"I am sorry that I should be in your way, John."
"You are not in my way, as I think you know. Let us say no more than that at present. Then I had a singular old Quaker, named Zachary Fay, an earnest, honest, but humble man, who blew me up instantly for talking slang."
"Where did you pick him up?"
"He comes out of the City," he said, not wishing to refer again to Paradise Row and the neighbourhood of the Rodens,--"and he brought his daughter."
"A young lady?"
"Certainly a young lady."
"Ah, but young,--and beautiful?"
"Young,--and beautiful."
"Now you are laughing. I suppose she is some strong-minded, rather repulsive, middle-aged woman."
"As to the strength of her mind, I have not seen enough to const.i.tute myself a judge," said Hampstead, almost with a tone of offence. "Why you should imagine her to be repulsive because she is a Quaker, or why middle-aged, I do not understand. She is not repulsive to me."
"Oh, John, I am so sorry! Now I know that you have found some divine beauty."
"We sometimes entertain angels unawares. I thought that I had done so when she took her departure."
"Are you in earnest?"
"I am quite in earnest as to the angel. Now I have to consult you as to a project." It may be remembered that Hampstead had spoken to his father as to the expediency of giving up his horses if he found that his means were not sufficient to keep up Hendon Hall, his yacht, and his hunting establishment in Northamptonshire. The Marquis, without saying a word to his son, had settled that matter, and Gorse Hall, with its stables, was continued. The proposition now made to Lady Frances was that she should go down with him and remain there for a week or two till she should find the place too dull. He had intended to fix an almost immediate day; but now he was debarred from this by his determination to see Marion yet once again before he took himself altogether beyond the reach of Holloway. The plan, therefore, though it was fixed as far as his own intention went and the a.s.sent of Lady Frances, was left undefined as to time. The more he thought of Holloway, and the difficulties of approaching Paradise Row, the more convinced he became that his only mode of approaching Marion must be through Mrs. Roden. He had taken two or three days to consider what would be the most appropriate manner of going through this operation, when on a sudden he was arrested by a letter from his father, begging his presence down at Trafford. The Marquis was ill, and was anxious to see his son. The letter in which the request was made was sad and plaintive throughout. He was hardly able to write, Lord Kingsbury said, because he was so unwell; but he had no one to write for him.
Mr. Greenwood had made himself so disagreeable that he could no longer employ him for such purposes. "Your stepmother is causing me much vexation, which I do not think that I deserve from her." He then added that it would be necessary for him to have his lawyer down at Trafford, but that he wished to see Hampstead first in order that they might settle as to certain arrangements which were required in regard to the disposition of the property. There were some things which Hampstead could not fail to perceive from this letter. He was sure that his father was alarmed as to his own condition, or he would not have thought of sending for the lawyer to Trafford. He had hitherto always been glad to seize an opportunity of running up to London when any matter of business had seemed to justify the journey.
Then it occurred to his son that his father had rarely or ever spoken or written to him of his "stepmother." In certain moods the Marquis had been wont to call his wife either the Marchioness or Lady Kingsbury. When in good humour he had generally spoken of her to his son as "your mother." The injurious though strictly legal name now given to her was a certain index of abiding wrath. But things must have been very bad with the Marquis at Trafford when he had utterly discarded the services of Mr. Greenwood,--services to which he had been used for a time to which the memory of his son did not go back.
Hampstead of course obeyed his father"s injunctions, and went down to Trafford instantly, leaving his sister alone at Hendon Hall. He found the Marquis not in bed indeed, but confined to his own sitting-room, and to a very small bed-chamber which had been fitted up for him close to it. Mr. Greenwood had been anxious to give up his own rooms as being more s.p.a.cious; but the offer had been peremptorily and almost indignantly refused. The Marquis had been unwilling to accept anything like a courtesy from Mr. Greenwood. Should he make up his mind to turn Mr. Greenwood out of the house,--and he had almost made up his mind to do so,--then he could do what he pleased with Mr.
Greenwood"s rooms. But he wasn"t going to accept the loan of chambers in his own house as a favour from Mr. Greenwood.
Hampstead on arriving at the house saw the Marchioness for a moment before he went to his father. "I cannot tell how he is," said Lady Kingsbury, speaking in evident dudgeon. "He will hardly let me go near him. Doctor Spicer seems to think that we need not be alarmed.
He shuts himself up in those gloomy rooms down-stairs. Of course it would be better for him to be off the ground floor, where he would have more light and air. But he has become so obstinate, that I do not know how to deal with him."
"He has always liked to live in the room next to Mr. Greenwood"s."
"He has taken an absolute hatred to Mr. Greenwood. You had better not mention the poor old gentleman"s name to him. Shut up as I am here, I have no one else to speak a word to, and for that reason, I suppose, he wishes to get rid of him. He is absolutely talking of sending the man away after having had him with him for nearly thirty years."
