"That is nonsense," said his uncle. "Either _this_ will stand, or _that_, and I am afraid this is the later. April 18th. Was that the time of that absurd practical joke of yours?"
"Too true," said Allen. "You recollect the old brute said I should remember it."
"Witnesses--? There"s Gomez, the servant who was drowned on his way out after his dismissal--Elizabeth Brook--is it--servant.--Who is to find her out?"
"Richards may know."
"It is not our business to hunt up the witnesses. That"s the lookout of the other party," said Bobus impatiently.
"You don"t suppose I mean to contest it?" said his mother. "It is bad enough to go on as we have been doing these eight years. I only want to know what is right and truth, and if this be a real will."
"Where did it come from?" asked the Colonel, coming to the critical question. "Did you say you found it yourself, Caroline?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"In the old bureau."
"What! the one that stood in his study? You don"t say so! I saw Wakefield turn the whole thing out, and look for any secret drawer before I would take any steps; I could have sworn that not the thickness of that sheet of paper escaped us. I should like, if only out of curiosity, to see where it was."
"Just as I said, mother," said Bobus; "there"s no use in trying to blink it to any one who knows the circ.u.mstances."
"You do not insinuate that there was any foul play!" said his uncle hotly.
"I don"t know what else it can be called," said Caroline, faintly; "but please, Robert, and all the rest, don"t expose her. Poor Janet found the thing in the back of the bedside table-drawer, fancied it a mere rough draft, and childlike, put it out of sight in the bureau, where I lighted on it in looking for something else. Surely there is no need to mention her?"
"Not if you do not contest the will," replied the Colonel, who looked thunderstruck; "but if you did, it must all come out to exonerate us, the executors, from shameful carelessness. Well, we shall see what Wakefield says! A severe reverse! a very severe reverse!"
When he found that Bobus meant to go in search of the lawyer that afternoon, he decided on accompanying him. And with a truly amazing burst of intuition, he even suggested carrying off Elvira to spend the day with Essie and Ellie, and even that an invitation might arise to stay all night, or as long as the first suspense lasted. Then muttering to himself, "A severe reverse--a most severe reverse!" he took his leave. Caroline went down stairs with him, as thinking she could the most naturally administer the invitation to Elvira, and the two eldest sons proceeded to make arrangements for the time of meeting and the journey.
"A severe reverse!" said Jock, finding himself alone with the younger ones. "When one has a bitter draught, it is at least a consolation to have labelled it right."
"Shall we be very poor, Jock?" asked Barbara.
"I don"t know what we were called before," he said; "but from what I remember, I fancy we had about what I have been using for my private delectation. Just enough for my mother and you to be jolly upon."
"That"s all you think of!" said Armine.
"All that a man need think of," said Jock; "as long as mother and Babie are comfortable, we can do for ourselves very well."
"Ourselves!" said Armine, bitterly. "And how about this wretched place that we have neglected shamefully all these years!"
"Armine!" cried Jock, indignantly. "Why, you are talking of mother!"
"Mother says so herself."
"You went on raging about it; and, just like her, she did not defend herself. I am sure she has given away loads of money."
"But see what is wanting! The curate, and the school chapel, and the cottages; and if the school is not enlarged, they will have a school board. And what am I to say to Miss Parsons? I promised to bring mother"s answer about the curate this afternoon at latest."
"If she has the sense of a wren, she must know that a cataclysm like Janet"s may account for a few trifling omissions."
"That"s true," said Babie! "She can"t expect it. Do you know, I am rather sorry we are not poorer? I hoped we should have to live in a very small way, and that I should have to work like you--for mother."
"Not like us, for pity"s sake, Infanta!" cried Jock. "We have had enough of that. The great use of you is to look after mother; and keep her from galloping the life out of herself, and this chap from worrying it out of her."
"Jock!" cried Armine, indignantly.
"Yes, you will, if you go on moaning about these fads, and making her blame herself for them. I don"t say we have all done the right thing with this money, I"m sure I have not, and most likely it serves us right to lose it, but to have mother teased about what, after all, was chiefly owing to her absence, is more than I will stand. The one duty in hand is to make the best of it for her. I shall run down again as soon as I hear how this is likely to turn out--for Sunday, perhaps. Keep up a good heart, Babie Bunting, and whatever you do, don"t let him worry mother.
