said she, angrily. "I wish, however, I were a man for a couple of hours, to show Major M"Cormick the estimate I take of the honor he intends us."
"After all, Dinah, it is not that he holds us more cheaply, but rates himself higher."
"Just so," broke in Withering; "and I know, for my own part, I have never been able to shake off the flattery of being chosen by the most nefarious rascal to defend him on his trial. Every man is a great creature in his own eyes."
"Well, sir, be proud of your client," said she, trembling with anger.
"No, no,--he "s no client of mine, nor is this a case I would plead for him. I read you Kinshela"s note because I thought you were building too confidently on M"Cormick"s readiness to advance this money."
"I understood what that readiness meant, though my brother did not.
M"Cormick looked forward to the day--and not a very distant day did he deem it--when he should step into possession of this place, and settle down here as its owner."
Barrington"s face grew pale, and a gla.s.sy film spread over his eyes, as his sister"s words sunk into his heart. "I declare, Dinah," said he, falteringly, "that never did strike me before."
""It never rains but it pours," says the Irish adage," resumed she. "My brother and I were just discussing another proposal of the same kind when you knocked. Read that letter. It is from a more adroit courtier than the other, and, at least, he does n"t preface his intentions with a bargain." And she handed Stapylton"s letter to Withering.
"Ah!" said the lawyer, "this is another guess sort of man, and a very different sort of proposal."
"I suspected that he was a favorite of yours," said Miss Dinah, significantly.
"Well, I own to it. He is one of those men who have a great attraction for me,--men who come out of the conflict of life and its interests without any exaggerated notions of human perfectibility or the opposite, who recognize plenty of good and no small share of bad in the world, but, on the whole, are satisfied that, saving ill health, very few of our calamities are not of our own providing."
"All of which is perfectly compatible with an odious egotism, sir," said she, warmly; "but I feel proud to say such characters find few admirers amongst women."
"From which I opine that he is not fortunate enough to number Miss Dinah Barrington amongst his supporters?"
"You are right there, sir. The prejudice I had against him before we met has been strengthened since I have seen him."
"It is candid of you, however, to call it a prejudice," said he, with a smile.
"Be it so, Mr. Withering; but prejudice is only another word for an instinct."
"I "m afraid if we get into ethics we "ll forget all about the proposal," said Barrington.
"What a sarcasm!" cried Withering, "that if we talk of morals we shall ignore matrimony."
"I like the man, and I like his letter," said Barrington.
"I distrust both one and the other," said Miss Dinah.
"I almost fancy I could hold a brief on either side," interposed Withering.
"Of course you could, sir; and if the choice were open to you, it would be the defence of the guilty."
"My dear Miss Barrington," said Withering, calmly, "when a great legal authority once said that he only needed three lines of any man"s writing "to hang him," it ought to make us very lenient in our construction of a letter. Now, so far as I can see in this one before us, he neither asks nor protests too much. He begs simply for time, he entreats leave to draw a bill on your affections, and he promises to meet it."
"No, sir, he wishes to draw at sight, though he has never shown us the letter of credit."
"I vow to Heaven it is hopeless to expect anything practical when you two stand up together for a sparring-match," cried Barrington.
"Be practical, then, brother Peter, and ask this gentleman to give you a quarter of an hour in your study. Find out who he is; I don"t expect you to learn what he is, but what he has. With his fortune we shall get the clew to himself."
"Yes," chimed in Withering, "all that is very businesslike and reasonable."
"And it pledges us to nothing," added she. "We take soundings, but we don"t promise to anchor."
"If you go off again with your figures of speech, Dinah, there is an end of me, for I have one of those unhappy memories that retain the ill.u.s.tration and forget what it typified. Besides this, here is a man who, out of pure good nature and respect for poor George"s memory, has been doing us most important services, written letters innumerable, and taken the most active measures for our benefit. What sort of a figure shall I present if I bring him to book about his rental and the state of his bank account?"
"With the exercise of a little tact, Barrington,--a little management--"
"Ask a man with a club-foot to walk gingerly! I have no more notion of getting at anything by address than I have of tying the femoral artery."
"The more blunt the better, Peter Barrington. You may tumble into the truth, though you"d never pick your way into it. Meanwhile, leave me to deal with Major M"Cor-mick."
"You"ll do it courteously, Dinah; you"ll bear in mind that he is a neighbor of some twenty years" standing?" said Barrington, in a voice of anxiety.
"I "ll do it in a manner that shall satisfy _my_ conscience and _his_ presumption."
She seated herself at the table as she said this, and dashed off a few hasty lines. Indeed, so hurried was the action, that it looked far more like one of those instances of correspondence we see on the stage than an event of real life.
"Will that do?" said she, showing the lines to Withering.
The old lawyer read them over to himself, a faint twitching of the mouth being the only sign his face presented of any emotion. "I should say admirably,--nothing better."
"May I see it, Dinah?" asked Peter.
"You shall hear it, brother," said she, taking the paper and reading,--
""Miss Barrington informs Mr. Kinshela that if he does not at once retract his epistle of this morning"s date, she will place it in the hands of her legal adviser, and proceed against it as a threatening letter.""
"Oh, sister, you will not send this?"
"As sure as my name is Dinah Barrington."
CHAPTER VI. AN EXPRESS
In the times before telegraphs,--and it is of such I am writing,--a hurried express was a far more stirring event than in these our days of incessant oracles. While, therefore, Barrington and his sister and Withering sat in deep consultation on Josephine"s fate and future, a hasty summons arrived from Dublin, requiring the instantaneous departure of Stapylton, whose regiment was urgently needed in the north of England, at that time agitated by those disturbances called the Bread Riots. They were very formidable troubles, and when we look back upon them now, with the light which the great events of later years on the Continent afford us, seem more terrible still. It was the fashion, however, then, to treat them lightly, and talk of them contemptuously; and as Stapylton was eating a hasty luncheon before departure, he sneered at the rabble, and scoffed at the insolent pretension of their demands. Neither Barrington nor Withering sympathized with the spirit of the revolt, and yet each felt shocked at the tone of haughty contempt Stapylton a.s.sumed towards the people. "You"ll see," cried he, rising, "how a couple of brisk charges from our fellows will do more to bring these rascals to reason than all the fine pledges of your Parliament folk; and I promise you, for my own part, if I chance upon one of their leaders, I mean to lay my mark on him."
"I fear, sir, it is your instinctive dislike to the plebeian that moves you here," said Miss Dinah. "You will not entertain the question whether these people may not have some wrongs to complain of."
"Perhaps so, madam," said he; and his swarthy face grew darker as he spoke. "I suppose this is the case where the blood of a gentleman boils indignantly at the challenge of the _canaille_."
"I will not have a French word applied to our own people, sir," said she, angrily.
"Well said," chimed in Withering. "It is wonderful how a phrase can seem to carry an argument along with it."
And old Peter smiled, and nodded his concurrence with this speech.