Bee looked perfectly radiant with joy. Her fingers closed spasmodically on the hand that Ishmael offered her, and she exclaimed a little incoherently:
"Oh, Ishmael, I always knew you could! I am so happy!"
"Thank you, dearest Bee! Under Divine Providence I owe a great deal of my success to-day to your sympathy."
Claudia did not speak; she was deadly pale and cold; her face was like marble and her hand like ice, as she gave it to Ishmael. She had always appreciated and loved him against her will; but now, in this hour of his triumph, when he had discovered to the world his real power and worth, her love rose to an anguish of longing that she knew her pride must forever deny; and so when Ishmael took her hand and looked in her face for the words of sympathy that his heart was hungering to receive from her of all the world, she could not speak.
Ishmael pa.s.sed out with his friends. When he had gone, a stranger who had been watching him with the deepest interest during the whole course of the trial, now came forward, and, with an agitation impossible to conceal, hastily inquired:
"Judge Merlin, for Heaven"s sake! who is that young man?"
"Eh! what! Brudenell, you here! When did you arrive?"
"This morning! But for the love of Heaven who is that young man?"
"Who? why the most talented young barrister of the day--a future chief justice, attorney-general, President of the United States, for aught I know! It looks like it, for whatever may be the aspirations of the boy, his intellect and will are sure to realize them!"
"Yes, but who is he? what is his name? who were his parents? where was he born?" demanded Herman Brudenell excitedly.
"Why, the Lord bless my soul alive, man! He is a self-made barrister; his name is Ishmael Worth; his mother was a poor weaver girl named Nora Worth; his father was an unknown scoundrel; he was born at a little hut near--Why, Brudenell, you ought to know all about it--near Brudenell Hall!"
"Heaven and earth!"
"What is the matter?"
"The close room--the crowd--and this oppression of the chest that I have had so many years!" gasped Herman Brudenell.
"Get into my carriage and come home with us. Come--I will take no denial! The hotels are overcrowded. We can send for your luggage. Come!"
"Thank you; I think I will."
"Claudia! Beatrice! come forward, my dears. Here is Mr. Brudenell."
Courtesies were exchanged, and they all went out and entered the carriage.
"I will introduce you to this young man, who has so much interested you, and all the world, in fact, I suppose. He is living with us; and he will be a lion from to-day, I a.s.sure you," said the judge, as soon as they were all seated.
"Thank you! I was interested in--in those two poor sisters. One died--what has become of the other?"
"She married my overseer, Gray; they are doing well. They are in the city on a visit at present, stopping at the Farmer"s, opposite Center Market."
"Who educated this young man?"
"Himself."
"Did this unknown father make no provision for him?"
"None--the rascal! The boy was as poor as poverty could make him; but he worked for his own living from the time he was seven years old."
Herman had feared as much, for he doubted the check he had written and left for Hannah had ever been presented and cashed, for in the balancing of his bankbook he never saw it among the others.
Meanwhile Ishmael had parted with his friends and gone home to the Washington House. He knew that he had had a glorious success; but he took no vain credit to himself; he was only happy that his service had been a free offering to a good cause; and very thankful that it had been crowned with victory. And when he reached home he went up to his little chamber, knelt down in humble grat.i.tude, and rendered all the glory to G.o.d!
CHAPTER LVIII.
HERMAN BRUDENELL
My son! I seem to breathe that word, In utterance more clear Than other words, more slowly round I move my lips, to keep the sound Still lingering in my ear.
For were my lonely life allowed To claim that gifted son, I should be met by straining eyes, Welcoming tears and grateful sighs To hallow my return.
But between me and that dear son There lies a bar, I feel, More hard to pa.s.s, more girt with awe, Than any power of injured law, Or front of bristling steel.
--_Milnes_.
When the carriage containing Judge Merlin, Claudia, Beatrice, and Mr.
Brudenell reached the Washington House the party separated in the hall; the ladies went each to her own chamber to dress for dinner, and Judge Merlin called a servant to show Mr. Brudenell to a spare room, and then went to his own apartment.
When Herman Brudenell had dismissed his attendant and found himself alone he sat down in deep thought.
Since the death of Nora he had been a wanderer over the face of the earth. The revenues of his estate had been mostly paid over to his mother for the benefit of herself and her daughters, yet had scarcely been sufficient for the pride, vanity, and extravagance of those foolish women, who, living in Paris and introduced into court circles by the American minister, aped the style of the wealthiest among the French aristocracy, and indulged in the most expensive establishment, equipage, retinue, dress, jewelry, b.a.l.l.s, etc., in the hope of securing alliances among the old n.o.bility of France.
They might as well have gambled for thrones. The princes, dukes, marquises, and counts drank their wines, ate their dinners, danced at their b.a.l.l.s, kissed their hands, and--laughed at them!
The reason was this: the Misses Brudenell, though well-born, pretty, and accomplished, were not wealthy, and were even suspected of being heavily in debt, because of all this show.
And I would here inform my ambitious American readers who go abroad in search of t.i.tled husbands whom they cannot find at home, that what is going on in Paris then is going on in all the Old World capitals now; and that now, when foreign n.o.blemen marry American girls, it is because the former want money and the latter have it. If there is any exception to this rule, I, for one, never heard of it.
And so the Misses Brudenell, failing to marry into the n.o.bility, were not married at all.
The expenditures of the mother and daughters in this speculation were enormous, so much so that at length Herman Brudenell, reckless as he was, became alarmed at finding himself on the very verge of insolvency!
He had signed so many blank checks, which his mother and sisters had filled up with figures so much higher than he had reckoned upon, that at last his Paris bankers had written to him informing him that his account had been so long and so much overdrawn that they had been obliged to decline cashing his last checks.
It was this that had startled Herman Brudenell out of his lethargy and goaded him to look into his affairs. After examining his account with his Paris banker with very unsatisfactory results, he determined to retrench his own personal expenses, to arrange his estates upon the most productive plan, and to let out Brudenell Hall.
He wrote to the Countess of Hurstmonceux, requesting her to vacate the premises, and to his land-agent instructing him to let the estate.
In due course of time he received answers to both his letters. That of the countess we have already seen; that of the land-agent informing him of the vast improvement of the estate during the residence of the Countess of Hurstmonceux upon it, and of the acc.u.mulation of its revenues, and finally of the large sum placed to his credit in the local bank by her ladyship.
This sum, of course, every sentiment of honor forbade Herman Brudenell from appropriating. He therefore caused it to be withdrawn and deposited with Lady Hurstmonceux"s London bankers.
Soon after this he received notice that Brudenell Hall, stocked and furnished as it was, had been let to Mr. Middleton.
The acc.u.mulated revenues of the estate he devoted to paying his mother"s debts, and the current revenues to her support, warning her at the same time of impending embarra.s.sments unless her expenses were retrenched.