"Oh, no quarrel. I forgot Mr. Dale; I saw him pretty often. He admires and praises you very much, sir."
"Me--and why? What did he say of me?"
"That your heart was as sound as your head; that he had once seen you about some old parishioners of his, and that he had been much impressed with the depth of feeling he could not have antic.i.p.ated in a man of the world, and a statesman."
"Oh, that was all; some affair when I was member for Lansmere?"
"I suppose so."
Here the conversation had broken off; but the next time Randal was led to visit the squire he had formally asked Egerton"s consent, who, after a moment"s hesitation, had as formally replied, "I have no objection."
On returning from this visit, Randal mentioned that he had seen Riccabocca: and Egerton, a little startled at first, said composedly, "Doubtless one of the political refugees; take care not to set Madame di Negra on his track. Remember, she is suspected of being a spy of the Austrian government."
"Rely on me, sir," said Randal; "but I should think this poor doctor can scarcely be the person she seeks to discover."
"That is no affair of ours," answered Egerton: "we are English gentlemen, and make not a step towards the secrets of another."
Now, when Randal revolved this rather ambiguous answer, and recalled the uneasiness with which Egerton had first heard of his visit to Hazeldean, he thought that he was indeed near the secret which Egerton desired to conceal from him and from all,--namely, the incognito of the Italian whom Lord L"Estrange had taken under his protection.
"My cards," said Randal to himself, as with a deep-drawn sigh he resumed his soliloquy, "are become difficult to play. On the one hand, to entangle Frank into marriage with this foreigner, the squire could never forgive him. On the other hand, if she will not marry him without the dowry--and that depends on her brother"s wedding this countrywoman--and that countrywoman be, as I surmise, Violante, and Violante be this heiress, and to be won by me! Tush, tush. Such delicate scruples in a woman so placed and so const.i.tuted as Beatrice di Negra must be easily talked away. Nay, the loss itself of this alliance to her brother, the loss of her own dowry, the very pressure of poverty and debt, would compel her into the sole escape left to her option. I will then follow up the old plan; I will go down to Hazeldean, and see if there be any substance in the new one; and then to reconcile both. Aha--the House of Leslie shall rise yet from its ruin--and--"
Here he was startled from his revery by a friendly slap on the shoulder, and an exclamation, "Why, Randal, you are more absent than when you used to steal away from the cricket-ground, muttering Greek verses, at Eton."
"My dear Frank," said Randal, "you--you are so brusque, and I was just thinking of you."
"Were you? And kindly, then, I am sure," said Frank Hazeldean, his honest handsome face lighted up with the unsuspecting genial trust of friendship; "and Heaven knows," he added, with a sadder voice, and a graver expression on his eye and lip,--"Heaven knows I want all the kindness you can give me!"
"I thought," said Randal, "that your father"s last supply, of which I was fortunate enough to be the bearer, would clear off your more pressing debts. I don"t pretend to preach, but really, I must say once more, you should not be so extravagant."
FRANK (seriously).--"I have done my best to reform. I have sold off my horses, and I have not touched dice nor card these six months; I would not even put into the raffle for the last Derby." This last was said with the air of a man who doubted the possibility of obtaining belief to some a.s.sertion of preternatural abstinence and virtue.
RANDAL.--"Is it possible? But with such self-conquest, how is it that you cannot contrive to live within the bounds of a very liberal allowance?"
FRANK (despondingly).--"Why, when a man once gets his head under water, it is so hard to float back again on the surface. You see, I attribute all my embarra.s.sments to that first concealment of my debts from my father, when they could have been so easily met, and when he came up to town so kindly."
"I am sorry, then, that I gave you that advice."
"Oh, you meant it so kindly, I don"t reproach you; it was all my own fault."
"Why, indeed, I did urge you to pay off that moiety of your debts left unpaid, with your allowance. Had you done so, all had been well."
"Yes; but poor Borrowell got into such a sc.r.a.pe at Goodwood, I could not resist him; a debt of honour,--that must be paid; so when I signed another bill for him, he could not pay it, poor fellow! Really he would have shot himself, if I had not renewed it. And now it is swelled to such an amount with that cursed interest, that he never can pay it; and one bill, of course, begets another,--and to be renewed every three months; "t is the devil and all! So little as I ever got for all I have borrowed," added Frank, with a kind of rueful amaze. "Not L1,500 ready money; and the interest would cost me almost as much yearly,--if I had it." "Only L1,500!"
