"Neither, sir; I will explain," said Ishmael. And forthwith he told all his plans and prospects, in the fewest possible words.
"And so you are going to Washington, to be Randolph Merlin"s clerk!
Well, Ishmael, as he is a thorough lawyer, though no very brilliant barrister, I do not know that you could be in a better school. Heaven prosper you, my lad! By the way, Ishmael, just before you came in, we were all talking of going to Washington ourselves."
"Indeed! and is there really a prospect of your going?" inquired Ishmael, in pleased surprise.
"Well, yes. You see the judge wishes a chaperone for his daughter this winter, and has invited Mrs. Middleton, and in fact all the family, to come and spend the season with them in Washington. He says that he has taken the old Washington House, which is large enough to accommodate our united families, and ten times as many."
"And you will go?" inquired Ishmael anxiously.
"Well, yes--I think so. You see, this place, so pre-eminently healthy during eight months of the year, is rather too much exposed and too bleak in the depth of winter to suit my wife. She begins to cough already. And as Claudia really does need a matronly friend near her, and as the judge is very anxious for us to come, I think all interests will be best served by our going."
"I hope you will go very soon," said Ishmael.
"In a week or ten days," replied Mr. Middleton.
Ishmael soon after arose and took his leave, for he had a long walk before him, and a momentous interview with Hannah to brave at the end of it.
After tea that evening Ishmael broke the news to Reuben and Hannah. Both were considerably startled and bewildered, for they, no more than the Middletons, had received any previous hint of the young man"s intentions. And now they really did not know whether to congratulate Ishmael on going to seek his fortune or to condole with him for leaving home. Reuben heartily shook hands with Ishmael and said how sorry he should be to part with him, but how glad he was that the young man was going to do something handsome for himself.
Hannah cried heartily, but for the life of her, could not have told whether it was for joy or sorrow. To her apprehension, to go to Washington and be Judge Merlin"s clerk seemed to be one of the greatest honors that any young man could attain; so she was perfectly delighted with that part of the affair. But, on the other hand, Ishmael had been to her like the most affectionate and dearest of sons, and to part with him seemed more than she could bear; so she wept vehemently and clung to her boy.
Reuben sought to console her.
"Never mind, Hannah, woman, never mind. It is the law of nature that the young bird must leave his nest and the young man his home. But never you mind! Washing-town-city aint out"n the world, and any time as you want to see your boy very bad, I"ll just put Dobbin to the wagon and cart you and the young uns up there for a day or two. Law, Hannah, my dear, you never should shed a tear if I could help it. "Cause I feel kind o"
guilty when you cry, Hannah, as if I ought to help it somehow!" said the good fellow.
"As if you could, Reuben! But it is I myself who do wrong to cry for anything when I am blessed with the love of such a heart as yours, Reuben! There, I will not cry any more. Of course, Ishmael must go to the city and make his fortune, and I ought to be glad, and I am glad, only I am sich a fool. Ishmael, my dear, this is Wednesday night, and you say you are going o" Monday morning; so there aint no time to make you no new shirts and things before you go, but I"ll make a lot of "em, my boy, and send "em up to you," said Hannah, wiping her eyes.
Ishmael opened his mouth to reply; but Reuben was before him with:
"So do, Hannah, my dear; that will be one of the best ways of comforting yourself, making up things for the lad; and you shan"t want for money, for the fine linen nyther, Hannah, my dear! And when you have got them all done, you and I can take them up to him when we go to see him! So think of that, and you won"t be fretting after him. And now, childun, it is bedtime!"
On Friday evening Ishmael, in breaking up his school for the Christmas holidays, also took a final leave of his pupils. The young master had so endeared himself to his rough pupils that they grieved sincerely at the separation. The girls wept, and even rude boys sobbed. Our stupid little friend, Eddy, who could not learn grammar, had learned to love his kind young teacher, and at the prospect of parting with him and having the minister for a master roared aloud, saying:
"Master Worth have allers been good to us, so he have; but the minister--he"ll lick us, ever so much!"
Ishmael distributed such parting gifts as his slender purse would afford, and so dismissed his pupils.
On Sunday evening he took leave of his friends, the Middletons, who promised to join him in Washington in the course of a week.
And on Monday morning he took leave of Hannah and Reuben, and walked to Baymouth to meet the Washington steamboat.
CHAPTER L.
CLAUDIA"S CITY HOME.
