"I thought you would, now that your friend, Isobel, who did you so much harm with her bad influence, has departed to Mexico, where, I have no doubt, she has forgotten all about you. You won"t be able to run after her money as you did after Miss Ogilvy"s," replied Mr. Knight with another sneer.
"You insult me," said G.o.dfrey. "It is a lie that I ran after Miss Ogilvy"s money, and I will never forgive you for saying such a thing of me in connection with Isobel," and turning he left the room.
So did his father, for G.o.dfrey heard him go to his study and lock the door, doubtless as a sign and a token.
Then G.o.dfrey sought out Mrs. Parsons and told her everything. The old woman was much disturbed, and wept.
"I have been thinking of late, Master G.o.dfrey," she said, "that your father"s heart is made of that kind of stone which h.e.l.l is paved with, only with the good intentions left out--it"s that hard. Here you are come back as fine a young man as a body can wish to see, of whom his begetter might well be proud, though, for the matter of that, there is precious little of him in you--and he shuts the door in your face just because you won"t be a parson and have come into fortune--that"s what rankles. I say that your mother, if she was a fool when she married him, was a wise woman when she died. Parson or not, he will never go where she is. Well, it"s sad, but you"ll be well out of this cold house, where there"s so much praying but not a spark of love."
"I think so," said G.o.dfrey with a sigh.
"I think so, too, for myself, I mean. But, look here, my boy, I only stopped on looking after this dratted pack of young gentlemen because you were coming home again. But, as you ain"t, I"m out of it; yes, when the door shuts on you I give my month"s notice, which perhaps will mean that I leave to-morrow, for he won"t be able to abide the sight of me after that."
"But how will you live, Nurse, till I can help you?"
"Lord bless you, dear, that"s all right. I"ve been a careful woman all my life, and have hard on 500 put away in the Savings Bank, to say nothing of a bit of Stock. Also, my old brother, who was a builder, died last year and left me with a nice little house down in Hampstead, which he built to live in himself, but never did, poor man, bit by bit when he was short of business, very comfortable and in a good neighbourhood, with first-rate furniture and real silver plate, to say nothing of some more Stock, yes, for 1,000 or more. I let it furnished by the month, but the tenant is going away, so I shall just move into it myself, and perhaps take in a lodger or two to keep me from being idle."
"That"s capital!" said G.o.dfrey, delighted.
"Yes, and I tell you what would be capitaller. Mayhap you will have to live in London for a bit, and, if so, you are just the kind of lodger I should like, and I don"t think we should quarrel about terms. I"ll write you down the address of that house, the Grove as it is called, though why, I don"t know, seeing there isn"t a tree within half a mile, which I don"t mind, as there are too many about here, making so much damp. And you"ll write and let me know what you are going to do, won"t you?"
"Of course I will."
"And now, look here. Likely you will want a little money till you square up things with your trustee people that the master hates so much."
"Well, I had forgotten it, but, as a matter of fact, I have only ten shillings left, and that isn"t much when one is going to London,"
confessed G.o.dfrey.
"I thought so; you never were one to think much of such things, and so it"s probable that you"ll get plenty of them, for it"s what we care about we are starved in, just to make it hot for us poor humans. Take your father, for instance; he loves power, he does; he"d like to be a bishop of the old Roman sort what could torture people who didn"t agree with them. And what is he? The parson of a potty parish of a couple of hundred people, counting the babies and the softies, and half of them Dissenters or Salvation Army. Moreover, they can"t be bullied, because if they were they"d just walk into the next chapel door. Of course, there"s the young gentlemen, and he takes it out of them, but, Lord bless us! that"s like kicking a wool sack, of which any man of spirit soon gets tired. So, you see, he is sick-hearted, and will be more so now that you have stood up to him; and, in this way or that, it"s the same with everyone, none of us gets what we want, while of what we don"t want there"s always plenty."
While the old lady held forth thus in her little room which, although she did not know it, had once been the penitential cell of the Abbey, wherein for hundreds of years many unhappy ones had reflected in a very similar vein, she was engaged in trying key after key upon a stout oak chest. It was part of the ancient furniture of the place, that indeed in former days had served as the receptacle for hair shirts, scourges and other physical inducements to repentance and piety.
Now it had a different purpose and held Mrs. Parsons" best dresses, also, in a bandbox, an ornament preserved from her wedding-cake, for once in the far past she was married to a sailor, a very great black-guard, who came to his end by tumbling from a gangway when he was drunk. Among these articles was a tin tea-canister which, when opened, proved to be full of money; gold, silver and even humble copper, to say nothing of several banknotes.
"Now, there you are, my dear, take what you like," she said, "and pay it back if you wish, but if you don"t, it might have been worse spent."
And she pushed the receptacle, labelled "Imperial Pekoe," towards him across the table, adding, "Drat those moths! There"s another on my best silk."
G.o.dfrey burst out laughing and enjoyed that laugh, for it was his first happy moment since his return to England.
"Give me what you like," he said.
So she extracted from the tea-tin a five-pound note, four sovereigns and a pound"s worth of silver and copper.
"There," she said, "that will do to begin with, for too much money in the pocket is a temptation in a wicked place like London, where there"s always someone waiting to share it. If it"s wanted there"s more where that came from, and you"ve only to write and say so. And now you have got the address and you"ve got the cash, and if you want to catch that last train it"s time you were off. If I took the same to-morrow night, why, it wouldn"t surprise me, especially as I want to hear all you"ve been a-doing in those foreign parts, tumbling over precipices and the rest. So good-bye, my dear, and G.o.d bless you. Lord! it seems only the other day that I was giving you your bottle."
