"Ah, how well I remember that poor old fellow--old John Boyce," said Lord Maxwell, slowly, shaking his stately white head over it, as he leant talking and musing against the mantelpiece. "I saw him the day he came back from the attempt to hush up the company business. I met him in the road, and could not help pulling up to speak to him. I was so sorry for him. We had been friends for many years, he and I. "Oh, good G.o.d!"
he said, when he saw me. "Don"t stop me--don"t speak to me!" And he lashed his horse up--as white as a sheet--fat, fresh-coloured man that he was in general--and was off. I never saw him again till after his death. First came the trial, and d.i.c.k Boyce got three months"
imprisonment, on a minor count, while several others of the precious lot he was mixed up with came in for penal servitude. There was some technical flaw in the evidence with regard to him, and the clever lawyers they put on made the most of it; but we all thought, and society thought, that d.i.c.k was morally as bad as any of them. Then the papers got hold of the gambling debts and the woman. She made a disturbance at his club, I believe, during the trial, while he was out on bail--anyway it all came out. Two or three other people were implicated in the gambling business--men of good family. Altogether it was one of the biggest scandals I remember in my time."
The old man paused, the long frowning face sternly set. Aldous gazed at him in silence. It was certainly pretty bad--worse than he had thought.
"And the wife and child?" he said presently.
"Oh, poor things!"--said Lord Maxwell, forgetting everything for the moment but his story--"when Boyce"s imprisonment was up they disappeared with him. His const.i.tuents held indignation meetings, of course. He gave up his seat, and his father allowed him a small fixed income--she had besides some little money of her own--which was secured him afterwards, I believe, on the estate during his brother"s lifetime. Some of her people would have gladly persuaded her to leave him, for his behaviour towards her had been particularly odious,--and they were afraid, too, I think, that he might come to worse grief yet and make her life unbearable. But she wouldn"t. And she would have no sympathy and no talk. I never saw her after the first year of their marriage, when she was a most radiant and beautiful creature. But, by all accounts of her behaviour at the time, she must be a remarkable woman. One of her family told me that she broke with all of them. She would know n.o.body who would not know him. Nor would she take money, though they were wretchedly poor; and d.i.c.k Boyce was not squeamish. She went off to little lodgings in the country or abroad with him without a word. At the same time, it was plain that her life was withered. She could make one great effort; but, according to my informant, she had no energy left for anything else--not even to take interest in her little girl--"
Aldous made a movement.
"Suppose we talk about her?" he said rather shortly.
Lord Maxwell started and recollected himself. After a pause he said, looking down under his spectacles at his grandson with an expression in which discomfort strove with humour--
"I see. You think we are beating about the bush. Perhaps we are. It is the difference between being old and being young, Aldous, my boy.
Well--now then--for Miss Boyce. How much have you seen of her?--how deep has it gone? You can"t wonder that I am knocked over. To bring that man amongst us! Why, the hound!" cried the old man, suddenly, "we could not even get him to come and see his father when he was dying. John had lost his memory mostly--had forgotten, anyway, to be angry--and just _craved_ for d.i.c.k, for the only creature he had ever loved. With great difficulty I traced the man, and tried my utmost. No good! He came when his father no longer knew him, an hour before the end. His nerves, I understood, were delicate--not so delicate, however, as to prevent his being present at the reading of the will! I have never forgiven him that cruelty to the old man, and never will!"
And Lord Maxwell began to pace the library again, by way of working off memory and indignation.
Aldous watched him rather gloomily. They had now been discussing Boyce"s criminalities in great detail for a considerable time, and nothing else seemed to have any power to touch--or, at any rate, to hold--Lord Maxwell"s attention. A certain deep pride in Aldous--the pride of intimate affection--felt itself wounded.
"I see that you have grave cause to think badly of her father," he said at last, rising as he spoke. "I must think how it concerns me. And to-morrow you must let me tell you something about her. After all, she has done none of these things. But I ought not to keep you up like this.
