"It is to my father you are unjust now, Miss Harrington."
"No, Mr. Conyers; there is no injustice in believing that a father loves his son with a love so large that it cannot exclude even worldliness.
There is no injustice in believing that a proud and successful man would desire to see his son successful too; and we all know what we call success. I see you are very angry with me. You think me very worldly and very small-minded; perhaps, too, you would like to say that all the perils I talk of are of my own inventing; that Fifine and you could be the best of friends, and never think of more than friendship; and that I might spare my anxieties, and not fret for sorrows that have no existence;--and to all this I would answer, I "ll not risk the chance.
No, Mr. Conyers, I "ll be no party to a game where the stakes are so unequal. What might give _you_ a month"s sorrow might cost _her_ the misery of a life long."
"I have no choice left me. I will go,--I will go to-night, Miss Barrington."
"Perhaps it would be better," said she, gravely, and walked slowly away.
I will not tell the reader what harsh and cruel things Conyers said of every one and everything, nor how severely he railed at the world and its ways. Lord Byron had taught the youth of that age a very hearty and wholesome contempt for all manner of conventionalities, into which category a vast number of excellent customs were included, and Conyers could spout "Manfred" by heart, and imagine himself, on very small provocation, almost as great a man-hater; and so he set off on a long walk into the forest, determined not to appear at dinner, and equally determined to be the cause of much inquiry, and, if possible, of some uneasiness. "I wonder what that old-maid,"--alas for his gallantry, it was so he called her,--"what she would say if her harsh, ungenerous words had driven me to--" what he did not precisely define, though it was doubtless a.s.sociated with snow peaks and avalanches, eternal solitudes and demoniac possessions. It might, indeed, have been some solace to him had he known how miserable and anxious old Peter became at his absence, and how incessantly he questioned every one about him.
"I hope that no mishap has befallen that boy, Dinah; he was always punctual. I never knew him stray away in this fashion before."
"It would be rather a severe durance, brother Peter, if a young gentleman could not prolong his evening walk without permission."
"What says Fifine? I suspect she agrees with me."
"If that means that he ought to be here, grandpapa, I do."
"I must read over Withering"s letter again, brother," said Miss Dinah, by way of changing the subject "He writes, you say, from the Home?"
"Yes; he was obliged to go down there to search for some papers he wanted, and he took Stapylton with him; and he says they had two capital days at the partridges. They bagged,--egad! I think it was eight or ten brace before two o"clock, the Captain or Major, I forget which, being a first-rate shot."
"What does he say of the place,--how is it looking?"
"In perfect beauty. Your deputy, Polly, would seem to have fulfilled her part admirably. The garden in prime order; and that little spot next your own sitting-room, he says, is positively a better flower-show than one he paid a shilling to see in Dublin. Polly herself, too, comes in for a very warm share of his admiration."
"How did he see her, and where?"
"At the Home. She was there the evening they arrived, and Withering insisted on her presiding at the tea-table for them."
"It did not require very extraordinary entreaty, I will make bold to say, Peter."
"He does not mention that; he only speaks of her good looks, and what he calls her very pretty manners. In a situation not devoid of a certain awkwardness he says she displayed the most perfect tact; and although doing the honors of the house, she, with some very nice ingenuity, insinuated that she was herself but a visitor."
"She could scarce have forgotten herself so far as to think anything else, Peter," said Miss Dinah, bridling up. "I suspect her very pretty manners were successfully exercised. That old gentleman is exactly of the age to be fascinated by her."
"What! Withering, Dinah,--do you mean Withering?" cried he, laughing.
"I do, brother; and I say that he is quite capable of making her the offer of his hand. You may laugh, Peter Barrington, but my observation of young ladies has been closer and finer than yours." And the glance she gave at Josephine seemed to say that her gun had been double-shotted.
"But your remark, sister Dinah, rather addresses itself to old gentlemen than to young ladies."
"Who are much the more easily read of the two," said she, tartly. "But really, Peter, I will own that I am more deeply concerned to know what Mr. Withering has to say of our lawsuit than about Polly Dill"s attractions."
"He speaks very hopefully,--very hopefully, indeed. In turning over George"s papers some Hindoo doc.u.ments have come to light, which Stapylton has translated, and it appears that there is a certain Moonshee, called Jokeeram, who was, or is, in the service of Meer Rustum, whose testimony would avail us much. Stapylton inclines to think he could trace this man for us. His own relations are princ.i.p.ally in Madras, but he says he could manage to inst.i.tute inquiries in Bengal."
"What is our claim to this gentleman"s interest for us, Peter?"
"Mere kindness on his part; he never knew George, except from hearsay.
Indeed, they could not have been contemporaries. Stapylton is not, I should say, above five-and-thirty."
"The search after this creature with the horrid name will be, of course, costly, brother Peter. It means, I take it, sending some one out to India; that is to say, sending one fool after another. Are you prepared for this expense?"
"Withering opines it would be money well spent. What he says is this: The Company will not willingly risk another inquiry before Parliament, and if we show fight and a firm resolve to give the case publicity, they will probably propose terms. This Moonshee had been in his service, but was dismissed, and his appearance as a witness on our side would occasion great uneasiness."
"You are going to play a game of brag, then, brother Peter, well aware that the stronger purse is with your antagonist?"