How beautiful the mansion"s throned Behind its elm tree"s screen, With simple attic cornice crowned All graceful and serene.
--_Anon_.
Just north of the Capitol park, upon a gentle eminence, within its own well-shaded and well-cultivated grounds, stood a fine, old, family mansion that had once been the temporary residence of George Washington.
The house was very large, with many s.p.a.cious rooms and broad pa.s.sages within, and many garden walks and trellised arbors around it.
In front were so many evergreen trees and in the rear was so fine a conservatory of blooming flowers, that even in the depth, of winter it seemed like summer there.
The house was so secluded within its many thick trees and high garden walls that the noise of the city never reached its inmates, though they were within five minutes" walk of the Capitol and ten minutes" drive of the President"s mansion.
Judge Merlin had been very fortunate in securing for the season this delightful home, where he could be within easy reach of his official business and at the same time enjoy the quiet so necessary to his temperament.
That winter he had been appointed one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, and it was very desirable to have so pleasant a dwelling place within such easy reach of the Capitol, where the court was held. At the head of this house his young daughter had been placed as its mistress. She had not yet appeared anywhere in public. She was reserving herself for two events: the arrival of her chaperone and the first evening reception of the President. Her presence in the city was not even certainly known beyond her own domestic circle; though a vague rumor, started no one knew by whom, was afloat, to the effect that Miss Merlin, the young Maryland heiress and beauty, was expected to come out in Washington during the current season.
Meanwhile she remained in seclusion in her father"s house.
It was to this delightful town house, so like the country in its isolation, that Ishmael Worth was invited.
It was just at sunrise on Tuesday morning that the old steamer "Columbia," having Ishmael on board, landed at the Seventh Street wharf, and the young man, destined some future day to fill a high official position in the Federal government, took his humble carpetbag in his hand and entered the Federal city.
Ah! many thousands had entered the National capital before him, and many more thousands would enter it after him, only to complain of it, to carp over it, to laugh at it, for its "magnificent distances," its unfinished buildings, its muddy streets, and its mean dwellings.
But Ishmael entered within its boundaries with feelings of reverence and affection. It was the City of Washington, the sacred heart of the nation.
He had heard it called by shallow-brained and short-sighted people a sublime failure! It was a sublime idea, indeed, he thought, but no failure! Failure? Why, what did those who called it so expect? Did they expect that the great capital of the great Republic should spring into full-grown existence as quickly as a hamlet around a railway station, or village at a steamboat landing? Great ideas require a long time for their complete embodiment. And those who sneered at Washington were as little capable of foreseeing its future as the idlers about the steamboat wharf were of foretelling the fortunes of the modest-looking youth, in country clothes, who stood there gazing thoughtfully upon the city.
"Can you tell me the nearest way to Pennsylvania Avenue?" at length he asked of a bystander.
"Just set your face to the north and follow your nose for about a mile, and you"ll fetch up to the broadest street as ever you see; and that will be it," was the answer.
With this simple direction Ishmael went on until he came to the avenue, which he recognized at once from the description.
The Capitol, throned in majestic grandeur upon the top of its wooded hill at the eastern extremity of the Avenue, and gleaming white in the rays of the morning sun, seeming to preside over the whole scene, next attracted Ishmael"s admiration. As his way lay towards it, he had ample time to contemplate its imposing magnificence and beauty.
As he drew near it, however, he began to throw his eyes around the surrounding country in search of Judge Merlin"s house. He soon identified it--a large old family mansion, standing in a thick grove of trees on a hill just north of the Capitol grounds. He turned to the left, ascended the hill, and soon found himself at the iron gate leading to the grounds.
Here his old acquaintance, Sam, being on duty as porter, admitted him, and, taking him by a winding gravel walk that turned and twisted among groves and parterres, led him up to the house and delivered him into the charge of a black footman, who was at that early hour engaged in opening the doors and windows.
He was the same Jim who used to wait on the table at Tanglewood.
"Good-morning, Mr. Ishmael, sir," he said, advancing in a friendly and respectful manner, to receive the new arrival.
"The judge expected me this morning, Jim?" inquired Ishmael, when he had returned the greeting of the man.
"Oh, yes, sir; and ordered your room got ready for you. The family aint down yet, sir; but I can show you your room," said Jim, taking Ishmael"s carpetbag from him, and leading the way upstairs.
They went up three flights of stairs, to a small front room in the third story, with one window, looking west.