In answer to all this Hampstead said almost nothing. He knew his stepmother, and was aware that he could do no service by telling her what he might find it to be his duty to say to his father as to Mr. Greenwood, or on any other subject. He did not hate his stepmother,--as she hated him. But he regarded her as one to whom it was quite useless to speak seriously as to the affairs of the family.
He knew her to be prejudiced, ignorant, and falsely proud,--but he did not suppose her to be either wicked or cruel.
His father began almost instantly about Mr. Greenwood, so that it would have been quite impossible for him to follow Lady Kingsbury"s advice on that matter had he been ever so well minded. "Of course I"m ill," he said; "I suffer so much from sickness and dyspepsia that I can eat nothing. Doctor Spicer seems to think that I should get better if I did not worry myself; but there are so many things to worry me. The conduct of that man is abominable."
"What man, sir?" asked Hampstead,--who knew, however, very well what was coming.
"That clergyman," said Lord Kingsbury, pointing in the direction of Mr. Greenwood"s room.
"He does not come to you, sir, unless you send for him?"
"I haven"t seen him for the last five days, and I don"t care if I never see him again."
"How has he offended you, sir?"
"I gave him my express injunctions that he should not speak of your sister either to me or the Marchioness. He gave me his solemn promise, and I know very well that they are talking about her every hour of the day."
"Perhaps that is not his fault."
"Yes, it is. A man needn"t talk to a woman unless he likes. It is downright impudence on his part. Your stepmother comes to me every day, and never leaves me without abusing f.a.n.n.y."
"That is why I thought it better that f.a.n.n.y should come to me."
"And then, when I argue with her, she always tells me what Mr.
Greenwood says about it. Who cares about Mr. Greenwood? What business has Mr. Greenwood to interfere in my family? He does not know how to behave himself, and he shall go."
"He has been here a great many years, sir," said Hampstead, pleading for the old man.
"Too many," said the Marquis. "When you"ve had a man about you so long as that, he is sure to take liberties."
"You must provide for him, sir, if he goes."
"I have thought of that. He must have something, of course. He has had three hundred a-year for the last ten years, and has had everything found for him down to his washing and his cab fares. For five-and-twenty years he has never paid for a bed or a meal out of his own pocket. What has he done with his money? He ought to be a rich man for his degree."
"What a man does with his money is, I suppose, no concern to those who pay it. It is supposed to have been earned, and there is an end of it as far as they are concerned."
"He shall have a thousand pounds," said the Marquis.
"That would hardly be liberal. I would think twice before I dismissed him, sir."
"I have thought a dozen times."
"I would let him remain," said Hampstead, "if only because he"s a comfort to Lady Kingsbury. What does it matter though he does talk of f.a.n.n.y? Were he to go she would talk to somebody else who might be perhaps less fit to hear her, and he would, of course, talk to everybody."
"Why has he not obeyed me?" demanded the Marquis, angrily. "It is I who have employed him. I have been his patron, and now he turns against me." Thus the Marquis went on till his strength would not suffice for any further talking. Hampstead found himself quite unable to bring him to any other subject on that day. He was sore with the injury done him in that he was not allowed to be the master in his own house.
On the next morning Hampstead heard from Dr. Spicer that his father was in a state of health very far from satisfactory. The doctor recommended that he should be taken away from Trafford, and at last went so far as to say that his advice extended to separating his patient from Lady Kingsbury. "It is, of course, a very disagreeable subject," said the doctor, "for a medical man to meddle with; but, my lord, the truth is that Lady Kingsbury frets him. I don"t, of course, care to hear what it is, but there is something wrong."
Lord Hampstead, who knew very well what it was, did not attempt to contradict him. When, however, he spoke to his father of the expediency of change of air, the Marquis told him that he would rather die at Trafford than elsewhere.
That his father was really thinking of his death was only too apparent from all that was said and done. As to those matters of business, they were soon settled between them. There was, at any rate, that comfort to the poor man that there was no probability of any difference between him and his heir as to the property or as to money. Half-an-hour settled all that. Then came the time which had been arranged for Hampstead"s return to his sister. But before he went there were conversations between him and Mr. Greenwood, between him and his stepmother, and between him and his father, to which, for the sake of our story, it may be as well to refer.
"I think your father is ill-treating me," said Mr. Greenwood. Mr.
Greenwood had allowed himself to be talked into a thorough contempt and dislike for the young lord; so that he had almost brought himself to believe in those predictions as to the young lord"s death in which Lady Kingsbury was always indulging. As a consequence of this, he now spoke in a voice very different from those obsequious tones which he had before been accustomed to use when he had regarded Lord Hampstead as his young patron.
"I am sure my father would never do that," said Hampstead, angrily.
"It looks very like it. I have devoted all the best of my life to his service, and he now talks of dismissing me as though I were no better than a servant."
"Whatever he does, he will, I am sure, have adequate cause for doing."
"I have done nothing but my duty. It is out of the question that a man in my position should submit to orders as to what he is to talk about and what not. It is natural that Lady Kingsbury should come to me in her troubles."