"Why, here"s the cheque--George Frederick de--de Burgh Smith."
"Put it in your pipe, my man,--put it in your pipe--not worth a d---!"
"And who the deuce are you, sir?" bawled out Mr. Stubmore, in an equal rage both with himself and his guest.
"I, sir," said the visitor, rising with great dignity,--"I, sir, am of the great Bow Street Office, and my name is John Sharp!"
Mr. Stubmore nearly fell off his stool, his eyes rolled in his head, and his teeth chattered. Mr. Sharp perceived the advantage he had gained, and continued,--
"Yes, sir; and I could have much to say against that chap, who is nothing more or less than Dashing Jerry, as has ruined more girls and more tradesmen than any lord in the land. And so I called to give you a bit of caution; for, says I to myself, "Mr. Stubmore is a respectable man.""
"I hope I am, sir," said the crestfallen horse-dealer; "that was always my character."
"And the father of a family?"
"Three boys and a babe at the buzzom," said Mr. Stubmore pathetically.
"And he sha"n"t be taken in if I can help it! That "ere young man as I am arter, you see, knows Captain Smith--ha! ha!--smell a rat now--eh?"
"Captain Smith said he knew him--the wiper--and that"s what made me so green."
"Well, we must not be hard on the youngster: "cause why? he has friends as is gemmen. But you tell him to go back to his poor dear relations, and all shall be forgiven; and say as how you won"t keep him; and if he don"t go back, he"ll have to get his livelihood without a carakter; and use your influence with him like a man and a Christian, and what"s more, like the father of a family--Mr. Stub more--with three boys and a babe at the buzzom. You won"t keep him now?"
"Keep him! I have had a precious escape. I"d better go and see after the mare."
"I doubt if you"ll find her: the Captain caught a sight of me this morning. Why, he lodges at our hotel. He"s off by this time!"
"And why the devil did you let him go?"
""Cause I had no writ agin him!" said the Bow Street officer; and he walked straight out of the counting-office, satisfied that he had "done the job."
To s.n.a.t.c.h his hat--to run to the hotel--to find that Captain Smith had indeed gone off in his phaeton, bag and baggage, the same as he came, except that he had now two horses to the phaeton instead of one--having left with the landlord the amount of his bill in another cheque upon Coutts--was the work of five minutes with Mr. Stubmore. He returned home, panting and purple with indignation and wounded feeling.
"To think that chap, whom I took into my yard like a son, should have connived at this! "Tain"t the money"tis the willany that "flicts me!"
muttered Mr. Stubmore, as he re-entered the mews.
Here he came plump upon Philip, who said--
"Sir, I wished to see you, to say that you had better take care of Captain Smith."
"Oh, you did, did you, now he"s gone? "sconded off to America, I dare say, by this time. Now look ye, young man; your friends are after you, I won"t say anything agin you; but you go back to them--I wash my hands of you. Quite too much for me. There"s your week, and never let me catch you in my yard agin, that"s all!"
Philip dropped the money which Stubmore had put into his hand. "My friends!--friends have been with you, have they? I thought so--I thank them. And so you part with me? Well, you have been very kind, very kind; let us part kindly;" and he held out his hand.
Mr. Stubmore was softened--he touched the hand held out to him, and looked doubtful a moment; but Captain de Burgh Smith"s cheque for eighty guineas suddenly rose before his eyes. He turned on his heel abruptly, and said, over his shoulder:
"Don"t go after Captain Smith (he"ll come to the gallows); mend your ways, and be ruled by your poor dear relatives, whose hearts you are breaking."
"Captain Smith! Did my relations tell you?"
"Yes--yes--they told me all--that is, they sent to tell me; so you see I"m d---d soft not to lay hold of you. But, perhaps, if they be gemmen, they"ll act as sich, and cash me this here cheque!"
But the last words were said to air. Philip had rushed from the yard.
With a heaving breast, and every nerve in his body quivering with wrath, the proud, unhappy boy strode through the gay streets. They had betrayed him then, these accursed Beauforts! they circled his steps with schemes to drive him like a deer into the snare of their loathsome charity! The roof was to be taken from his head--the bread from his lips--so that he might fawn at their knees for bounty. "But they shall not break my spirit, nor steal away my curse. No, my dead mother, never!"
As he thus muttered, he pa.s.sed through a patch of waste land that led to the row of houses in which his lodging was placed. And here a voice called to him, and a hand was laid on his shoulder. He turned, and Arthur Beaufort, who had followed him from the street, stood behind him.
