"I know it, sir."
"Some day it may be different--we can"t tell what may happen, but take care of him for awhile. A n.o.ble young fellow, a good business man in business hours, but not calculated to improve your mercantile abilities by a closer acquaintance."
Sidney Hinchford considered the warning somewhat of a strange one, and even for awhile did his uncle the half-injustice to believe that he spoke more in fear of Maurice "lowering" himself, than on account of his nephew forming expensive acquaintances. But Sid soon found the warning worth attending to. It happened, at times, that Sidney Hinchford had extra work after the bank was closed, and the majority of clerks had departed. His cousin Maurice, who always remained long after his father had gone--he rented apartments in London, whilst his father went off by train every afternoon to Red-Hill--did occasionally, in the early days of their acquaintance, come to Sid"s desk and watch his labours for a few minutes, very intently.
"What are you going to do with yourself to-night, Sidney?"
"I am going home, Mr. Maurice."
"Come and dine with me at my club, and take pity upon my loneliness."
"Thank you--but my father will be expecting me home."
"Oh! the governor can"t expect you, at your age, to be always turning up to five o"clock teas."
"You must excuse me, if you please."
"Well, if you"ll give me one plain answer to the next question, I won"t press it."
"I"ll give it you."
"Isn"t there a young lady your way, as well as the governor?"
"Yes," was the quick answer.
"By Jove! if I didn"t think so. Ah! you"re a gay deceiver, Sidney, after the bank doors have closed upon you."
On another occasion, and under similar circ.u.mstances, he said, in a quick, abrupt way, that almost bordered on embarra.s.sment--
"Has your father any property of his own?"
"No."
"Your salary supports yourself and him entirely?"
"Yes, and leaves something to spare."
Maurice whistled, took up a lead pencil on Sidney"s desk, and began scribbling with it on his finger nails. Suddenly he laid the pencil down, saying--
"Oh! that"s a thundering sight too bad, old fellow!--we"re all Hinchfords, and must alter that. How are you going to marry?--and when?"
"In the usual fashion--and in ten years" time."
"That"s an engagement that will never come to anything, then."
"How do you know?"
"Because long engagements seldom do--and no man, to my fancy, has a right to tie a girl down to such horrible agreements."
"It can"t be helped, Maurice," said Sid, a little sadly.
"I"d start in some business. Are you too proud for trade?"
"I don"t care about retail--selling ha"porths of something across the counter, wearing white ap.r.o.ns, and so on," replied Sidney; "it"s very wrong of me, but it"s the Hinchford pride that bars the way, I suppose."
"Try wholesale on a small scale, as a start--the old tea business, for instance."
"Don"t you think that I am fit for this, Mr. Maurice?"
"Yes, but it takes time to rise, and you mean marrying. Now, to my fancy, you are a man who would do better in commerce."
"Ah! but then there"s capital to sink by way of a beginning."
"I can lend you a thousand pounds--a couple of thousands. I"m a very saving man, Sidney--I"m as certain that you would pay me back again as that I"m standing here."
"You"re very kind," murmured Sidney, taken aback by this liberal offer; "but--but, it can"t be done."
"Borrow it from my father and me--as your bankers, if you will. My father will not say no to it, I fancy--and if he does, why, there"s the other resource just alluded to."
Sidney was still bewildered, and at a loss to account for the offer. For an instant he was even tempted; there rose before him the one chance of his life, the happiness of his life with Harriet, forestalled by years--and then he put his hands out, as though to push all dangerous thoughts away.
"Thank you--thank you--" he said; "but when I speculate, it must be with my own money. I will not start in life burdened by a heavy debt. You"re very kind--far too kind to me, sir."
"A Hinchford--I never forget that. You don"t know how proud I am of my family, and all its belongings. And, joking apart, Sidney, we really are a fine family, every one of us! And you"ll not--well, subject postponed, _sine die_; the bank isn"t such a bad place, and we shall give a lift to your salary when you deserve it. Not before, mind," he added, with a seriousness that made Sidney smile, who remembered the anecdote related by the senior partner.
Sidney Hinchford was touched by his rich cousin"s efforts to promote his interests, by his frankness, his _bonhomie_. Though he held himself aloof from him, yet he respected, even admired him. There was not a man in the banking-office who did not admire Mr. Maurice Hinchford; he had a good word for even the porter; he treated his servants liberally; he was always ready to promote their interests; the cares of money-making, and taking care of other people"s money, had never soured his temper, or brought a dark look to his face.
This was the father"s anxiety, that Maurice was too easy--that nothing put him out of temper, or chased away the smiles from his good-looking countenance; the banker was glad to see his son happy, but he did wish now and then that Maurice had looked at life less frivolously, and been more staid and sober in his ways. The banker was glad to see him generous--although, if the fit seized him, Maurice was a trifle too liberal with his cheques, for natural wants, bequests, and monuments; but he was not a spendthrift, and even put money by, from the princely share of the profits which he received twice a year.
Certainly it would have been difficult for a single man to run through it without sheer gambling at green tables, or on green turfs; and Maurice Hinchford never betted on the red and black, and hated horsy people. He spent all the money a man _could_ honestly get through; he fared sumptuously every day, and dressed figuratively in purple and fine linen; it was his boast that he had the best of everything around him, and anything second-rate had been his abomination from a child; he was a Sybarite, to whom luck had been wafted, and he enjoyed life, and cared not for the morrow, on the true Sybarite principle. But he was not a proud man; he was fastidious in a few things--young ladies of his circle generally, and the mothers of those young ladies especially, thought him _much_ too fastidious--but he was a man whom men and women of all cla.s.ses liked, and whom his servants idolized.
It was no wonder that his pleasant manners had their effect upon Sidney, who had found few of his own s.e.x to admire in the world, and who knew that the man of whose energy everyone spoke well was of his own kith and kin. He held himself aloof, knowing that his ways were not Maurice"s ways. When the rich cousin once asked why he so rigidly refused every offer to join him at his club, to make one of a little party at the opera, sharing his box with him, and put to no expense save a dress-coat and white choker, he confessed the reason in his old straightforward manner.
"You"re too well-off for me--I can"t be your companion, and I"ll not be patronized and play the toady. It looks bad in business here, and it will look worse apart from it."
"You"re a regular stoic!"
After awhile Mr. Geoffry Hinchford again asked his nephew what he thought of Maurice.
"A warm-hearted and a generous man, whom I am proud to think is a cousin of mine."
"Yes--just as you say. And very proud I am, too, to think that this dashing handsome young fellow is a son of mine. He has all the virtues except one, under heaven, Sidney."
"We"re not all perfect, sir," said Sidney, laughing.
"Oh! but you are, according to my brother James--he won"t see even a flaw in your armour," said the old banker, acrimoniously; "but then he always was aggravating me with something or other--and now it"s you."
"I hope not, sir."