"Not exactly, Dinah; not exactly. We are strengthening our position so far that we may say, "You see our order of battle; would it not be as well to make peace?" Listen to what Withering says." And Peter opened a letter of several sheets, and sought out the place he wanted.
"Here it is, Dinah. "From one of these Hindoo papers we learn that Ram Shamsoolah Sing was not at the Meer"s residence during the feast of the Rhamadan, and could not possibly have signed the doc.u.ment to which his name and seal are appended. Jokeeram, who was himself the Moon-shee interpreter in Luckerabad, writes to his friend Cossien Aga, and says--""
"Brother Peter, this is like the Arabian Nights in all but the entertainment to me, and the jumble of these abominable names only drives me mad. If you flatter yourself that you can understand one particle of the matter, it must be that age has sharpened your faculties, that"s all."
"I"m not quite sure of that, Dinah," said he, laughing. "I "m half disposed to believe that years are not more merciful to our brains than to our ankles; but I"ll go and take a stroll in the shady alleys under the linden-trees, and who knows how bright it will make me!"
"Am I to go with you, grandpapa?" said the young girl, rising.
"No, Fifine; I have something to say to you here," said Miss Dinah; and there was a significance in the tone that was anything but rea.s.suring.
CHAPTER x.x.x. UNDER THE LINDEN
That shady alley under the linden-trees was a very favorite walk with Peter Barrington. It was a nice cool lane, with a brawling little rivulet close beside it, with here and there a dark silent pool for the dragon-fly to skim over and see his bronzed wings reflected in the still water; and there was a rustic bench or two, where Peter used to sit and fancy he was meditating, while, in reality, he was only watching a speckled lizard in the gra.s.s, or listening to the mellow blackbird over his head. I have had occasion once before to remark on the resources of the man of imagination, but I really suspect that for the true luxury of idleness there is nothing like the temperament devoid of fancy. There is a grand breadth about those quiet, peaceful minds over which no shadows flit, and which can find sufficient occupation through the senses, and never have to go "within" for their resources. These men can sit the livelong day and watch the tide break over a rock, or see the sparrow teach her young to fly, or gaze on the bee as he dives into the deep cup of the foxglove, and actually need no more to fill the hours. For them there is no memory with its dark bygones, there is no looming future with its possible misfortunes; there is simply a half-sleepy present, with soft sounds and sweet odors through it,--a balmy kind of stupor, from which the awaking comes without a shock.
When Barrington reached his favorite seat, and lighted his cigar,--it is painting the lily for such men to smoke,--he intended to have thought over the details of Withering"s letter, which were both curious and interesting; he intended to consider attentively certain points which, as Withering said, "he must master before he could adopt a final resolve;" but they were knotty points, made knottier, too, by hard Hindoo words for things unknown, and names totally unp.r.o.nounceable. He used to think that he understood "George"s claim" pretty well; he had fancied it was a clear and very intelligible case, that half a dozen honest men might have come to a decision on in an hour"s time; but now he began to have a glimmering perception that George must have been egregiously duped and basely betrayed, and that the Company were not altogether unreasonable in a.s.suming their distrust of him. Now, all these considerations coming down upon him at once were overwhelming, and they almost stunned him. Even his late attempt to enlighten his sister Dinah on a matter he so imperfectly understood now recoiled upon him, and added to his own mystification.
"Well, well," muttered he, at last, "I hope Tom sees his way through it,"--Tom was Withering,--"and if _he_ does, there"s no need of my bothering _my_ head about it. What use would there be in lawyers if they hadn"t got faculties sharper than other folk? and as to "making up my mind," my mind is made up already, that I want to win the cause if he"ll only show me how." From these musings he was drawn off by watching a large pike,--the largest pike, he thought, he had ever seen,--which would from time to time dart out from beneath a bank, and after lying motionless in the middle of the pool for a minute or so, would, with one whisk of its tail, skim back again to its hiding-place. "That fellow has instincts of its own to warn him," thought he; "he knows he was n"t safe out there. _He_ sees some peril that _I_ cannot see; and that ought to be the way with Tom, for, after all, the lawyers are just pikes, neither more nor less." At this instant a man leaped across the stream, and hurriedly pa.s.sed into the copse. "What! Mr. Conyers--Conyers, is that you?" cried Barrington; and the young man turned and came towards him.
"I am glad to see you all safe and sound again," said Peter; "we waited dinner half an hour for you, and have pa.s.sed all the time since in conjecturing what might have befallen you."
"Did n"t Miss Barrington say--did not Miss Barrington know--" He stopped in deep confusion, and could not finish his speech.
"My sister knew nothing,--at least, she did not tell me any reason for your absence."
"No, not for my absence," began he once more, in the same embarra.s.sment; "but as I had explained to her that I was obliged to leave this suddenly,--to start this evening--"
"To start this evening! and whither?"
"I cannot tell; I don"t know,--that is, I have no plans."
"My dear boy," said the old man, affectionately, as he laid his hand on the other"s arm, "if you don"t know where you are going, take my word for it there is no such great necessity to go."
"Yes, but there is," replied he, quickly; "at least Miss Barrington thinks so, and at the time we spoke together she made me believe she was in the right."
"And are you of the same opinion _now?_" asked Peter, with a humorous drollery in his eye.
"I am,--that is, I was a few moments back. I mean, that whenever I recall the words she spoke to me, I feel their full conviction."