Good-bye, Armie! What"s the use of being good, if you can"t hold up against a thing like this?"
"Jock doesn"t know," said Armine, as the door closed. "Fads indeed!"
"Jock didn"t mean that," pleaded Babie. "You know he did not; dear, good Jock, he could not!"
"Jock is a good fellow, but he lives a frivolous, self-indulgent life, and has got infected with the spirit and the language," said Armine, "or he would understand that myself or my own loss is the very last thing I am troubled about. No, indeed, I should never think of that! It is the ruin of these poor people and all I meant to have done for them. It is very strange that we should only be allowed to waken to a sense of our opportunities to have them taken away from us!"
No one would have expected Armine, always regarded as the most religious of the family, to be the most dismayed, and neither he nor Barbara could detect how much of the spoilt child lay at the bottom of his regrets; but his little sister"s sympathy enabled him to keep from troubling his mother with his lamentations.
Indeed Allen was usually in presence, and n.o.body ever ventured on what might bore Allen. He was in good spirits, believing that the discovery would put an end to all trifling on Elvira"s part, and that he and she would thus together be able to act the beneficent genii of the whole family. Even their mother had a sense of relief. She was very quiet, and moved about softly, like one severely shaken and bruised; but there was a calm in knowing the worst, instead of living in continual vague suspicion.
The Colonel returned with tidings that Mr. Wakefield had no doubt of the validity of the will, though it might be possible to contest it if Elizabeth Brook, the witness, could not be found; but that would involve an investigation as to the manner of the loss, and the discovery. It was, in truth, only a matter of time; and on Monday Mr. Wakefield would come down and begin to take steps. That was the day on which the family were to have gone to London, but Caroline"s heart failed her, and she was much relieved when a kind letter arrived from Mrs. Evelyn, who was sure she could not wish to go into society immediately after Janet"s affair, and offered to receive Elvira for as long as might be convenient, and herself--as indeed had been already arranged--to present her at court with Sydney. It was a great comfort to place her in such hands during the present crisis, all the more that Ellen was not at all delighted with her company for Essie and Ellie. She rushed home on Sat.u.r.day evening to secure Delrio, and superintend her packing up, with her head a great deal too full of court dresses and ball dresses, fancy costumes, and Parisian hats, to detect any of the tokens of a coming revolution, even in her own favour.
Jock too came home that same evening, as gay and merry apparently as ever, and after dinner, claimed his mother for a turn in the garden.
"Has Drake written to you, mother?" he asked. "I met him the other day at Mrs. Lucas"s, and it seems his soul is expanding. He wants to give up the old house--you know the lease is nearly out--and to hang out in a more fashionable quarter."
"Dear old house!"
"Now, mother, here"s my notion. Why should not we hide our diminished heads there? You could keep house while the Monk and I go through the lectures and hospitals, and King"s College might not be too far off for Armine."
"You, Jock, my dear."
"You see, it is a raving impossibility for me to stay where I am."
"I am afraid so; but you might exchange into the line."
"There would be no great good in that. I should have stuck to the Guards because there I am, and I have no opinion of fellows changing about for nothing--and because of Evelyn and some capital fellows besides. But I found out long ago that it had been a stupid thing to go in for. When one has mastered the routine, it is awfully monotonous; and one has nothing to do with one"s time or one"s brains. I have felt many a time that I could keep straight better if I had something tougher to do."
"Tell me, just to satisfy my mind, my dear, you have no debts."
"I don"t owe forty pounds in the world, mother; and I shall not owe that, when I can get my tailor to send in his bill. You have given me as jolly an allowance as any man in the corps, and I"ve always paid my way.
I"ve got no end of things about my rooms, and my horses and cab, but they will turn into money. You see, having done the thing first figure, I should hate to begin in the cheap and nasty style, and I had much rather come home to you, Mother Carey. I"m not too old, you know--not one-and-twenty till August. I shall not come primed like the Monk, but I"ll try to grind up to him, if you"ll let me, mother."
"Oh, Jock, dear Jock!" she cried, "you little know the strength and life it gives me to have you taking it so like a young hero."
"I tell you I"m sick of drill and parade," said Jock, "and heartily glad of an excuse to turn to something where one can stretch one"s wits without being thought a disgrace to humanity. Now, don"t you think we might be very jolly together?"