"Well; besides seven large chests of the worst cigars you ever smoked, three pipes of wine that no one would drink, and a great bear that had been imported from Greenland for the sake of its grease."
"That should, at least, have saved you a bill with your hairdresser."
"I paid his bill with it," said Frank, "and very good-natured he was to take the monster off my hands,--it had already hugged two soldiers and one groom into the shape of a flounder. I tell you what," resumed Frank, after a short pause, "I have a great mind even now to tell my father honestly all my embarra.s.sments."
RANDAL (solemnly).--"Hum!"
FRANK.--"What? don"t you think it would be the best way? I never can save enough,--never can pay off what I owe; and it rolls like a s...o...b..ll."
RANDAL.--"Judging by the squire"s talk, I think that with the first sight of your affairs you would forfeit his favour forever; and your mother would be so shocked, especially after supposing that the sum I brought you so lately sufficed to pay off every claim on you. If you had not a.s.sured her of that it might be different; but she, who so hates an untruth, and who said to the squire, "Frank says this will clear him; and with all his faults, Frank never yet told a lie!""
"Oh, my dear mother!--I fancy I hear her!" cried Frank, with deep emotion. "But I did not tell a lie, Randal; I did not say that that sum would clear me."
"You empowered and begged me to say so," replied Randal, with grave coldness; "and don"t blame me if I believed you."
"No, no! I only said it would clear me for the moment."
"I misunderstood you, then, sadly; and such mistakes involve my own honour. Pardon me, Frank; don"t ask my aid in future. You see, with the best intentions, I only compromise myself."
"If you forsake me, I may as well go and throw myself into the river,"
said Frank, in a tone of despair; "and sooner or later, my father must know my necessities. The Jews threaten to go to him already; and the longer the delay, the more terrible the explanation."
"I don"t see why your father should ever learn the state of your affairs; and it seems to me that you could pay off these usurers, and get rid of these bills, by raising money on comparatively easy terms--"
"How?" cried Frank, eagerly.
"Why, the Casino property is entailed on you, and you might obtain a sum upon that, not to be paid till the property becomes yours."
"At my poor father"s death? Oh, no, no! I cannot bear the idea of this cold-blooded calculation on a father"s death. I know it is not uncommon; I know other fellows who have done it, but they never had parents so kind as mine; and even in them it shocked and revolted me. The contemplating a father"s death, and profiting by the contemplation it seems a kind of parricide: it is not natural, Randal. Besides, don"t you remember what the Governor said,--he actually wept while he said it,--"Never calculate on my death; I could not bear that." Oh, Randal, don"t speak of it!"
"I respect your sentiments; but still, all the post-orbits you could raise could not shorten Mr. Hazeldean"s life by a day. However, dismiss that idea; we must think of some other device. Ha, Frank! you are a handsome fellow, and your expectations are great--why don"t you marry some woman with money?"
"Pooh!" exclaimed Frank, colouring. "You know, Randal, that there is but one woman in the world I can ever think of; and I love her so devotedly, that, though I was as gay as most men before, I really feel as if the rest of her s.e.x had lost every charm. I was pa.s.sing through the street now--merely to look up at her windows."
"You speak of Madame di Negra? I have just left her. Certainly, she is two or three years older than you; but if you can get over that misfortune, why not marry her?"
"Marry her!" cried Frank, in amaze, and all his colour fled from his cheeks. "Marry her! Are you serious?"
"Why not?"
"But even if she, who is so accomplished, so admired, even if she would accept me, she is, you know, poorer than myself. She has told me so frankly. That woman has such a n.o.ble heart,--and--and--my father would never consent, nor my mother either. I know they would not."
"Because she is a foreigner?"
"Yes--partly."
"Yet the squire suffered his cousin to marry a foreigner."
"That was different. He had no control over Jemima; and a daughter-in-law is so different; and my father is so English in his notions; and Madame di Negra, you see, is altogether so foreign. Her very graces would be against her in his eyes."
"I think you do both your parents injustice. A foreigner of low birth--an actress or singer, for instance--of course would be highly objectionable; but a woman like Madame di Negra, of such high birth and connections--"
Frank shook his head. "I don"t think the Governor would care a straw about her connections, if she were a king"s daughter. He considers all foreigners pretty much alike. And then, you know" (Frank"s voice sank into a whisper),--"you know that one of the very reasons why she is so dear to me would be an insuperable objection to the old-fashioned folks at home."
"I don"t understand you, Frank."