Of the two, the n.o.bleman was least at his ease, for the welcome of both Mr. and Mrs. Halifax, though courteous, was decidedly cold. They did not seem to feel--and, if rumour spoke true, I doubt if any honest, virtuous, middle-cla.s.s fathers and mothers would have felt--that their house was greatly honoured or sanctified by the presence of the Earl of Luxmore.
But the n.o.bleman was, as I have said, wonderfully fine-mannered. He broke the ice at once.
"Mr. Halifax, I have long wished to know you. Mrs. Halifax, my daughter encouraged me to pay this impromptu visit."
Here ensued polite inquiries after Lady Caroline Brithwood; we learned that she was just returned from abroad, and was entertaining, at the Mythe House, her father and brother.
"Pardon--I was forgetting my son--Lord Ravenel."
The youth thus presented merely bowed. He was about eighteen or so, tall and spare, with thin features and large soft eyes. He soon retreated to the garden-door, where he stood, watching the boys play, and shyly attempting to make friends with Muriel.
"I believe Ravenel has seen you years ago, Mrs. Halifax. His sister made a great pet of him as a child. He has just completed his education--at the College of St. Omer, was it not, William?"
"The Catholic college of St. Omer," repeated the boy.
"Tut--what matters!" said the father, sharply. "Mr. Halifax, do not imagine we are a Catholic family still. I hope the next Earl of Luxmore will be able to take the oaths and his seat, whether or no we get Emanc.i.p.ation. By the by, you uphold the Bill?"
John a.s.sented; expressing his conviction, then unhappily a rare one, that every one"s conscience is free; and that all men of blameless life ought to be protected by, and allowed to serve, the state, whatever be their religious opinions.
"Mr. Halifax, I entirely agree with you. A wise man esteems all faiths alike worthless."
"Excuse me, my lord, that was the very last thing I meant to say. I hold every man"s faith so sacred, that no other man has a right to interfere with it, or to question it. The matter lies solely between himself and his Maker."
"Exactly! What facility of expression your husband has, Mrs. Halifax!
He must be--indeed, I have heard he is--a first-rate public speaker."
The wife smiled, wife-like; but John said, hurriedly:
"I have no pretention or ambition of the kind. I merely now and then try to put plain truths, or what I believe to be such, before the people, in a form they are able to understand."
"Ay, that is it. My dear sir, the people have no more brains than the head of my cane (his Royal Highness"s gift, Mrs. Halifax); they must be led or driven, like a flock of sheep. We"--a lordly "we!"--"are their proper shepherds. But, then, we want a middle cla.s.s--at least, an occasional voice from it, a--"
"A shepherd"s dog, to give tongue," said John, dryly. "In short, a public orator. In the House, or out of it?"
"Both." And the earl tapped his boot with that royal cane, smiling.
"Yes; I see you apprehend me. But, before we commence that somewhat delicate subject, there was another on which I desired my agent, Mr.
Brown, to obtain your valuable opinion."
"You mean, when, yesterday, he offered me, by your lordship"s express desire, the lease, lately fallen in, of your cloth-mills at Enderley?"
Now, John had not told us that!--why, his manner too plainly showed.
"And all will be arranged, I trust? Brown says you have long wished to take the mills; I shall be most happy to have you for a tenant."
"My lord, as I told your agent, it is impossible. We will say no more about it."
John crossed over to his wife with a cheerful air. She sat looking grave and sad.
Lord Luxmore had the reputation of being a keen-witted, diplomatic personage; undoubtedly he had, or could a.s.sume, that winning charm of manner which had descended in perfection to his daughter. Both qualities it pleased him to exercise now. He rose, addressing with kindly frankness the husband and wife.
"If I may ask--being a most sincere well-wisher of yours, and a sort of connection of Mrs. Halifax"s, too--why is it impossible?"
"I have no wish to disguise the reason: it is because I have no capital."
Lord Luxmore looked surprised. "Surely--excuse me, but I had the honour of being well acquainted with the late Mr. March--surely, your wife"s fortune--"
Ursula rose, in her old impetuous way--"His wife"s fortune! (John, let me say it!--I will, I must!)--of his wife"s fortune, Lord Luxmore, he has never received one farthing. Richard Brithwood keeps it back; and my husband would work day and night for me and our children rather than go to law."
"Oh! on principle, I suppose? I have heard of such opinions," said the earl, with the slightest perceptible sneer. "And you agree with him?"
"I do, heartily. I would rather we lived poor all our days than that he should wear his life out, trouble his spirit, perhaps even soil his conscience, by squabbling with a bad man over money matters."
It was good to see Ursula as she spoke; good to see the look that husband and his wife interchanged--husband and wife, different in many points, yet so blessedly, so safely ONE! Then John said, in his quiet way,
"Love, perhaps another subject than our own affairs would be more interesting to Lord Luxmore."
"Not at all--not at all!" And the earl was evidently puzzled and annoyed. "Such extraordinary conduct," he muttered: "so very--ahem!--unwise. If the matter were known--caught up by those newspapers--I must really have a little conversation with Brithwood."
The conversation paused, and John changed it entirely by making some remarks on the present minister, Mr. Perceval.
"I liked his last speech much. He seems a clear-headed, honest man, for all his dogged opposition to the Bill."
"He will never oppose it more."
"Nay, I think he will, my lord--to the death."
"That may be--and yet--" his lordship smiled. "Mr. Halifax, I have just had news by a carrier pigeon--my birds fly well--most important news for us and our party. Yesterday, in the lobby of the House of Commons, Mr. Perceval was shot."
We all started. An hour ago we had been reading his speech. Mr.
Perceval shot!
"Oh, John," cried the mother, her eyes full of tears; "his poor wife--his fatherless children!"
And for many minutes they stood, hearing the lamentable history, and looking at their little ones at play in the garden; thinking, as many an English father and mother did that day, of the stately house in London, where the widow and orphans bewailed their dead. He might or might not be a great statesman, but he was undoubtedly a good man; many still remember the shock of his untimely death, and how, whether or not they liked him living, all the honest hearts of England mourned for Mr.
Perceval.
Possibly that number did not include the Earl of Luxmore.
"Requiescat in pace! I shall propose the canonization of poor Bellingham. For now Perceval is dead there will be an immediate election; and on that election depends Catholic Emanc.i.p.ation. Mr.
Halifax," turning quickly round to him, "you would be of great use to us in parliament."
"Should I?"
"Will you--I like plain speaking--will you enter it?"
Enter parliament! John Halifax in parliament! His wife and I were both astounded by the suddenness of the possibility; which, however, John himself seemed to receive as no novel idea.
Lord Luxmore continued. "I a.s.sure you nothing is more easy; I can bring you in at once, for a borough near here--my family borough."