Then they kissed each other and, having retrieved his alpenstock from the stick-house, G.o.dfrey trudged back to the station, where he picked up his luggage and departed for London. Arriving at Liverpool Street rather late, he went to the Great Eastern Hotel, and after a good meal, which he needed, slept like a top. His reception in England had been bitter, but the young soon shake off their troubles, from which, indeed, the loving kindness of his dear old nurse already had extracted the sting.
On the following morning, while breakfasting at a little table by one of the pillars of the big dining-room, he began to wonder what he should do next. In his pocket he had a notebook, in which, at the suggestion of the Pasteur, he had set down the address of the lawyers who had written to him about his legacy. It was in a place called the Poultry, which, on inquiry from the hall-porter, he discovered was quite close by the Mansion House.
So a while later, for the porter told him that it was no use to go to see lawyers too early, he sallied forth, and after much search discovered the queer spot called the Poultry, also the offices of Messrs. Ranson, Richards and Son. Here he gave his name to a clerk, who thrust a very oily head out of a kind of mahogany box, and was told that Mr. Ranson was engaged, but that, if he cared to wait, perhaps he would see him later on. He said he would wait, and was shown into a stuffy little room, furnished with ancient deed-boxes and a very large, old leather-covered sofa that took up half the place. Here he sat for a while, staring at a square of dirty gla.s.s which gave what light was available, and reflecting upon things in general.
While he was thus engaged he heard a kind of tumult outside, in which he recognised the treble of the oily-headed clerk coming in a bad second to a deep, ba.s.s voice. Then the door opened and a big, burly man, with a red face and a jovial, rolling eye, appeared with startling suddenness and e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed:
"d.a.m.n Ranson, d.a.m.n Richards, or d.a.m.n them both, with the Son thrown in!
I ask you, young man"--here he addressed G.o.dfrey seated on the corner of the sofa--"what is the use of a firm of lawyers whom you can never see? You pay the brutes, but three times out of four they are not visible, or, as I suspect, pretend not to be, in order to enhance their own importance. And I sent them a telegram, too, having a train to catch. What do you think?"
"I don"t know, Sir," G.o.dfrey answered. "I never came to a lawyer"s office before, and I hope I shan"t again if this is the kind of room they put one into."
"Room!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the irate gentleman, "call it a dog kennel, call it a cesspool, for, by heaven, it smells like one, but in the interests of truth, young man, don"t call it a room."
"Now that you mention it, there is a queer odour. Perhaps a dead rat under the floor," suggested G.o.dfrey.
"Twenty dead rats, probably, since I imagine that this hole has not been cleaned since the time of George II. We are martyrs in this world, Sir. I come here to attend to the affairs of some whippersnapper whom I never saw and never want to see, just because Helen Ogilvy, who was my first cousin, chooses to make me a trustee of her confounded will, in which she leaves money to the confounded whippersnapper, G.o.d knows why.
This whippersnapper has a father, a parson, who can write the most offensive letters imaginable. I received one of them this morning, accusing the whippersnapper of all sorts of vague things, and me and my fellow trustee, who is at present enjoying himself travelling, of abetting him. I repeat, d.a.m.n Ranson, Richards and Son; d.a.m.n the parson, d.a.m.n Helen--no, I won"t say that, for she is dead--and especially d.a.m.n the whippersnapper. Don"t you agree with me?"
"Not quite, Sir," said G.o.dfrey. "I don"t mind about Ranson, Richards and Son, or anybody else, but I don"t quite see why you should d.a.m.n me, who, I am sure, never wished to give you any trouble."
"You! And who the Hades may you be?"
"I am G.o.dfrey Knight, and I suppose that you are my trustee, or one of them."
"G.o.dfrey Knight, the young man whose father gives us so much trouble, all at our own expense, I may remark. Well, after hearing so much of you on paper, I"m deuced glad to meet you in the flesh. Come into the light, if you can call it light, and let me have a look at you."
G.o.dfrey stepped beneath the dirty pane and was contemplated through an eyegla.s.s by this breezy old gentleman, who exclaimed presently:
"You"re all right, I think; a fine figure of a young man, not bad looking, either, but you want drilling. Why the devil don"t you go into the army?"
"I don"t know," answered G.o.dfrey, "never thought of it. Are you in the army, Sir?"
"No, not now, though I was. Commanded my regiment for five years, and then kicked out with the courtesy t.i.tle of Major-General. Cubitte is my name, spelt with two "t"s" and an "e," please, and don"t you forget that, since that "e" has been a point of honour with our family for a hundred years, the Lord knows why. Well, there we are. Do you smoke?"
"Only a pipe," said G.o.dfrey.
"That"s right; I hate those accursed cigarettes, still they are better than nothing. Now sit down and tell me all about yourself."
G.o.dfrey obeyed, and somehow feeling at ease with this choleric old General, in the course of the next twenty minutes explained many things to him, including the cause of his appearance in that office.
"So you don"t want to be a parson," said the General, "and with your father"s example before your eyes, I am sure I don"t wonder. However, you are independent of him more or less, and had better cut out a line for yourself. We will back you. What do you say to the army?"
"I think I should rather like that," answered G.o.dfrey. "Only, only, I want to get out of England as soon as possible."
"And quite right, too--accursed hole, full of fog and politicians. But that"s not difficult with India waiting for you. I"m an Indian cavalry officer myself, and could put you up to the ropes and give you a hand afterwards, perhaps, if you show yourself of the right stuff, as I think you will. But, of course, you will have to go to Sandhurst, pa.s.s an entrance examination, and so forth. Can you manage that?"
"Yes, Sir, I think so, with a little preparation. I know a good deal of one sort or another, including French."
"All right, three months" cramming at Sc.o.o.nes" or Wren"s, will do the trick. And now I suppose you want some money?"
G.o.dfrey explained that he did, having only 10 which he had borrowed from his old nurse.