince you."

“And trip up your young lady friends as they come in, and tumble their new dresses? No fear of that, Nina. You'll stand in awe of them, if not of me."

There was no long sitting over the wine, of course, that evening; but Mr. Sherbrooke had found the missing memoranda, and put Keane in the way to settle the matter in hand satisfactorily. He was much struck by the point of the quick and many questions which Keane put to him in this brief afterdinner conference.

"I wish you could have made my son Walter's acquaintance," he said. "You would have got on together. He has just

THIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE.

751

him."

They did get on very well together after all the ladies had fluttered out of the conservatory, either home or up stairs to bed.

"Smoke's excellent for aphides,” Walter observed, as he nestled down upon one of those delicious snuggeries among the flowers. "Wherefore even our women folk tolerate my weeds here. Have one? They're Havana direct, through one of that Spanish bond-holding lot who are clients of ours."

"Couldn't put me in the way of getting a dozen boxes such?" quoth Keane, after a time, breaking an interval of balmy silence.

"Not over easy in the way of business, exactly; but I could introduce you to the man himself, who is rather a swell in a small way, and likes to be treated as such. If you've a talent for deferential tact, you might get some out of him as a favor. When do you leave town?"

Circumstances had altered since 11.30, A. M., on that same day, when he had spoken to Sherbrooke senior about the pressure

« ZurückWeiter »