Philip did not, at the first glance, recognise his cousin; illness had so altered him, and his dress was so different from that in which he had first and last beheld him. The contrast between the two young men was remarkable. Philip was clad in a rough garb suited to his late calling--a jacket of black velveteen, ill-fitting and ill-fashioned, loose fustian trousers, coa.r.s.e shoes, his hat set deep over his pent eyebrows, his raven hair long and neglected. He was just at that age when one with strong features and robust frame is at the worst in point of appearance--the sinewy proportions not yet sufficiently fleshed, and seeming inharmonious and undeveloped; precisely in proportion, perhaps, to the symmetry towards which they insensibly mature: the contour of the face sharpened from the roundness of boyhood, and losing its bloom without yet acquiring that relief and shadow which make the expression and dignity of the masculine countenance. Thus accoutred, thus gaunt, and uncouth, stood Morton. Arthur Beaufort, always refined in his appearance, seemed yet more so from the almost feminine delicacy which ill-health threw over his pale complexion and graceful figure; that sort of unconscious elegance which belongs to the dress of the rich when they are young--seen most in minutiae--not observable, perhaps, by themselves-marked forcibly and painfully the distinction of rank between the two. That distinction Beaufort did not feel; but at a glance it was visible to Philip.
The past rushed back on him. The sunny lawn-the gun offered and rejected-the pride of old, much less haughty than the pride of to-day.
"Philip," said Beaufort, feebly, "they tell me you will not accept any kindness from me or mine. Ah! if you knew how we have sought you!"
"Knew!" cried Philip, savagely, for that unlucky sentence recalled to him his late interview with his employer, and his present dest.i.tution.
"Knew! And why have you dared to hunt me out, and halloo me down?--why must this insolent tyranny, that a.s.sumes the right over these limbs and this free will, betray and expose me and my wretchedness wherever I turn?"
"Your poor mother--" began Beaufort.
"Name her not with your lips--name her not!" cried Philip, growing livid with his emotions. "Talk not of the mercy--the forethought--a Beaufort could show to leer and her offspring! I accept it not--I believe it not.
Oh, yes! you follow me now with your false kindness; and why? Because your father--your vain, hollow, heartless father--"
"Hold!" said Beaufort, in a tone of such reproach, that it startled the wild heart on which it fell; "it is my father you speak of. Let the son respect the son."
"No--no--no! I will respect none of your race. I tell you your father fears me. I tell you that my last words to him ring in his ears! My wrongs! Arthur Beaufort, when you are absent I seek to forget them; in your abhorred presence they revive--they--"
He stopped, almost choked with his pa.s.sion; but continued instantly, with equal intensity of fervour:
"Were yon tree the gibbet, and to touch your hand could alone save me from it, I would scorn your aid. Aid! The very thought fires my blood and nerves my hand. Aid! Will a Beaufort give me back my birthright--restore my dead mother"s fair name? Minion!--sleek, dainty, luxurious minion!--out of my path! You have my fortune, my station, my rights; I have but poverty, and hate, and disdain. I swear, again and again, that you shall not purchase these from me."
"But, Philip--Philip," cried Beaufort, catching his arm; "hear one--hear one who stood by your--"
The sentence that would have saved the outcast from the demons that were darkening and swooping round his soul, died upon the young Protector"s lips. Blinded, maddened, excited, and exasperated, almost out of humanity itself, Philip fiercely--brutally--swung aside the enfeebled form that sought to cling to him, and Beaufort fell at his feet. Morton stopped--glared at him with clenched hands and a smiling lip, sprung over his prostrate form, and bounded to his home.
He slackened his pace as he neared the house, and looked behind; but Beaufort had not followed him. He entered the house, and found Sidney in the room, with a countenance so much more gay than that he had lately worn, that, absorbed as he was in thought and pa.s.sion, it yet did not fail to strike him.
"What has pleased you, Sidney?" The child smiled.
"Ah! it is a secret--I was not to tell you. But I"m sure you are not the naughty boy he says you are."
"He!--who?"
"Don"t look so angry, Philip: you frighten me!"
"And you torture me. Who could malign one brother to the other?"
"Oh! it was all meant very kindly--there"s been such a nice, dear, good gentleman here, and he cried when he saw me, and said he knew dear mamma. Well, and he has promised to take me home with him and give me a pretty pony--as pretty--as pretty--oh, as pretty as it can be got! And he is to call again and tell me more: I think he is a fairy, Philip."
"Did he say that he was to take me, too, Sidney?" said Morton, seating himself, and looking very pale. At that question Sidney hung his head.