You will remember Clarke was very emphatic about your not exhausting yourself at night, last time he was here."
Lord Maxwell turned and stared.
"Why--why, what is the matter with you, Aldous? Offended?
Well--well--There--I _am_ an old fool!"
And, walking up to his grandson, he laid an affectionate and rather shaking hand on the younger"s shoulder.
"You have a great charge upon you, Aldous--a charge for the future. It has upset me--I shall be calmer to-morrow. But as to any quarrel between us! Are you a youth, or am I a three-tailed bashaw? As to money, you know, I care nothing. But it goes against me, my boy, it goes against me, that _your_ wife should bring such a story as that with her into this house!"
"I understand," said Aldous, wincing. "But you must see her, grandfather. Only, let me say it again--don"t for one moment take it for granted that she will marry me. I never saw any one so free, so unspoilt, so unconventional."
His eyes glowed with the pleasure of remembering her looks, her tones.
Lord Maxwell withdrew his hand and shook his head slowly.
"You have a great deal to offer. No woman, unless she were either foolish or totally unexperienced, could overlook that. Is she about twenty?"
"About twenty."
Lord Maxwell waited a moment, then, bending over the fire, shrugged his shoulders in mock despair.
"It is evident you are out of love with me, Aldous. Why, I don"t know yet whether she is dark or fair!"
The conversation jarred on both sides. Aldous made an effort.
"She is very dark," he said; "like her mother in many ways, only quite different in colour. To me she seems the most beautiful--the only beautiful woman I have ever seen. I should think she was very clever in some ways--and very unformed--childish almost--in others. The Hardens say she has done everything she could--of course it isn"t much--for that miserable village in the time she has been there. Oh! by the way, she is a Socialist. She thinks that all we landowners should be done away with."
Aldous looked round at his grandfather, so soon probably to be one of the lights of a Tory Cabinet, and laughed. So, to his relief, did Lord Maxwell.
"Well, don"t let her fall into young Wharton"s clutches, Aldous, or he will be setting her to canvas. So, she is beautiful and she is clever--and _good_, my boy? If she comes here, she will have to fill your mother"s and your grandmother"s place."
Aldous tried to reply once or twice, but failed.
"If I did not feel that she were everything in herself to be loved and respected"--he said at last with some formality--"I should not long, as I do, to bring you and her together."
Silence fell again. But instinctively Aldous felt that his grandfather"s mood had grown gentler--his own task easier. He seized on the moment at once.
"In the whole business," he said, half smiling, "there is only one thing clear, grandfather, and that is, that, if you will, you can do me a great service with Miss Boyce."
Lord Maxwell turned quickly and was all sharp attention, the keen commanding eyes under their fine brows absorbing, as it were, expression and life from the rest of the blanched and wrinkled face.
"You could, if you would, make matters easy for her and her mother in the county," said Aldous, anxious to carry it off lightly. "You could, if you would, without committing yourself to any personal contact with Boyce himself, make it possible for me to bring her here, so that you and my aunt might see her and judge."
The old man"s expression darkened.
"What, take back that note, Aldous! I never wrote anything with greater satisfaction in my life!"
"Well,--more or less," said Aldous, quietly. "A very little would do it.
A man in Richard Boyce"s position will naturally not claim very much--will take what he can get."
"And you mean besides," said his grandfather, interrupting him, "that I must send your aunt to call?"
"It will hardly be possible to ask Miss Boyce here unless she does!"
said Aldous.
"And you reckon that I am not likely to go to Mellor, even to see her?
And you want me to say a word to other people--to the Winterbournes and the Levens, for instance?"
"Precisely," said Aldous.
Lord Maxwell meditated; then rose.
"Let me now appease the memory of Clarke by going to bed!" (Clarke was his lordship"s medical attendant and autocrat.) "I must sleep upon this, Aldous."
"I only hope I shall not have tired you out."
Aldous moved to extinguish a lamp standing on a table near.
Suddenly his grandfather called him.
"Aldous!"
"Yes."